The Battle of Life | Rabbi Bentzion Shafier

A good number of years ago, when my wife had our first child, she had put on some weight and she was feeling pretty badly about herself. So I said, ‘Okay, ‘I'm taking you to Weight Watchers.’ I was in Kollel at the time. I had a break mid-day, so I took her to a Weight Watchers class. And I walk in and first of all, I'm the only male in the room, and I sit down. And I watch the leader get up and say, ‘Okay, ladies, how was the week this week?’ And one woman gets up and says, ‘Oh, I was doing great. ‘But then someone brought out potato chips.’ ‘Ohhhhhhh’, the other women groan, ‘Potato chips.’ Another woman said, ‘I was doing great, ‘and then someone brought to an office party chocolate cake.’ ‘Ohhh, chocolate cake,’ they all groan. And I watched mature grown women lose it in front of my eyes. And I had tremendous Nechama from it. And I'll explain to you why. What's so difficult? Weight Watchers gives you a balanced meal plan, plenty of snacks, plenty of nutrition. What's so difficult? Here is the diet, just stick to it. The answer is, that's all well and fine until that chocolate cake is front and center of me. But I made a firm resolve. I'll never touch another piece of chocolate cake again. But the minute it's there in front of me, there's a voice within me that says, Mmmm. -No! Mmmm. -No! Yes! No! Yes! No! And what these women were experiencing was something that I as a Yeshiva Bochur and now as a Kollel man was very familiar with. It's called The Fight of Life. When you firmly resolve I will not, but there’s still that desire within you, that's the battle that makes us. That's the challenge of life. And the reason why I found it very comforting was because sometimes you get a sense, ‘What's wrong with me? ‘Am I the only one battling this battle? ‘Why does everyone else seem to have it so easy?’ And the answer is, Change is very difficult. Growth is very difficult. Oh, it's easy to coast. It's easy to go with the flow and do whatever everyone else does, but if you make a decision, ‘I'm going to grow. ‘I'm going to become someone. ‘I'm going to stand tall.’ you then begin the battle of life. That's something that we as Torah Jews are constantly, constantly battling, and it's something that rarely do other people experience. And when I saw it, it was a tremendous revelation to me that everyone has that very same fight. The only question is, Do you stand up and be a man or do you just cave in?