Upholding the Entire World | Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer

One of the most monumental and epic miracles in the history of the world was Kriyas Yam Suf, the splitting of the sea. Why did the sea split? So the pasuk in Tehillim says, we say it in Hallel, The sea saw and it fled. What did the sea see? ארונו של יוסף it saw the coffin of Yosef. What does that mean? It sounds very esoteric. The Midrash says that the sea saw the fact that Yosef, years earlier, that when Yosef was tempted, when he was faced with a terrible Nisayon, he ran. Says the Midrash, the sea fled because the ancestor of the Jews, Yosef, fled and left immorality. Says R’ Yehuda HaChasid something unbelievable. Every time you're faced with a Nisayon, there's a sight to look at that's inappropriate, that's alluring, that's seductive, that's enticing, and you don't give in, you turn away, you flee, you run, וינס, he says the word וינס is the Shoresh נס, miracle. The same way the sea split, it when against the nature of the world, because the Ribono shel Olam said: Yosef, you encounter nature, you went against your instinct, you went against your animalistic tendency, I'm going to go against nature for your descendants, for your offspring, for Klal Yisroel. Says R’ Yehuda HaChasid, When you are faced with temptation and you don't give in, you go against your nature, the Ribono shel Olam will create a נס for you, your problems, your troubles, your worries will flee from you. But it goes even further. The Heilige Tzaddik, R’ Aryeh Leibish of Sanz, quoted the Gemara in Chulin that says that there are 36 Tzaddikim in every generation. Our conception of that is that the Tzaddikim are static. Those 36 Tzaddikim, they stay throughout the generation and all the same throughout all the years. Says R’ Aryeh Leibish, It's not true. The 36 Tzaddikim that are holding up the world, they're not static, they're fluid. They're constantly evolving. If you have a person that could look at something and doesn't, he becomes one of the 36 Tzaddikim at that moment, that is sustaining, that is upholding, that is saving the world. And that Tzaddik could be preventing a terror attack, a car accident, a fire. We don't know. You choose to not look at something, to preserve your holiness, to uphold your purity, you'll be zoche, you merit וינס you run away, you get a נס, and you're one of the 36 Tzaddikim that are upholding the entire world. What could be greater? What could be grander? What could be holier?