1% for Hashem | Rabbi Sholom Ber Sorotzkin

משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה. We have to know how we get really a true Simcha, what can fill us really with a true Simcha. I want to tell you a Ma’aseh, that באמת started on Erev Rosh HaShanah and sounds a little bit like Erev Purim. Erev Rosh HaShanah, I walked in once to the Rosh Yeshiva z”l, HaGaon R’ Aharon Leib Shteinman, in Bnei Brak, in his house, and I asked him for a Bracha for Erev Rosh HaShanah. I asked him for a Bracha, to have 1% Leshem Shomayim in what I'm doing. The Rosh Yeshiva z”l looks up to me and tells me, Sholom Ber, אחוז אחד זה יותר מדיי בשבילך. It means 1% is too much for you. And remember, it was Erev Rosh HaShanah, not Erev Purim. There is another Ma’aseh. The Rosh Yeshiva asked me how many percent I think is Leshem Shomayim, how much is לשם עצמי. So I said: I think 5% Leshem Shomayim and 95% לשם עצמי. So Rav Shteinman, the Rosh Yeshiva, told me, It’s a shame you have the 5% Leshem Shomayim. If there would be another 5% לשם עצמך, there would be more Yeshivos, more Kollelim, more Torah. It means one thing. The Rosh Yeshiva did not tell me: Stop doing your work. Sometimes we think to do something we have to be Shmiras Einayim, we have to do the original thing. If you want to fill yourself with Simcha, you know you have to fill yourself with Shmiras Einayim. It’s hard to have Simcha without Tahara. It’s very hard, it’s almost not שייך. But sometimes, you know, I'm faking myself off. You know, I'm doing it meh... I'm not doing it right. I'm not doing it Leshem Shomayim. One thing we have to do. To get to the Darga of Leshem Shomayim is not a תירוץ to not do not Leshem Shomayim. Most everything, anybody walking into Rav Shteinman, so he said Leshem Shomayim, Rav Shteinman said, I haven’t found almost anyone who does something completely Leshem Shomayim. He couldn't hear the words: He’s doing it Leshem Shomayim. The point is, do it and do it whatever we have to do. And accomplish more sometimes. If you feel you’re doing it not Leshem Shomayim, sometimes you accomplish a lot more. If you want to feel good, I want to be Shomer Einayim for feeling good, yeah. Anything else. גאווה, feeling better, this is the way to do it. ומתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה. בהצלחה.