A Gate to Hashem | Rabbi Aharon Weinberg

Dear Yidden, we all need Chizuk. We’re in the days of עקבתא דמשיחא, there’s so much challenges out there, there's so much Nisyonos, such temptations, and everything is so fogged up. Let's get some clarity. There's a fascinating Medrash on the Pasuk in Bereishis, And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. Says the Medrash nothing less, ‘And behold, it was good’ that’s the good inclination, ‘very good’ that’s the bad inclination. It's almost impossible to understand the Medrash. How could we refer to the Yetzer Hara as extremely good, ‘very good’? And maybe we could explain, When we have a challenge from the Yetzer Hara and it's difficult and it's hard, really it's ‘very good’, it's your biggest opportunity possible, because if you overcome and you conquer the Yetzer Hara, and you win, you grow, you rise. As we find by Yosef Hatzaddik, from the worst possible challenge, he grew when he overcame and he became a Melech, a king, as the Zohar and the Medrash explain. There was a war survivor that gave over that he was in the Nazi concentration camp in Treblinka. And at one point, the Nazis came up with the most evil idea. They took a Paroches from an Aron Kodesh from one of the shuls that they burned, and it had engraved beautifully in gold letters, This is the gate of Hashem, the righteous shall enter through it. because it served the Aron Kodesh, which means this is the gate to Torah, to the Ribono shel Olam. And they decided, nothing less, to take this Paroches and hang this at the entrance of the gas chambers, that when Yidden are coming to be murdered, and they knew where they're going, they should see these words and they should get anger feelings. They should feel abandoned from the Ribono shel Olam. But what really happened? Yidden came there in the last moments of their life, and they saw those words. It appeared to them like if the Ribono shel Olam opened the Heavens. It showed them a smile. It showed them, This is the entrance to Gan Eden, where Tzaddikim enter Gan Eden. And they got so excited about it, they got so enthusiastic about it, they literally started to dance there at the entrance of the gas chambers and even the non-observant Jews started to dance along. When the Nazis realized that it's serving the opposite of their purpose, they just removed that Paroches. So many times we’re challenged, and we feel that we're tempted, and we're literally at the gate to Gehenom. We have to remember this is an opportunity. It’s ‘very good’. This is the gate of Hashem, the righteous shall enter through it. It's a gate to rise, to grow, to become closer to the Ribono shel Olam. Dance! Get up! Fight! The holy Beis Avrohom would cry and say: The Pasuk says at the Giving of the Torah, And Moshe approached the thick fog where Hashem was. Moshe went to the darkest fog. Explains the Mechilta, There’s three levels. There's a level of חושך, darkness, you lose sight. There's a greater level of ענן, which is fog, very thick darkness. The greatest level is ערפל, which is a thick fog that doesn't let you move. You have zero vision. Moshe, at the Giving of the Torah, yelled out to Yidden, When you feel ערפל, it's so fogged up, it's so dark, it's so challenging, you're so tempted, you can't move, you’re choked, ‘where Hashem was’, that is your opportunity to reach the Ribono shel Olam. If you will fight and understand, Yetzer Hara is ‘very good’, ‘This is the gate of Hashem, the righteous shall enter through it,’ you could turn every challenge into the biggest opportunity of closeness to the Ribono shel Olam. When you overcome, you will gain kingship and reach the highest heights possible. Let us merit it. We have to do it.