Be a Chiddush | Rabbi Elazar Meisels

For a basketball player, there is nothing like the feeling of hitting that game-winning three-pointer with 2 seconds on the clock and your team wins. And if you're a baseball player, there's no feeling like hitting that grand slam home run to propel your team to victory in the bottom of the ninth. And if you're a football player, you have reached the highest heights when you catch that pass deep in the end zone and you go and you catch that ball over your shoulder, and that's the winning touchdown. Game is over. להבדיל אלף אלפי הבדלות, you're a Yeshiva Bochur, how do you reach those heights? And we all know the answer. You say a geshmake Chiddush. You have a Kneitch in a מהרש”א, a Handelrei in Rabbi Akiva Eiger. You got a תירוץ. You were מכוון to R’ Chaim and you even had a ראייה to R’ Chaim. You had a Vort in the רשב”א. That's how you get there, you say a Chiddush. Even a small little Kneitch qualifies as a Chiddush. A yungerman's wife once told me she can tell when her husband said a good Chiddush from the minute he walks in the door. He doesn't have to say a word, just smiles from ear to ear, he's happy all night, because he said his Chiddush. Now, that's great if you're a yungerman, you’re a Yeshiva Bochur, you’re in Yeshiva, you have all day. In the course of a day, you can say a Chiddush. אין בית מדרש בלא חידוש. But what if you're a Balabos? What if you don't have that time and you can barely... the biggest Chiddush is that you can find 5 minutes in your day to learn Daf Yomi. The Chiddush is you remember the Masechta, if, you know, you don't remember the Daf or the Maggid Shiur’s name. What Chiddush do you get to say? Do you ever get to partake in that happiness? In a letter that he wrote in 1936, the Mashgiach, R’ Chatzkl, wrote the following. Some people think the only way you can say a Chiddush is in a Gemara, is in a Sugyah. They don't understand. You can say a Chiddush, you can be a Chiddush, you can do a Chiddush in Avodas Hashem. You are presented with an opportunity every single day to do a Chiddush. The Yetzer Hara puts something in front of your face and says, Here, have a look. And you do something that no one else in the world does. There's just a few of us who tell the Yetzer Hara: No. I'm not looking. I am not partaking. That is the biggest Chiddush in the world. Somebody who does a Chiddush like that, says R’ Chatzkl, The Ribono shel Olam says about that person, He is a מכובד, he's honorable. He is a נכבד, he is an אהוב, he is beloved to Me. These are Chiddushim that everybody is מסכים to. You said a Vort in Rabbi Akiva Eiger, maybe they agree in בית דין של מעלה, maybe they don't. You did a Chiddush, you said no to the Yetzer Hara, in פמליה של מעלה, in בית דין של מעלה, in ישיבה של מעלה, they're clapping and being מסכים to your Chiddush. Every day, you can say a Chiddush, you can be a Chiddush.