Celebrate the Opportunity | Rabbi YY Jacobson

The Ba’al HaTanya in his masterpiece, Tanya, Chapter 27 פרק ז”ך discusses the pasuk in Kerias Shema Translation: Don't pursue your heart and your eyes, which may cause you to go astray. And he says, sometimes people are so perturbed by the fact that they have to deal and struggle with instincts, with proclivities, with cravings, with challenges, with trials, internal and external, and they feel it's below me, ess past nisht. How does this happen to me? And it makes them feel so guilty about themselves, so horrible, which of course only contributes to our downfall. Because once I feel that I'm disgusting and despicable, then I'll do anything to feel good about myself, or I'll just think to myself: Who cares? You know, if I'm a garbage, so garbage can pursue garbage. The Ba’al HaTanya says, He says that's a form of misplaced arrogance, the feeling that certain things are below my dignity. Ess past nisht. It can't be that I'm dealing with this, unless I'm completely messed up or I'm just pure evil or I have to repress it and deny it. He says, it's completely not understanding of what a human being is. The fact that the Torah says, ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם אשר אתם זונים אחריהם means that my heart and my eyes can go astray. That is inherent in the fabric of the human condition and of the Jewish condition, of the personality there he calls the ‘Beinoni’, the ordinary human being, the possible human being. On the contrary, he says, celebrate the opportunity to fulfill the Mitzvah ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם אשר אתם זונים אחריהם. Because when I am experiencing such a type of deep, deep instinct and at that moment I can feel it, I can acknowledge it, and I can say, you know what, I'm going to choose to follow my values. I'm going to choose to follow my truest, deepest self’s calling. I'm going to choose to follow the path that's going to bring me closer to the people and to the life that I really, really cherish and value. Celebrate that moment. Celebrate that opportunity. Don't get upset at yourself that you had the struggle. Celebrate the fact that, yes, I had the opportunity to be able to introduce moral clarity, holiness and infinite power into a world of fragmentation and temptation.