How Lucky I Am | Rabbi Nachum Binder

The Mishna in Masechtas Brachos tells us that R’ Nechunya ben Hakanah was מתקן a Tefillah every day בכניסתו לבית המדרש וביציאתו מבית המדרש. When one enters the Beis Medrash every day for his learning, he davens to the Ribono shel Olam for Hatzlacha in his learning, and when he leaves the Beis Medrash, he says a Tefillah to the Ribono shel Olam, thanking the Ribono shel Olam Maran Harav Shach zt”l asked, When someone is leaving the Beis Medrash, where is he going? He is heading out to a world that's the antithesis, the opposite, of everything he acquired in Beis Medrash. He's heading out to the world full of Nisyonos in all areas of life, especially in areas of Kedushah and Shmiras Einayim. Shouldn't that person say a Tefillah to the Ribono shel Olam, Hashem, please give me Hatzlacha when I leave the Beis Medrash. Please save me from the Yetzer Hara. Please help me overcome my Nisyonos. Why is the Tefillah that he's davening only a Tefillah of thanking the Ribono shel Olam for being in the Beis HaMedrash? And Rav Shach answered a very profound thought. The Nisyonos of the world, the Nisyonos of the street, the Yetzer Hara, the temptations are so strong and so powerful that a mere Tefillah, just davening, is not enough. Of course, we have to daven to the Ribono shel Olam to be safe from our Nisyonos, but R’ Nechunya ben Hakanah is teaching us that there's something much more important, there's something more fundamental that a person has to do before he goes onto the street, before he faces the Yetzer Hara. A person has to appreciate the מעלות that he acquired being in Beis Medrash. A person has to realize who we are. We are יושבי בית המדרש, we are not יושבי קרנות. And a person who has that appreciation and that satisfaction and that Simcha in who we are, how Chashuv we are, how special we are, and how great our being in Beis Medrash is, that person will be able to overcome the Nisyonos of the street. מוריי ורבותיי, it's a time of year where many people are leaving the קביעות of Beis HaMedrash. It’s a time of vacation, a time of Bein HaZmanim. Whether it's a Yeshiva Bochur, a Kollel yungerman, or any of us that are going away and our regular קביעות is not there the way it used to be. Before we enter the world at large, let us look at the Beis Medrash, let us look at ourselves in Beis Medrash, and turn to the Ribono shel Olam and say, Thank you for making me who I am. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be יושבי בית המדרש. And every day, even during our vacations, let us realize and appreciate how lucky we are ששמת חלקנו מיושבי בית המדרש ולא מיושבי קרנות. And that gives us the strength to face all the Nisyonos that the world has to offer. And with that strength, we’ll be able to overcome our Nisyonos and to come out of the street and back into Beis Medrash as great and as Chashuv as we were when we left the Beis Medrash, with that appreciation ששמת חלקנו מיושבי בית המדרש.