Know Your Strength | Rabbi Zev Smith

I used to wonder, Dovid Hamelech says in Tehillim, A person's in a precious situation he doesn’t understand, he's comparable to an animal. You know, we usually speak with finesse. We try to even avoid saying the word טמא. Why did Dovid Hamelech compare us, a human, to an animal? Obviously there's a message that has to be conveyed. Did you ever wonder, An ox is one of the strongest animals. Strong like an ox, the expression goes. And the ox works day and night for a human being. It's much stronger than a human being. You learn Parshas Mishpatim, you learn Masechta Baba Kama, a שור שנגח, an ox could gore a person and kill him. Why doesn't it revolt and rebel and run away? Why is it working day and night, since time immemorial, for human beings? Think about a horse, a muscular animal, and what does it do? A person gets on it and whips it and it goes, winter and summer, mud, snow, ice. Why doesn't the horse just give one kick and the owner is gone? The answer is the animal doesn't know its strength. It doesn't know its capabilities. And that's why, forever, it's the symbol of subservience, of doing what it doesn't want to do. A horse remains a horse if you don't know your strength. But that's not a tragedy. In fact, for us, it's to our benefit. We have the work of animals. But you know what the greatest tragedy is? Man is in his glory but he does not understand. A person has so much capabilities, so much Kochos, and it’s dormant and it's wasted. Dovid wanted to accentuate the depth of the tragedy. Man is in his glory but he does not understand, he is compared to the animals. When the world began its decline in the quagmire of immorality, we Yidden were not ready. We were not equipped, we’re not trained for this challenge. We had so many generations of training how to die Al Kiddush Hashem, but we never learned the secret of living Al Kiddush Hashem, of living in holiness and purity in a world that has abandoned any vestige of modesty. And we were victims of ‘Man is in his glory but he does not understand.’ We never realized how יקר בעיני השם, how precious it is when a Yid is Moser Nefesh not to go to a meeting, not to go to a business party or a show, because he knows a religious Jew does not belong there. And then there were courageous individuals, courageous organizations, and there are too many to mention, that taught Klal Yisroel: We have to change the status quo. We can live in holiness and purity. We can make sure our workplace is glatt kosher. We will decide: Should I go? Should I not go? Should I go there? Should I look there? And that exposed the farce, the fallacy that I can’t do it, because a Yid could do whatever he wants to do, because he’s always bigger than the challenge. But to me, my greatest heroes, my greatest inspiration, are those wonderful Balebatim, working people, who face these challenges on a daily basis, and give up so much for the holiness and purity. And they are training Klal Yisroel to sing with great confidence, Man is in his glory and he understands.