Lucrative Junk | Rabbi Yaakov Rahimi

Lucrative Junk R' Yaakov Rahimi Hashem sends us Nisyonos, Hashem sends us tests in order to benefit us and give us ברכה. I want to share with you a Mashal that I once heard from a certain Rav. He said, sometimes when you go to the arcade places, sometimes you have air hockey, you have these car races, one of the games that we have is you have to try put in a quarter, and when your quarter goes in, the rest of hundreds, if not thousands, of all the quarters inside the machine are supposed to fall out. You put in one quarter, and you hope that your quarter that you put in is going to push the rest of the quarters out, so even though you put in 25 cents, you're going to be receiving hundreds and hundreds of dollars. So too in life, Rabbosai. Hashem wants to shower us with ברכה, Hashem wants to give us blessings, but Hashem is waiting to see if we're going to pass that small coin. Hashem is waiting to see if we're going to pass the Nisyonos. When you pass a Nisayon, when you overcome a test, that's when Hashem showers you the ברכה. ספר חסידים סימן יג לפני שהקדוש ברוך הוא נותן ברכה לאדם, יתכן לעשות לו טובה, Hashem wants to give him good, עד שיעמוד בנסיון. This is the words of the Sefer Chasidim. Hashem wants to give a person good, Hashem wants to give a person ברכה, but He's waiting to see, is this person going to overcome a Nisayon? If you overcome a test, Hashem will give you ברכה. One time I met a very wealthy person and I was trying to fundraise for something, so he told me, Come to my warehouse. It was in some random town in New Jersey. I went to his warehouse, and everything was second-hand, everything was used and broken. He opens up one of those huge containers that we see delivered in the ship in the ocean. He opened one of them up and all I see inside, it's a huge place, huge container, all I see inside is a bunch of different items, second-hand and used, a broken fan, a broken microwave, a computer screen. And I asked him, I don't understand, you're a multimillionaire. What is your business? All I see is junk inside your warehouse. So he told me, What I do is, I take second-hand items, I take broken things, and I refurbish them and I sell them on eBay. And I thought to myself, what a beautiful lesson and Mashal for life. And this is what the Sefer Chasidim is telling us, and it's a tremendous lesson, Rabbosai, for every day of our lives when it comes to this Nisayon of שמירת עיניים. Hashem sends us tests every single day, and it might seem like junk, it might seem annoying, it might seem like it's not needed, but our job is to take that junk and flip it around and turn it into gold, just like this fellow is a multimillionaire by taking things that are junk, but he refurbishes them and he turns them into money, he turns them into gold, and now he's a very wealthy person. Hashem sends Nisyonos, Hashem sends us tests daily of שמירת עיניים. What does Hashem want from us? He wants us to take that Nisayon, to take that test and flip it around and turn it into Sachar, turn it into reward, turn it into gold. When Hashem is sending us so much tests, it's for our benefit, to get ברכה from Shamayim. When you have the right outlook, when you have the right Hashkafah, every day when you wake up, what is my goal today? Your goal today is to be a strong soldier of Hashem, and Hashem will throw Nisyonos on you. When you are prepared, when you know what your mission is, when you know what Hashem wants, and that is to overcome Nisyonos, to give His ברכה, to show our loyalty to Hashem, the battle becomes much easier.