Make a Situation | Rabbi Yaakov Raskin

So I have the merit, together with my wife and family, to be the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Shluchim in the country of Jamaica, which is in the Caribbean Sea. And we get to meet Yidden from all of Klal Yisroel, all stripes, all different types, from ‘your leaders, your tribes,’ till the holiest Yid. People ask us, How do you stay a frum Yid in a country where there is lots of challenges to stay a frum Yid? So I share with them a story that I heard from Dr. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of England. When he was a young student, he went into the Lubavitcher Rebbe for a private audience. And he had lots of questions, and the Rebbe started answering, one by one. At a moment, the Rebbe asked Jonathan Sacks, he was learning at Cambridge University, he asked him: What are you doing for the Jews in Cambridge University? Now, I hadn’t come to become a Shaliach. I come to ask a few simple questions. And all of a sudden, he was challenging me. So I did the English thing. You know, the English, they can construct more complex excuses for doing nothing than anyone else on earth. So I started a sentence, In the situation in which I find myself... And the Rebbe did something which I think was quite unusual for him. He actually stopped me in mid-sentence. He says: Nobody finds themselves in a situation. You put yourself in a situation. And if you put yourself in that situation, you can put yourself in another situation. That moment changed my life. When I heard this story, I said, Wow, how powerful it is. Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation and we think, That’s it, can’t do anything. In other words, the Rebbe is telling us, Go make a situation. No matter where you are in the world, you can make a situation. Whether you’re struggling to guard your eyes, whether you’re struggling to do another Mitzvah, you have the power to make a situation. Especially thinking, knowing that you are a son of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and a daughter of Sarah, Rivka, Rochel and Leah, which that is immense power. You can do anything.