No Regrets | Rabbi Simcha Bunim Berger

Making a decision, especially the right decision, is not easy. But holding that decision and not regretting going forward sometimes can be an impossible feat. All of us know about the story of Yosef Hatzaddik. Everyone, you've already seen a Vayimaen video, you know that Yosef Hatzaddik held back with the onslaught that Eishes Potiphar, how she went after him. You know that. But do you know that after that, he was put into jail, and for ten years in the dungeons, he never regretted his decision? We say in davening, And remove the Satan from before us and from behind us. Hashem, take the Satan away from in front of us and from behind us. ‘The Satan in front of us’ is before you go do something, when the Yetzer Hara is there. That's ‘in front of us’. What's ‘behind us’? I once heard from a Talmid, Yossi, he said, After you've been successful, the Satan pulls at you and says, You should have done it. When Yosef Hatzaddik is sitting in the jail and Yosef thinks to himself, I'm sitting here in jail. Maybe I should have done it. I wouldn't be here. If God forbid, he would have such a thought, he would ruin what he accomplished. The Rambam in Hilchos Teshuva writes that when a person does a Mitzvah, does a good act, overcomes a challenge, and the person holds that decision strong, he has a reward. But if a person regrets, if a person has regrets on what he did, he loses the reward. So that means that for ten years, Yosef Hatzaddik, he said to himself: Being given the chance again, I would do it again, in this situation. That's what made him Yosef Hatzaddik. And that's the energy that we have inside of us. He sent a man before them, Yosef was sold as a slave. Yosef guarded himself from immorality, and all of Israel was protected because of him. Our sages teach us: Yosef Hatzaddik was the first Jew to go into exile, to leave his family, to go into Egypt. He sent a man before them, Yosef was sold as a slave. He, by doing what he did, guarded himself from immorality, gave the power for Jewish people for all times to have the DNA to look away and be proud to have looked away. Understand that when you overcome a challenge and we don't look, the reward that you're getting is the reward of being one who masters his desires, a Yosef Hatzaddik. And more so, when the Yetzer Hara comes back to get you and say, Why did you not look? You should have looked. Push back another time. And remove the Satan from before us and from behind us. And then you have an ongoing reward of continued fight, continued strength. This, with God’s help, the way Yosef was there for first himself and then Klal Yisroel, so too, when you, every single one of us, when you overcome your desires and you push away and you hold strong with that decision, you're bringing redemption for yourself and Klal Yisroel.