One Community, One Family | Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff

The heilige Chofetz Chaim zt”l had tremendous תאוות. Even באחרית ימיו, he said he faced almost insurmountable challenges. Even the Chofetz Chaim. The greater you are, the greater is the Yetzer Hara. It grows alongside. There’s בחירה חופשית, there’s freedom of choice. Without choices, we don't exist. Imagine if your Yetzer Hara was the Yetzer Hara of a first grader, a kindergartner, to borrow somebody’s marker without him knowing about it. Our Yetzer Hara grows with us. The first time we find in the Torah a monumental epic battle between one of the Avos and the Yetzer Hara הוא מלאך המוות הוא השטן was when Yaakov was left alone. חזר על פכים קטנים. He returned for small jugs. The Yetzer Hara does not challenge you on monumental issues. It's on seemingly insignificant things and in discretion. Looking where you're not supposed to look, looking a second time. And Yaakov was in danger because he was alone. That's when the Yetzer Hara attacks. If you're part of a Kehillah, then the Kehillah protects you. The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah 18a says, All are judged and viewed with one glance. Says Rav Elya Lopian, That's a tremendous defense for Klal Yisroel, to be judged as one. That is the signature organization, Kehillah HaKedosha called Vayimaen. Rav Eliyahu Dessler zt”l explained, A Kehillah is not just a sack of potatoes. They’re very close to each other, but they're not interconnected. They don't have a relationship with each other. When a person does not look, you're connected to over 60,000 people that daily make it their business to strengthen themselves in Vayimaen, in refusing to look, to give up, to give in. Because we're part of such a large group of Yidden, of Klal Yisroel and Kehillah Kedosha, we have the ability to face our challenges, to withstand our Nisyonos, great and small, insignificant to monumental, and create a Kiddush Hashem.