Our Purpose in Life | Rabbi Aryeh Leiser

There was a Yid in Williamsburg, who died a few years ago, and he used to say over, he had over 100 einiklech when he was Niftar, and he said that he almost gave up on life. He walked out of Auschwitz, no parents, no wife, no children, no brothers and sisters. He's tracking from city to city, and he finally ends up in a broken-down Shul. He goes in to take a little bit of a drink and he hears a Mashpiah talking to a few Bochurim, giving them Chizuk. And what he heard next is why, einiklech, he used to tell them, you're here. He said: They took away our parents, they took away our children, they took away our self-dignity, they took away our families, they took away everything. There's one thing they couldn't take away from us, and you know what that is? It is the Yetzer Hara. He hears this, chaps, I have a purpose in life. One thing the Nazis couldn’t take away from us, the Yetzer Hara. So that's what gave me the boost. I have a Yetzer Hara, I have Nisyonos, and I'm here to fight. And I'm going to go and I’m going to have a family, I'm going to continue. And every day, I'm going to go out there and put on my boxing gloves, and I'm gonna fight and I'm gonna rein my Neshama. I'm going to sparkle this Neshama with every fight. I'm going to return it to the Aibishter perfectly clean. There was a story said over, Lately, there was a businessman who got stuck, his flight got canceled. He was stuck in the airport, and his company gave him a hotel stay. He was so tired, he could barely move, and he was laying down in his bed and he chaps he didn't daven Maariv. He pushes himself in his pajamas out of bed, he quickly, he didn't put on a hat, a jacket, gornisht. He made an express 2-minute Maariv. And he lays down back in bed and he felt guilty. My Zeyde would have davened such a Maariv? My Zeyde would have washed his hands, he would have had נטילת ידיים. And he rolls over in the bed and he's like, as he's thinking, he's touching the other side of the bed, and he feels buttons. Buttons on a bed? Opens the light to the hotel room and he chaps that the entire wall is a screen, and these buttons are a straight highway to שאול תחתית. He rolls over, turns off the light, and he says: Zeyde, Zeyde, Zeyde, you never davened Maariv like I davened, I promise. But I could also tell you, you never had the Nisyonos like I have today. Rabosai, we have a purpose. We have a fight out there that gives a purpose in life, Mitzvos, Torah. And I just want to tell you something. When a person is מתגבר on his Nisayon, I can tell you about myself, there's a certain feeling of cleansing in our Neshama. And you keep building and building and building your Neshama, till it’s strong like eizen, like steel. And when it’s steel, Rabosai, then nothing could penetrate it.