The Results Are Guaranteed | Rabbi Naftali Reich

The Torah HaKedoshah tells us, Make yourself holy, because by sanctifying yourself, you are קדוש אני, one with me. And the Mefarshim explain, והתקדשתם we do our work of Kedushah, and Hashem is giving us a הבטחה, an assurance, והייתם קדושים you will become Kadosh, כי קדוש אני. Rabbi Dr. Avraham Twerski shared with me that he was invited to speak once at a convention in New York. It was in the middle of the winter and his plane was coming in from Pittsburgh, but it arrived very late, and he realized, by the time he landed in LaGuardia, he had missed his speaking slot. It was no use. And he had a few hours on his hand. He said: Let me go to a local AA meeting, a meeting for recovering addicts, and gain some inspiration how they share some of the challenges that they overcame. He heard at the meeting different stories, but there was one thing that touched him deeply. A fellow stood up and he said: My friends, I am a crazy Mets fan. I never miss a game. But this weekend I had a family obligation and I knew I would not be able to watch my favorite team. So I asked my fellow coworker, Can you record the game for me? I gave him a VHS cassette, and sure enough, on Monday morning, I arrived at work and he put it on my desk. Great game, he said. They won. You're going to enjoy. I was so busy that day, I couldn't give it a thought, but at the end of the day, I slipped it into my bag and I went home. And the first thing I did was I plugged it into the VC VHS machine, and I started watching the game. It was a disaster. They were losing every pitch. It was horrendous. And by the seventh inning, it was clear that the Mets were going to lose the game. But then at the eighth, they hit a home run, and then another, and the players were running around the bases, and sure enough, the scoreboard was rising. And in the last five minutes, they scored that last final home run and the game was victorious for the Mets. He said: My friends, we have to know we're on the winning team. Normally, when my players are making mistakes, I'm biting my fingernails, I'm jumping up and down, I'm all excited. But this time I was so cool. I was so relaxed. And I realized, because my friend had told me that the Mets had won, and it was implanted in the back of my mind. We, too, need to know, in the fight with the Yetzer Hara, we are going to win. We do our work, we are assured The Yesod HaAvodah, the great Slonimer Rebbe said, In the epic battle with the Yetzer Hara, A patch one way, a patch the other way, but that last patch, I know I am going to give.