The Street Cleaner | Rabbi Shimon Gruen

People who are looking for Chizuk sometimes get frustrated from looking for so much Chizuk. Another Vayimaen clip, another התעוררות, another Drasha, another Kabbalah Tova, another עצה. Is this ever going to end? There's a story that the Ateres Yeshuah, R’ Yehoshua the Dzikover, said over where he learned from the street cleaner in the city of Vienna what it means to serve Hashem. He saw somebody cleaning the streets and he saw he was doing a wonderful job, and he complimented him on it, and he asked him: How long are you doing this job for already? He said: What do you mean? I'm here all the time. I'm doing this for years. How often do you clean the streets, though? He said: I'm doing this every day. He said: Every day? Why do you clean it over again and again every day? He said: What do you mean? It gets dirty every day. He said: So when are you going to realize that what you're doing is not really accomplishing much? And the street cleaner told him, If I wouldn't clean the streets of Vienna every day, could you imagine what it would look like? The garbage would be so high you wouldn't be able to walk through. And the Ateres Yeshuah said that this taught him what it means to put in the Avoda in מלחמת היצר. When one fights with the Yetzer Hara, the מכשולות and the Nisyonos and the trying again and again, it's exhausting and it's frustrating, and some people don't have Ko’ach for it. How many times am I going to pick myself up again? How many times am I going to have to remind myself that I should be doing better? But if not for the constant battle, trying again and again, the garbage would be so high we wouldn't be able to manage. Many housewives get frustrated by the constant cleaning and the constant organizing and the constant laundry. We like jobs that you do and you get over it and you know it was accomplished, you move on to the next project and everyone appreciates what happened and everyone can use it. It doesn't work like that. Hashem wants us to keep on doing our best, and that's what the Avoda of Shmiras Einayim is about. It's about every day trying all over again, as many times as we have to get up again, as hard as it was, and as many times as we have to look for new ideas and new עצות. A yungerman told me that he went into his Rebbe and his Rebbe knew that he was struggling. And the Rebbe said: Nu, how's it going? And he blurted out in frustration, Rebbe, I just can't make it. The Rebbe looks at him and without skipping a beat, said, There's no ‘it’ to make. So often it looks like we're just looking to get there already. When you're young and you're hearing new ideas about Shmiras Einayim, you feel like: Oh, maybe this is what's going to do it for me. And when I get this right, I won't have to struggle anymore. And then you keep on seeing the struggle going on and on, and it gets so frustrating. And this is why it's important every day sometimes a new idea, a new clip, a new התעוררות, a new something. One day, you walk in the street and it's going to help you to Chazer the pasuk, Next day, hmm... that didn't work or it did work for one day, but it's not working today. Today I'm going to repeat to myself names of people who need Yeshuos. Maybe in the zchus that I'm walking the street and I'll try to control myself it will be a zchus for them. And that worked for an hour, but after an hour, hmm... it didn't work anymore. Now I'll try something else. I'm not going to get frustrated by having to try again and again. I'm not going to get frustrated from looking for new ideas. It's okay. I'm in for it. It doesn't matter how long it will take, it doesn't matter how many times I'll struggle, how many times I'll get up again, how many times I’m going to put in the effort, this is what counts, this is what Hashem wants. I’m going to keep on cleaning the streets and keep on doing what I can, keep on getting up all over again and making Hashem happy, day after day.