The Vayimaen Recipe for Life | Rabbi Elya Brudny

We are all experiencing already through the entire winter, a long, hard, seemingly endless war, בעוונותינו הרבים, in Eretz Yisroel, with repercussions all over the world. It’s an עת מלחמה, like Koheles says, עת מלחמה, time of war. But we always have to remember that the Chovos HaLevavos says about a warrior that returned from a war as a victor, and אם ירצה השם, the Jewish armies are going to be victorious בקרוב, but a פרוש אחד, a חכם אחד told him, You're coming back as if you won the war. The war that you won that's the מלחמה הקטנה. The battlefield is the small war. But now get ready for the big war, the מלחמת היצר. That's the real war and that's the big war. The pasuk says, Every human being, every Kehillah, every member in Klal Yisroel, is always at war. We're born with a Yetzer Hara. By our Bar Mitzvah, we get the help from a Yetzer Tov. But we're always at war. The war of the רע against the טוב. The war of the שכל against the רצון. And that is what life is all about. Battles and battles and battles to do the right thing and not to do the wrong thing. That brings us to וימאן. Yosef HaTzaddik is the Yesod Olam, he’s the foundation of the world, because he was the one for all the ages that made the וימאן. He ran away from the Nisayon. He ran away במסירות נפש from the Nisayon. He sat in jail for years because he ran away from the Nisayon. Bizchus him, we had קריעת ים סוף. Bizchus him, we’re zoche to all the Tov in the world, we have a Klal Yisroel, we have Torah. I once saw in a Sefer, on the pasuk, How do you transform טומאה into טהרה? A No. לא. But it has to be a real לא. The Ko’ach of מיאון, of וימאן, the Ko’ach of saying No to the temptations of the Yetzer Hara is life-altering. A person that strengthens himself to withstand the Nisyonos, has a guaranteed life of Hatzlacha. And we always have to remember, Wherever we are, whether we're in a war, whether in battle, or sitting at home or sitting in Yeshiva, Hashem is there with you. חס ושלום, if we don't keep the מחנה קדוש, רחמנא לצלן, Hashem leaves us, סר מאחריך. We don't want that. We want Siyata Dishmaya, we want Hashem’s bounty, we want Hashem’s Bracha. וימאן. There's nothing as special as it. People that have followed this recipe and this formula of Vayimaen, were zoche to tremendous Brachos, both ברוחניות and בגשמיות.