Turning the Challenge into a Song | Rabbi Fischel Schachter

So math has never been from my better skills. Actually, I think I failed every single math test I ever took, except for one. I was sitting next to a very kind neighbor. We're not going to get into that. So, anyway, here I am. I'm in Yerushalayim. You know, the Mikvah Erev Shabbos is very complicated. There's Shkalim and Agorot, and an extra two shekel for the towel, and I am at a total loss. There's bills, there's coins. I'm putting in these bills. They just keep coming right out. It's not registering. People on line behind me are getting impatient. I don't know whose picture is on a 20-shekel bill, I’m telling you, whoever it was was smirking at me. And finally, a Yid who's laughing behind me says: How can I help you? I say: It says ten shekel. I'm putting in ten shekel and it comes right out. He tells me: That's ten Agorot. Oh, sorry. Anyway, so he helps me and the turnstile opens and I turn around to him, I say: Thank you, and you're smiling, you're smirking. So I said: I have הנאה, I have pleasure that a Yid had pleasure. And he said to me: Do you know why I'm laughing? Now I see your stories are true. So I took that as a compliment. And I also realized something, that if I wouldn't have this handicap and we all have our things that we need help with, then I wouldn't be who I am. I probably wouldn't have any Vayimaen stories, or anything else, for that matter. It's our challenges that make up who we are. Ezra Mandelbaum was Rosh Yeshiva in Bobov. He loved everyone, especially the Bochurim that were broken, especially the Bochurim that had Nisyonos. He sat with them, he sang all night. But he himself was very, very poor. And they’re sitting Friday night and it starts to rain. And he says: Okay, at least there's a roof over our heads. And then... Poof! It started dripping in. Drip, drip, drip. Everybody was kind of depressed And R’ Ezra said: Don't you hear the song? Drip, drip, drip. There's a tune there. Don't you hear the drips making a tune? It's composing music. They said: We don't hear anything. He said: Listen. And he started this Niggun. And they said: Yeah, you're right. Drip, drip, drip, drip. In Bobov, this is called the Trop Niggun. And I was just wondering, How many Chosson-Kallahs walk down to that Niggun? How many Friday nights were graced with this Niggun? Forever and ever after. Why? Because this Yid, R’ Ezra Mandelbaum, took what could have been the most vulnerable, depressing, challenging moment of his life, and he heard a song. In our Nisyonos, in our difficulties, Why me? Why again? Why am I suffering like this? Why do I always have the challenge? Why do I have to work my way back? You know why? Because you could create a song that never existed before. Every single person has his challenges that no one else in the world has, and to the Mal’achim in Shomayim, that is the greatest music ever.