Yidden are Warriors | Rabbi Zev Smith

The other week, I went for an eye examination and I was thinking, What would I want the Ribbono shel Olam to see in my eyes? And it came to my mind an incredible story. The Chofetz Chaim was sitting with a Talmid, R’ Dovid Lapin, and he told him something that I think is a מצוה לפרסם, we should publicize it. When a child's about to be born, the Ribbono shel Olam has a Neshama, whose mission is to join that child and live a life. But the Neshama refuses to go, to leave its exalted place תחת כנפי השכינה, to leave a place of Kedushah, to go into a world of depravity, a world of such Nisyonos, and the Chofetz Chaim said it over with emotion, It doesn't want to go. And there's no way they could convince the Neshama, until they say two magical words, and that is עובד השם. In this world, you have struggles, we have challenges, we have Nisyonos, we have setbacks, and that's greatness. Mal’achim have Kedushah. Human beings have victories, have struggles. And I once thought maybe that's really implicit in the pasuk in Tehillim, Says the Zohar HaKadosh, Mal’achim are holy, but Yidden are גיבורי כח, Yidden are warriors. Yidden are defying all odds and succeeding in a world of such טומאה. Rav Elya Meir Sorotzkin z”l, in his last seven years, was an inspiration to Klal Yisroel. Battling a dreadful illness, he did the impossible on a daily basis. I heard from Talmidim how he gave Shiur without an ounce of strength. But I think which is most significant, after his Petirah, they found what they call a Holy Tissue. Now, what's holy about a tissue? But on this tissue he wrote with his own handwriting the following quotation. The breath of life is struggling. If you struggle, you succeed. 95% of success is struggling. And I'm allowed to add, 100% of struggling is success. Every effort, every tear, every krechtz, every moan, every groan, they want to do the right thing, that's success. The pasuk says in the end of Koheles, At the end of a person’s life, every one of his actions are recorded. And I believe באמונה שלימה מידה טובה מרובה In our eyes, every bit of struggling, every bit of working against the world, against the tide, against all odds, every one of our efforts are recorded. And we hope that we’ll be zoche that our eyes are able to portray and indeed, we succeeded.