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Friday

י"ט אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

Friday
י"ט אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

חיפוש בארכיון

Shem Olam / Ch. 9 – 77

Our Sages continuously extolled the virtue of people who accept their suffering wholeheartedly and continue their service despite the hardship. They explained the verse, ‘and those who love Him are like the sun rising to its zenith’, as referring to people who serve Hashem without restraint, and don’t let obstacles get in their way. On the contrary, they gladly jump all the hurdles, knowing that this is the training ground Hashem put us in. Even if people like this are not sufficiently respected in this world, but in the next world their honor will shine forth, and their faces will shine like the sun.

This is true of all service of Hashem, but is especially true of Torah learning, because learning Torah actually lessens the suffering, and sometimes actually takes it away, as our Sages said, ‘If a person sees affliction coming, he should run to the Beis Medrash and the affliction will run away’. It is like a person who is too sick to take his medicine, who should exert himself to take them despite his weakness, for by exerting himself his health will come back. So too, if a person sees that there are too many distractions and does not exert himself to learn despite them, the distractions will never go away. But if he does strengthen himself and overcomes, the Torah will protect him from them.

“And the utterly undoubtable truth is that if the entire world, from one end to the other, would be absent of our engagement and delving into the Torah, even for one moment, literally, then all the worlds - both upper and lower - would be destroyed instantly, and would turn into utter chaos, chas v’shalom…” (Nefesh Hachaim)