018 Letter 141

Good morning everybody. I hope everyone's well. So מכתב קמ"א, B'ezrat Hashem. Yekiri Shalom Uvracha. תודה רבה בהכרת הטוב שגרמת לי במכתבך, first of all, thanks him for the satisfaction that the letter provided him. Le'olam zehu haklal. לעמוד בנסיון צריך כוח u'le'umat zeh, כל עמידה בנסיון מוסיפה כוח. On the one hand, to withstand a nisayon, a test, a trial, to prevail in the case of a nisayon, requires spiritual strength. But it's also true for this, for that very reason, that when one successfully does withstand a nisayon, when one does successfully prevail in a situation of nisayon, it adds and it enhances a person's koach. The mashal to understand that is from the physical universe. Let's say you have a heavy weight, a weight that a person has to strain to lift. So on the one hand, leharim masa, right, to lift a burden, so one would certainly say tzarikh koach. But on the other hand, that gufa also how a person becomes even stronger is by being challenged to lift a heavy weight, by being challenged to do something that forces a person to stretch and to exert. So then not only is that an exercise of existing koach, but that also helps develop the koach even further. What's in the physical universe reflects the reason that we can so often find a helpful mashal in the physical universe for devarim ruchniyim is that the physical universe depends upon and therefore in a certain sense reflects spiritual realities as well. So for instance, Rav Chaim Vital explains that just as in the body, just as physically there are רמ"ח איברים ושס"ה גידים, so the same is true spiritually. That there is a notion of Ramach v'shasa spiritually as well in the nefesh because what's in the physical world, because it depends upon for its chiyut, it depends upon the spiritual world, so then mimeila there's going to be, we'll constantly find these reflections. מרגיש אני בדברי מכתבך, excuse me, ריח של עמידה בנסיון. I sense, I sense that successful prevailing, that successful withstanding a nisayon. Omnam ala beyadkha, you succeeded להתגבר כל הפיתויים מסביב, all the inducements or seducements. surrounding you ולהסתייג מכל הכיעור והטינוף הנמצאים במחיצתך and to avoid to create safeguards against all that which sullies which exists in the surroundings in which you find yourself. Ka'amur, as stated earlier,

כל עמידה בניסיון מוסיפה כוח. יש לי רשות איפוא לקוות כי כוחך יגדל אחרי הניצחון על הניסיון הזה,

that again that your koach should be enhanced and be even greater after successfully prevailing in the face of nisyonos. בודאי שלכתחילה עלינו להתפלל אל תביאנו לידי ניסיון. A person is not supposed to request nisayon, on the contrary, a person is supposed to ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu to be spared from nisayon. Lefached, again the aleinu's carrying over, it's incumbent upon us lefached mipnei hanisayon to be afraid of a nisayon

ולברוח ממנו כמי שבורח מן העבירה עצמה. אבל כשנמצאים כבר במצב הניסיון,

but if the nisayon comes our way, usually that's the case because again a person didn't choose it, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu sent it as is clear from the hemshech of this letter, apparently in this case the talmid had sort of gratuitously taken a step that exposed himself to nisayon.

אבל כשנמצאים כבר במצב הניסיון אז באמת לא די שיוצא מתוך הניסיון בלי מכשול.

It's not enough that a person just emerges without having stumbled, that he emerges unscathed. Ela she'aderaba, on the contrary, הניסיון צריך להיות מקור של התרוממות והתעלות. It should be a source of being uplifted and of growth.

ובודאי שאם היית בא לפני המעשה בשאלה אם להיכנס לתוך סכנה של ניסיון,

if you would have asked ahead of time, כי אז בלא ספק שהתשובה שלך היתה בשלילה. You would have received a negative answer. Don't expose yourself to the nisayon. Ube'emes, Rav Hutner is giving a little bit of mussar here, לא היה נכון מצדך להכניס עצמו בעסק זה. You shouldn't have again whatever this esek is, I don't know, it's not really clear from the letter, whatever this esek is you really shouldn't have gotten involved in it because it involves nisyonos. אבל כאמור זהו המהלך בעניין הניסיון. But again this is the approach to nisayon. לפני המעשה צריך לפחד ולברוח. A person should do his best to avoid nisayon. A person is never supposed to gratuitously expose himself to nisayon. He's not supposed to request nisayon. Chazal derive that from David Hamelech. The Gemara in Sanhedrin says ולעולם אל יביא אדם עצמו לידי ניסיון because David Hamelech Yisrael, the great David Hamelech, so he requested a nisayon and then Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave him the nisayon of Bat Sheva and he was nichshal. Whatever nisyonos, on the other hand the Mesilat Yesharim says that all of life consists of sort of an endless string of nisyonos. So what's the katuv hashlishi? Again it's not really שני כתובים המכחישים זה את זה. It's not even accurate to call it a katuv hashlishi but clearly the way those two marei mekomot interrelate is that nisyonos that Hakadosh Baruch Hu embeds in existence so those are nisyonos a person needs. A person needs those nisyonos again as Rav Hutner says a person grows from a nisayon. A person doesn't just withstand a nisayon but a person grows from a nisayon. It's a growth opportunity. We often make the mistake of seeing a nisayon as something which is intruding and something which is encroaching and because of that we resent the nisayon and our goal is simply to deflect the nisayon. Our goal is simply to emerge unscathed from that encounter with a nisayon. What Rav Hutner here is explaining which is very yesodistik is that again nisyonos that a person is. is supposed to deal with, whether he's supposed to deal with them because Hakadosh Baruch Hu sent them his way, or because bdiavad he exposed himself to the nisayon and now he has to deal with it, but nisyonos that a person is supposed to deal with, so a nisayon is not something which is intruding and encroaching, it's something which is designed to make a person grow and develop and become even stronger. The same way when a person goes to the gym and he lifts those weights which require him to strain and exert and push beyond his comfort zone, so he doesn't just emerge the same, but he emerges somewhat stronger. So the same thing is true spiritually when dealing with nisyonos. But on the other hand, a person, Hakadosh Baruch Hu built into life, He wove into the fabric of life the nisyonos that we need. A person is not supposed to look for unnecessary nisyonos. A person is not supposed to bedafke look to go live where there isn't a Jewish community and an infrastructure for Jewish life. A person isn't supposed to bedafke look for a job in a workplace which has lots and lots of nisyonos. A person is supposed to lechatchila look to avoid nisyonos. When a person cannot avoid nisyonos, when there are challenges in the workplace which can't be avoided, when a person, when circumstances dictate that a person has to live in a certain community and maybe it's not the strongest of communities, so then those are nisyonos that are woven into the fabric of life, and then a person, once the nisayon is given to the person, so then the person should recognize it not as, not shouldn't relate to it resentfully as something that's intruding upon or encroaching upon his life, but as something which is designed to let him grow.

לפני המעשה צריך לפחד ולברוח ולאחר המעשה צריך להרויח ולהתחזק.

Beforehand, if at all possible, a person should be afraid and should be looking to flee from nisyonos. But after the fact, meaning once the person has a nisayon and is encountering the nisayon, a person should look to benefit and should look to become fortified through his encounter with the nisayon. Mikerev libi, it's again, it's a given that the nisyonos are a part of daily existence, so obviously this is a very, very important limud. You know, certainly now it resonates, the adjustment that we all need to make under the present circumstances, certainly they involve nisyonos and again, clearly these are not nisyonos which were self-imposed, and we should recognize them as an opportunity lehisromaim ulehisalos.

מקרב לבי הנני לוחץ את ידך ואומר לך חזק ואמץ.

I give you a virtual, a virtual handshake. Rav Hutner is giving a virtual handshake and the bracha as Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to Yehoshua, chazak ve'ematz, to be strong and increase in strength. Maybe בלי נדר אם ירצה השם the next paragraph we'll take a look at tomorrow. Okay, so I hope בלי נדר אם ירצה השם that we'll reconvene at 1:30 as usual. In the meantime, have a good productive morning and be well, be safe, rabosai. Rabbi is