The Role of Nisayon in Living up to our Potential

ויהי אחר הדברים האלה והאלהים נסה את אברהם ויאמר אליו אברהם ויאמר הנני.

As you know, one of the approaches to nisayon represented here by the Seforno, although obviously it antedates him. כדי שיהיה בפועל אוהב וירא כמו שהיה בכח. Hakodesh Baruch Hu's intention in the nisayon is that Avraham Avinu should actualize the latent potential. The teva of a person as such, even Avraham Avinu, is that unless challenged, a person won't fully develop, won't fully actualize his potential. The Ramban is certainly already in that same school of thought.

והאלהים נסה את אברהם ענין הניסיון הוא לדעתי בעבור היות מעשה האדם ברשותו המוחלטת בידו אם ירצה יעשה ואם לא ירצה לא יעשה יקרא ניסיון מצד המנוסה.

It's not that Hakodesh Baruch Hu is waiting in suspense to see what the outcome of the nisayon is, chas veshalom.

אבל המנסה יתברך יצווה בו להוציא הדבר מן הכח אל הפועל.

Almost the same phraseology, that the nisayon is designed that the menuseh should actualize, should realize his potential. The makor is in the Midrash.

ה' צדיק יבחן ורשע ואוהב חמס שנאה נפשו. אמר רבי יונתן הפשתני הזה כשפשתנו לוקה אינו מקיש עליו ביותר מפני שהיא פוקעת וכשפשתנו יפה הוא מקיש עליו ביותר למה שהיא משתבחת והולכת.

If you have flax which is solid and sturdy, so then the farmer beats the flax because in so doing he's able to get the most out of it. On the one hand, this understanding which our Chachamim give us into nisayon isn't halacha lema'aseh. On the one hand, it's not halacha lema'aseh in the sense that Chazal tell us in the Gemara Sanhedrin לעולם אל יביא אדם עצמו לידי ניסיון. That a person is not supposed to go looking for nisyonot. A person is not supposed to invite nisyonot, or a person is not supposed to needlessly, gratuitously expose himself to hardship, to difficulty, to adversity. In that sense, what we're learning about here is not halacha lema'aseh. But in another sense, it's very much halacha lema'aseh. Halacha lema'aseh in that even though a person is not מביא עצמו לידי ניסיון, a person should not look for self-imposed nisyonot, but we all encounter nisyonot on a very, very regular basis. And this yesod in the chachmei hamassora of להוציא מן הכח אל הפועל gives us such a crucial perspective on nisyonot. It means that every time we encounter turbulence in our lives, every time it isn't smooth sailing, there's adversity, and adversity as we know comes in many shapes and sizes. But adversity, the encounter with adversity is always an opportunity. The nisayon, only through even Avraham Avinu, Avraham Avinu wasn't complacent, Avraham Avinu didn't, you know, he wasn't looking to coast through life. Even Avraham Avinu only realized his full potential through nisayon. The same is certainly true for us. Often our sort of secular gut reaction when we encounter adversity is that we see it as something which is interfering, something which is disrupting, something which is impeding. And the correct perspective, as long as it's not self-imposed, is that the adversity may be taka unplanned for, maybe we didn't realize that we needed this opportunity, but every encounter with adversity is opportunity. You know when we learn the pasuk in Chumash, ויהי אחר הדברים האלה והאלוקים ניסה את אברהם, so we think to ourselves, okay, here comes the nisayon of the Akeidah. But it's very, very important to remember that when Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Avraham, ויאמר אליו אברהם ויאמר הנני, Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn't read to Avraham Avinu the first half of the pasuk. Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn't read to Avraham Avinu והאלוקים ניסה את אברהם. There wasn't the drum roll at the beginning of Avraham Avinu's nevuah, drum roll, and then והאלוקים ניסה את אברהם, and then Vayomer elav Avraham. Avraham Avinu wasn't given advance notice that it was a nisayon. He wasn't given the advance notice that he needed to prime himself, that he needed to rise to meet the challenge. The avodah is without being given that introduction of והאלוקים ניסה את אברהם to recognize that that's what it is and to respond and to marshal all our energies and all our kochos hanefesh as though we had been given that introduction and as though it had been contextualized for us like that. Kol zman that we experience, that we view and therefore experience adversity as something which is interfering and something which is unwelcome, we're not likely to take advantage of the opportunity that it presents. When we recognize that it's through the adversity of nisayon that a person is מוציא מן הכוח אל הפועל, then and only then are we positioned to take advantage of that opportunity. Again, it doesn't mean that a person is supposed to look to prolong a nisayon. It doesn't mean, for instance, if the nisayon comes in the form of ill health, rachmana litzlan, that a person isn't consulting doctors, isn't looking to seek a cure. That would be bechlal מביא אדם עצמו לידי ניסיון. There's no difference between initiating the nisayon and prolonging the nisayon. So it's not that we're implying that the perspective of nisayon as opportunity is that we're looking for it. But rather, as long as it's a given that it's not beyado shel adam to dispel, or whatever hishtadlus was supposed to be making has yet to bear fruit, so then it's crucial, it's absolutely crucial that we know that this isn't something interfering, it's not something deterring, and it's not something impeding. It represents an opportunity להוציא מן הכח אל הפועל. Generally, the להוציא מן הכח אל הפועל is going to be in either of two realms. Sometimes it's going to be in the realm of emuna. Sometimes a person encounters adversity, be it in the form of ill health. Sometimes couples rachmana litzlan encounter adversity in the form of infertility. Sometimes adversity can be encountered in the form of unemployment. Again, in many, many shapes and sizes, many, many forms and fashion, and each one very formidable. It's not an opportunity that a person can create for himself, but when it's assigned, it's a growth opportunity. It's an opportunity for growth, and making the most of life means recognizing it for what it is and without the drumroll rising to meet the nisayon. The other realm in which we're often challenged, in which we often encounter adversity is in personal relationships, where the growth opportunity is one in our midos, in tikun hamidos. You know, if you want to learn how to swim, so you can have some initial swimming lessons on the sand and you can practice certain strokes while you're still on the sand, but at a certain point, you gotta go into the water if you're gonna learn how to swim. There's only so much practice and so much progress that the person's going to make in his swimming lessons on the sand. If a person has a fear of flying, so there's a lot of therapy he can do beforehand; at a certain point, progress requires that he get on the plane and that he take a flight. We can and should work on our midos when a person's in the solitude of his own dalet amos, even when no one's around, a person can and should be working on midos then. But lema'aseh, the להוציא מן הכח אל הפועל of the mida of vatranus, the mida of savlanus, the mida of נושא בעול עם חבירו, the mida of ne'elavim ve'einam olvim, just as the one who wants to know how to swim has to get into the water at a certain point, so too, we're gonna have to be in situations. And when we encounter the challenges of a situation where we need to be a vatran, where we need to be a savlan, where we need to be ma'avir al midosaynu, not necessarily to push back but to be ma'avir al midosaynu, so again, the The natural secular reaction is to define it in terms of the bein adam lachaveiro in the sense that I don't deserve what I'm getting from him. He has no right to be doing what he's doing to me, and then to respond accordingly, if that's the way one frames it, if that's the way one sees it, if that's the way one defines it. But when it's viewed and framed not in terms of this secular through a secular lens, but when it's viewed and framed through a religious lens, so then not every comment requires a retort, not every provocation does a person need to rise to and take the bait. And then the again, the adversity of that bein adam lachaveiro encounter is seen as what it really is, which is a growth opportunity. So in that sense, this parsha of אלקים ניסה את אברהם is very much halacha lemaaseh because Elokim nisa, הלואי השם צדיק יבחן. So halevai that that's true in our lives also, that we're on the receiving end of nisyonos. We certainly are. But it's halacha lemaaseh in another sense also. The yesod that להוציא מן הכח אל הפועל a person needs to be challenged is a yesod that a person can apply and implement himself while being in full compliance with the gemara in Sanhedrin of לעולם אל יביא אדם עצמו לידי נסיון. And that's in the following area. I think we've all had the experience, let's say I don't know in college, in high school, you have a paper due, a term paper due, you have a major exam coming up. And the only way to get all the work done between now and then, and there's a deadline, no extensions available, the only way to get all the work done is to be incredibly efficient with one's time, to be focused, to get out of every day, to squeeze out of every day what can be squeezed. And again, I don't mean in terms of obviously the nimshal, I don't mean in terms of a person not sleeping as much as he's supposed to sleep vechulu, but in terms of just not the squandering, and in terms of having that focus of there's a goal that I have to achieve and I only have so much time to get there. And what we find is that when that structure exists, when that healthy lachatz, when that healthy pressure exists, so a person becomes more productive because he's more focused, because he's responding to that challenge. I remember as a young boy, I was once sitting in the back seat and there was a doctor who was giving my grandfather a ride somewhere. And he said to him, he had attended Yeshiva College and then had gone on to medical school. And I remember him saying, he said, Rebbe, if I had worked as hard when I was in Yeshiva as I did when I was in medical school, I'd be a baki beshas. So what happened? Clearly he, okay, so maybe a certain amount of that statement... statement should be discounted as an exaggeration for effect, as rhetorical flourish, but the point is clear. So medical school was very demanding and it pushed him. It pushed him to use his time as well as he could. It pushed him when he was using his time, again, not just to study thirty minutes in a half hour, but the eichus also, not just in terms of the kamus, but in terms of the eichus also. And that challenge allowed him to be המוציא מן הכח אל הפועל what he was capable of achieving. So we don't look for nisyonos, but it is entirely appropriate for a person to set realistically ambitious goals for himself bli neder, שלא להיכשל בעוון שבועות ונדרים. It is appropriate for a person to set for himself realistically, they have to be realistic, but realistically ambitious, realistically high goals. And the goals have to come with a timetable, they have to come with a deadline. By Pesach, I want to accomplish such and such and to do that, this is the schedule I need to adhere to. Again, it needs to be very ambitious but it also needs to be entirely realistic. But once the person finds that right balance between what's very ambitious yet entirely realistic, so then feeling that mechayev is a way that we also halacha l'maaseh apply the limud from this parsha. In order to attain, certainly in order to attain to the degree and on the level that we're capable of, a person has to have goals. If I don't have the goals, then I'm not going to achieve them by happenstance, I'm not going to achieve them accidentally. If a person's mindful of being in the race, so then he gets to the finish line. But if he's not mindful of that, so then he's not going to get there. And that's also an application of the yesod of this parsha. Kol tuv rabosai, everyone should have a productive night, a gutten Shabbos, everyone should be well, be safe be'ezras Hashem.