Part I. The External Opponent

A World of Preparation

As has been explained many times here, we’re in this world only as a preparation for our station in the Next World. הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה דּוֹמֶה לִפְרוֹזְדוֹר בִּפְנֵי הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא – This world is a vestibule before the World to Come, הַתְקֵן עַצְמְךָ בַּפְּרוֹזְדוֹר – a lobby where you have the opportunity to prepare yourself, כְּדֵי שֶׁתִּכָּנֵס לַטְּרַקְלִין – in order that you should enter the banquet hall (Avos 4:16). The banquet hall of Olam Haba; that’s what we’re aiming for all the days of our lives.

Now, included in this world of preparation is the principle of nisayon, being tested. That’s a fundamental teaching laid down at the beginning of Mesillas Yesharim: כָּל עִנְיָנֵי הָעוֹלָם נִסְיוֹנוֹת לְאָדָם – Everything in this world was made for the purpose of testing man. It’s a good idea to memorize those words and repeat them to yourselves from time to time because it’s a statement that is intended to explain all the phenomena of this world.

The word ‘test’, however, has a broader meaning than what most people think because נִסָּיוֹן, test, comes from the word נֵס, a banner – it’s related to the word נָשֹׂא, to lift up. And that means that the purpose of the test is to elevate you, to make you better. How do we become better people, more worthy of Olam Haba? Primarily by being tested in various ways and elevating ourselves by means of our struggles and successes.

A History of Opponents

Now, included in the nisyonos of this world is that we have various opponents, enemies and adversaries, who were put here in this world for the purpose of testing us. The history of our nation is a history of facing opposition; all types of ideologies and nations and movements and ideals that test our emunah, our loyalty to Hashem.

In ancient times we were faced by the fact that all of mankind worshiped idols. Everyone around us implicitly believed in avodah zarah and there were thousands of people who claimed they were sick, baalei mumim, all kinds of other troubles, and when they went to the shrines of the idol they came out healed. People who walked in on crutches came out dancing.

All over the world similar stories were told and it became extremely difficult to resist that temptation. Even for the maamin in Hakadosh Baruch Hu it was a test; there were many foolish people who said, “Certainly we believe in Hashem but from time to time it pays to make use of avodah zarah in certain areas when we need help.”

Frum Akums

They didn’t chas v’shalom become meshumadim. They were still loyal to Hakadosh Baruch Hu – they were all shomrei Shabbos, they all kept kashrus and even kept the laws of tumah v’taharah that we don’t keep today – but they made the error of utilizing what they thought was an opportunity to help themselves.

Let’s say he wanted a refuah for a certain malady, a certain illness. So he went to this-and-this priest of avodah zarah – he paid him a nice price of course; the priest didn’t do it for nothing – and the priest made certain obeisances. He bowed down and he offered incense before his idol and he said, “That’s going to help you.” It was a tremendous yetzer hara and for many years avodah zarah remained a thorn in the side of our nation.

And yet we look back now and we understand that it was one big test – and the majority of the people withstood that nisayon and were zocheh to excellence just because of that. And they’re in Olam Haba now enjoying the reward for that nisayon that they had to endure, the opponent that they used as a ladder to climb towards greatness.

New Days, New Tests

As time passed the test was changed. Because idolatry evolved into world religions and for the past more than a thousand years Christianity and Islam have to some extent been a test of our emunah.

Now anybody who knows the subject will laugh at that. That’s a test? An ignorant meshugene who was alone in his tent smoking hashish and hearing voices. It’s as silly as can be!

The whole thing is such a shtus! Anybody who looks in the Koran or the New Testament sees right away how ridiculous the whole thing is; they’re both silly books from beginning to end. But still it was a test because the gentile religions spread across the world and their libraries are full of ‘learned’ works explaining how the arguments for their religion are true and until recently it made a tremendous impression.

Today they don’t have the effect anymore because evolution took over; but up until a certain time – because they were so powerful and so many – it had a tremendous influence in the world. And some of our people, ignorami, weaklings, were persuaded and went lost. We had meshumadim in Europe, people who bowed before the opponent and went lost.

Islamic Terror

In the Arab countries too; there was a time when in Teiman there was a gezeiras hashmad – they terrorized the Jews – and there were those who folded. That’s why they wrote to the Rambam for his help, his advice. That’s when he wrote his famous Iggeres Teiman, to encourage them against the opponent of Islam.

And the truth is, even in more recent times there have been some Jews who lived in their countries who were persuaded by them to go over to their religion. Even to this day, in Medinas Yisroel, there are Jewish girls who marry Arabs.

In fact, the religions were a test for us in other ways as well. We had to suffer the laws that they made against us for hundreds of years, the persecutions and ridicule and scorn that they showered upon us. For centuries they have called us every name. Look in the selichos. They called us kelev. They called us everything else. They killed us too. Jews were always in physical danger in Christian Europe and in the Mohammaden countries. We were always standing on a powder keg.

And yet, to a very great extent, ruba d’ruba of the nation passed the test. There were a few Jews, meshumadim, who sold their souls in order to get glory among the gentiles but Klal Yisroel passed the test. And we acquired more Olam Haba by means of that; by means of resisting – not only resisting but ridiculing – the wiles of these powerful religions. The gentile religions were a great opponent but the nation of Hashem was up to the task.

Test of Tolerance

And then came the time of ‘enlightenment’ – a different type of test, the test of tolerance. Hakadosh Baruch Hu saw that we had passed the test of oppression; that despite all the tzaros, despite all the hatred and oppression, we remained loyal. And so He tested us in a different way.

It was a bitter test and very many went away. But the loyal ones preferred to remain stuck in the crowded ghetto with its narrow little streets, with its difficulties of making a living. And even among those who left the ghetto, there were opportunities for greatness.

I always give the example of the Jews in Germany. When there was so much assimilation a number of German Jews decided that they were going to fight for the preservation of the Torah. And they built up an Orthodox kehillah that was excellent in every detail.

They were machmir in everything; in some respects they were more frum than the Jews in Russia and Poland were. They organized kashrus, strict hashgacha; not rabbanim who gave hechsherim and were paid for it. No. The kehillas gave hashgacha; and they were very strict on every detail. The German kehilla, the strong ones who withstood the test, became great because of that. Those that remained loyal, they were a glorious example of the am kadosh, who knew that this world is only a hallway before the Next World.

The Government Tests

Now, today we face another great opponent, a very powerful opponent and that is the academicians, the scientists. I prefer to call them the ‘evolutionists’, the ‘materialists’. Now actually evolution is as silly as could be. Anybody who studies the subject well knows there’s nothing at all to back up anything. On the contrary, there are very many big questions that cannot be answered according to their theory. It’s a theory full of holes and lies; thousands of falsifications.

But today this opponent has unleashed all of its weapons in a massive attack on belief in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Today, the entire civilized world has been employed by this opponent. All the colleges teach evolution. All the press teaches evolution. Even the government has been employed by the yetzer hara; like it says in Mesichta Sota (49b), מַלְכוּת תֵּהָפֵךְ לְמִינוּת – The government itself becomes minus. The government is spending billions of dollars – our dollars – trying to demonstrate that the world happened by itself.

Elevated By Evolution

The courts too; judges have given verdicts in favor of evolution. Evolution has to be preached in all the schools but to teach there’s a Borei? It’s forbidden by federal law to speak of the Creator. It’s a meshugas! The whole world, meshugoyim!

But like all of our opponents, this is also a test made for our benefit. It’s a pattern of history, of Hashem’s Hand in history. The goyim come along and are metamei the world with all kinds of false ideas and we turn our backs on them. Whatever they throw our way, we remain loyal to the Torah.

Today, it’s even worse – they want to poison even the little children with the worst ideas; all types of immorality and hefkeirus they want to ruin us with. And still, the Am Yisroel fights back with all their koach against them. And by standing with a stiff backbone against all these opponents, we are elevated. By passing these tests we become greater and greater.

Part II. The Internal Opponent

Weighing the Opponents

Now all of these are our opponents, no question about it. They always were and in one form or another they always will be. And yet there’s another opponent, one that we overlook, that is the worst one of all.

Worse than avodah zarah? Worse than the Muslims and Christians? Worse than the mushchasim, the degenerates, who want to spoil our children? Even worse than the academicians, the atheists who are out to destroy our emunah in a Borei? Which opponent could be worse than all these?!

So pay attention now. The Gemara says as follows: אָמַר כְּנֶסֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל לִפְנֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא – The Jewish nation speaks to Hashem and says, רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם רְצוֹנֵנוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנֶךָ – “Master of the World! We wish to do Your will.” We’re the Jewish Nation after all; we like to fulfill the word of Hashem. אֶלָּא מִי מְעַכֵּב – “Only, what prevents us? What stops us? Two things. שְׂאוֹר שֶׁבָּעִסָּה – The yeast in the dough, וְשִׁעְבּוּד מַלְכוּיוֹת – and the influence that the gentiles have over us.”

First on the List

Now, the second thing on the list, ‘the influence of the gentiles’ – that’s a sheim klali for everything we spoke about already. It’s a long history of opposition, an opposition to all of our emunah, that still continues today. And yet it seems like that’s the minor one; it’s second on the list, the second problem. What’s the first one? The first on the list – is ‘the yeast in the dough’.

What’s that? The yeast in the dough is the yetzer hara that’s within us. That’s worse than all the other opponents. That’s what Am Yisroel says: “What’s our biggest problem? מִי מְעַכֵּב – What’s most holding us back from our potential in Your service? שְׂאוֹר שֶׁבָּעִסָּה – The yeast inside the dough.” The yeast doesn’t let the dough rest – it’s producing gasses and the dough is bubbling and rising.

That’s the yetzer hara within us. It’s the first and most dangerous opponent. שִׁעְבּוּד מַלְכוּיוֹת, the influence of the goyim? Oh yes, that too; that’s also a very big factor. But it’s not as big as שְׂאוֹר שֶׁבָּעִסָּה, the yeast in the dough. The opponent within us, that’s the biggest opponent and it’s that enemy that will be our subject tonight.

Korach the Maamin

Everyone knows that there was a gentleman named Korach and we all know what happened, the story of his downfall. But Korach, you have to know, was a man who had participated in all the great experiences of the Jewish nation. He was present in Mitzrayim and he saw all the miracles, all the makkos of Mitzrayim. וַיַּאֲמֵן הָעָם – The people believed (Shemos 3:41) and Korach was there too. He was one of the people.

He saw with his own eyes how Hakadosh Baruch Hu came and redeemed us from slavery and he marched out together with the nation singing the song of redemption. He saw the Yam Suf split, he walked through it on dry land. He saw how the Egyptians were drowned when the water came crashing down on them and he sang Az Yashir along with everyone. וַיַּאֲמִינוּ בַּה’ וּבְמֹשֶׁה עַבְדּוֹ – Korach believed in Moshe too!

Then he stood at Matan Torah and heard the Voice of Hashem and together with the rest of the nation he shouted ‘Naaseh v’nishma’. It says there וְגַם בְּךָ יַאֲמִינוּ לְעוֹלָם – At Har Sinai they believed forever in Moshe Rabbeinu.

Korach Was 100%

So what was left already? Korach was 100%. Nobody today has as much emunah as Korach had. It’s common sense. He knew that Hakadosh Baruch Hu was overhead. He saw ananei kovod every day. He ate לֶחֶם מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם every day. He saw Hashem feeding the nation mann every day. And so Korach was a maamin without any blemish in his emunah. He was more convinced than we’ll ever be.

Was there any question of the smallest doubt of emunah in the mind of Korach? Of course not. To Korach, avodah zarah didn’t exist at all. Any other ideology was botel u’mevutol. He would have split his sides laughing at the New Testament and the Koran. Evolution?! He would absolutely think that the scientists escaped the asylum. Call the police! The meshugenehs are loose!

Materialism? The foolishness, the pulls of Olam Hazeh? To go to a movie or a baseball game? It would have been nothing to him; not a test at all. After all, Hashem is right here in front of him. None of the external opponents could budge Korach from his rock-solid emunah.

The Puzzle

So how was it that Korach tripped up? It’s a big puzzle. How was it that such a great man became an enemy of Moshe Rabbeinu and went lost from the nation? What happened? He didn’t lack any emunah so what was the opponent that overcame him?

The answer is this: More than all of our opponents, the greatest one, the most difficult one to overcome, is the שְׂאוֹר שֶׁבָּעִסָּה. What’s bubbling inside you, your character traits, your middos, that’s the biggest of all nisyonos.

And so, despite all the knowledge that Korach had, despite the fact that his emunah was ironclad in Hakadosh Baruch Hu – you couldn’t move it; you couldn’t melt it; nobody in the generations of today has as much strong loyalty as Korach had – and yet, when he was faced by the test of seeing somebody who was from his own shevet of Levi being elevated to the office of kehunah while he, Korach, was overlooked, that ruined him.

The Invisible Opponent

Now Korach didn’t imagine it was something wrong inside him, jealousy or desire for glory. “Glory?! Chas veshalom! I just want the zechus of worshiping Hashem in the Mishkan! And Moshe Rabbeinu is taking away from me what’s rightfully mine, what rightfully belongs to my family.” Korach was a great man in Torah after all, with very great children. לַמְנַצֵּחַ לִבְנֵי קֹרַח מִזְמוֹר. He had beautiful children, Korach. “So why shouldn’t I have the opportunity to serve Hashem?!”

So Moshe said, “Look, it wasn’t my decision. כִּי ה’ שְׁלָחַנִי לַעֲשׂוֹת אֵת כָּל הַמַּעֲשִׂים הָאֵלֶּה כִּי לֹא מִלִּבִּי – Hashem sent me to do it. It wasn’t from my own choice” (Bamidbar 16:28).

The Theory of Korach

But Korach had arguments. “I know Hakadosh Baruch Hu told you to do it, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu did it only because you pressured Him into doing it.”

You hear that argument? “Hakadosh Baruch Hu favored you because you did so many good things for Him, so therefore He allowed you to pressure Him. But if you hadn’t put the pressure on Him, He wouldn’t have done that.”

Now, we might smile at such a thing but that’s only a sign of our lack of emunah. They believed so much in Hashem, to them Hakadosh Baruch Hu was a Chai – He’s very very real – and therefore He reacts! It’s true that He is full of the greatest Wisdom but because of the services that somebody rendered to Him – Moshe Rabbeinu after all took the Jews out of Mitzrayim and he persuaded them to accept the Torah – so Moshe Rabbeinu had earned so much credit in the eyes of Hashem that when he asked, “Hashem, do me a favor and make my brother Aharon the kohen,” so Hashem said, “Alright.”

That was Korach’s theory. And he brought a proof. “You see!” he said, “Didn’t Nadav v’Avihu die? You see they died. It’s a sign Hashem wasn’t pleased with that family.” You hear that? He had a proof for his theory.

Innermost Theories

So the theory of evolution, all of the shibud malchiyos, that was nothing to Korach because it came from the outside. But a theory about why I’m doing this or that, why I’m arguing or making machlokes, that’s already from inside my own self. That’s an opponent worthy of Korach.

Now to us it seems silly because we already know the truth. We remember from last year’s kriyas haTorah what happened to Korach at the end. But he didn’t know! And his mind was already aimed in a different direction. Middos makes a person think in a different way and it’s a very big job to oppose your own way of thinking.

A Helping Wife

All the traits of character are concealed behind a veil of a person’s own self. It’s so concealed within him that he doesn’t even begin to realize what’s doing. Now sometimes, if he’s fortunate, so his wife might tell him something. You know, when a wife criticizes a husband, the husband should consider himself very lucky. After all, nobody else will criticize him. Who’s going to tell him the truth outside the house? And after a while he begins to think, “Maybe I really am a pretty decent fellow.”

So he comes home and right away his wife deflates him. She puts a pin in his balloon and it bursts. Oh, is that an achievement for him! Because now he found out something about his most dreaded opponent. Now he begins battling – not against his wife; against himself.

But Korach didn’t do that. I’m sure he did but he didn’t do it enough. And so when Moshe said, ‘Don’t blame us. Blame Hashem,” Korach didn’t believe him. Because to recognize your own bad middos, that’s the hardest battle of all. Korach’s seichel worked in a different way now and he studied the subject and he came up with this theory that Moshe Rabbeinu was able to persuade Hashem. “You’re at fault here. You’re limiting the opportunities of the Am Yisroel! Why did you persuade Him?”

Can You Answer Yourself?

That’s a lesson to remember: The yetzer hara of character traits inside you makes your seichel work in a different way, to see things the opposite of the way they are. And that means the biggest of our opponents is the middos in ourselves!

And so, it really is a waste of time to think about external enemies when the internal enemy is the biggest. Of course, it’s a mitzvah to overcome the external enemies. דַּע מָה שֶׁתָּשִׁיב לְאַפִּיקוֹרֶס, absolutely. It’s a mitzvah to know how to answer back every one of them. At least in your own mind you should be fortified with an emunah of steel against all the external opponents. But of all the opponents, the one you can’t answer back so easily is yourself.

To discover the truth about yourself is the most difficult of all the things in the world. Many things you have to learn in this world but to learn about yourself, that’s most difficult of all. After all is said and done, the great milchama of the middos is the battle that makes a person great; that’s the enemy you should focus on most.

Part III. Our Opponent

Emunah is Not Enough

And so we have to know that the story of Korach was placed in the Torah to be a lesson for us. Because we think that if we’d really believe – if let’s say, if we’d hear His Voice, then from then on there’d be no problem at all. If only we saw mann fall from the sky and saw the Yam Suf split and our enemies fall into the water and be drowned, that’s all we’d need – then we’d have the rock-solid emunah of our forefathers and we’d all be loyal servants of Hashem.

But it’s not true; it’s not true at all. Because after the test of emunah there’s another test, a more trying test, a more bitter test; and that’s the test of character, of middos.

From Buddha to Bust

I had a man here who was once a member of a Buddhist monastery in California; he was a talmid of avodah zarah. But he used to come late to the prayers there and they were angry at him. “You’re coming late to the ‘minyan’!” They criticized him and finally he left them. He threw away Buddhism and he found his way to Flatbush, to our shul.

Then he got married. He found a nice Jewish girl, a frum girl, and there was a chasunah. So did he live happily ever after? No. Because that’s when the real test began – the test of middos, the trouble of getting along with someone else. The test of emunah, yes, that he survived. Buddhism, that opponent he overcame. But the test of fighting against yourself, of הַכּוֹבֵשׁ אֶת יִצְרוֹ, that was too bitter of a nisayon for him.

What was the end? Just like his guru, his lama, threw him out of the monastery, his wife threw him out of the house. It ended up he was standing in beis din and he’s saying to his wife, “Harei zeh giteich”. Ay yah yay! He’s giving her a gett now.

The Tragedy of Middos

What a heartbreak! Did you ever see a gett being given? I used to have gittin in my house before I came to New York. The beis din is here and the husband is standing there. They’re all watching and she’s taking her hands like this – she puts her hands up like this. That’s the girl to whom he had once said, “Harei at mekudeshes li.” And now he’s saying “Harei zeh giteich”. What a tragedy, what a heartbreak that is.

Now, how could it be such a thing? He was a maamin, a real believer. He came here at night and he learned Torah too. So what happened?

What happened is that he never considered the real opponent; the test of envy and jealousy and kavod and gaavah and impatience and laziness and many other things. And that opponent, the yeast in the dough, that’s an even more bitter test than all the tests of emunah.

The Bigger Job

So even though you’re a frum Jew; let’s say you’re a baal teshuvah and you threw away all the avodah zarah and you moved to Williamsburg. You put on a nice beard and peyos and a black hat and now you look like you were born into a family where even the mother had a beard and peyos.

You have no connection anymore with the old foolishness that you once upon a time looked up to and honored. No television! No newspapers! Even a radio you don’t bring into your house. You look down on all of that! You’re a changed man!

Very good! That’s the right way to do! But you have to know inside there’s still a big job ahead of you. Now begins the great problem of being a mentch.

Just Like Korach

Now that’s a very big problem because more or less that is a description of all of us. A man reads the Torah in shul and he’s surprised at what Korach did. He looks down at him. How could such a good man do such a foolish thing? What meshugas got into his head? That’s what he’s thinking.

Meanwhile, he himself can’t get along with his friend in the synagogue. He’s upset at the gabbai for something else. The rav? Not even a question. He talks about him behind his back. He has machlokes with a neighbor on his block too.

“Not all of my neighbors,” he tells me, “Just this one because he’s a blankety-blank.” Well, Korach got along with many people too.

And so wherever you go you can’t run away from this one opponent, the middos bubbling inside you. You’re complaining about something. You’re angry, impatient, jealous. You’re selfish. Whatever it is, you’re struggling against the same opponent that was the downfall of Korach.

Study Yourself

And that’s why Hashem says, שִׂימוּ לְבַבְכֶם עַל דַּרְכֵיכֶם – You must put your mind on your path in life. You must think about yourself. How much? Each person according to his nature, but you must have some time to think about yourself. And if נַחְפְּשָׂה, if you search, וְנַחְקֹרָה, and you search even deeper, then you’ll discover. But you have to search greatly. You have to go mining within the depths of your character to discover what is it that’s making you think and act in certain ways.

You want to be great in the Next World? You want to raise yourself up forever by means of this nisayon? Take an inventory every night before you go to sleep. Spend five minutes thinking. Five minutes is a very good start! You should know that there were wise men even among the gentiles who gave this avodah much more than five minutes. There was one wise goy, a true story, who every Saturday night he told his family that he was going into a room by himself; “Please don’t disturb me” he said. Every Saturday night he spent time reflecting on his life. A true story – in recent history. A goy!

The Middos Are in Control

If you give five minutes a day to this opponent I guarantee you’ll become great. Five minutes to look back on the day and see, how did I behave toward my fellowman?

How did I speak to my wife in the morning? It depends on your middos. How did I speak to my children when I got up? It depends on your middos. In the synagogue, how did I deal with people? How did I deal with this or that problem? Do I recall what I said or how I looked at someone, with what expression on my face? When I went to my place of business, what did I say? What expression did I have? What were my attitudes towards people that I met? And so on.

It doesn’t mean that a person must spend his entire life in introspection, but if he never made an attempt to examine himself, he is going to continue all his life walking in darkness. He won’t begin to realize how evil he is! You know, there are evil Orthodox Jews. Of course, there are many more evil non-Orthodox Jews but even amongst shomrei mitzvos, there are plenty of reshaim gemurim. People who are constantly earning the biggest sins by saying the wrong words, by getting into machlokes, by mistreating others because of the שְׂאוֹר שֶׁבָּעִסָּה.

And so if you’ll just ignore it and go your merry way, the yeast bubbles and makes trouble; it festers. You have to get busy healing yourself! If your only contact with yiddishkeit is coming to shul and performing mitzvos, living like an Orthodox Jew – which is very good, ashreichem – nevertheless you should know that your chances of changing your character are almost nothing.

Draining the Infected Soul

If somebody is lazy and he doesn’t search out the middos ra’os that he possesses, so nothing is going to help. The Vilna Gaon says it’s like a wound that is not healed; it’s covered up but it’s festering. It’s infecting the body.

Suppose there’s an operation and the surgeon is in a hurry to get rid of you and to collect his bill. So he sews you up immediately without draining the wound. It takes time to drain out the excess fluid; it takes time – sometimes it takes weeks or treatments – but he’s a busy man! He doesn’t have time to waste on you.

And you find even a couple of months later that you’re not finished. He left something inside; not only a roll of gauze. There’s fluid there still that’s ripe for infection.

Sue Yourself

So about the doctor, you’ll complain. You’ll be very angry. You’ll want to sue him. But what about yourself? If the makah of bad character is not healed inside, it’s a wound that will cause you much more trouble than that. All you’re doing is sewing it up on the outside and imagining it’s all good. It’s very foolish.

Spend as much time as you can on this. It’s never too much time when you’re trying to cleanse yourself because the health of your soul is much more important than any other form of endeavor for one’s health. And when you succeed – to whatever degree you succeed – that’s a greatness. It’s the primary accomplishment that you came into this world to achieve.

The Biggest Battle

Even the best of us – and you people who come here are the best; you’re excellent people. We sit together and we fortify ourselves in emunah. Among us there’s no lack of conviction in the truthfulness of all the Torah principles; we believe in Olam Haba and in Torah min haShomayim and in all the miracles. And yet, af al pi kein, we have one big opponent that we have to overcome – the same one that felled Korach.

It’s a lifetime struggle to be able to conquer the inclinations of impatience and selfishness and arrogance and laziness and so much else – so many qualities you have to fight against in order to overcome this greatest of all opponents. It’s not easy. But that’s the nisayon that makes you great. By means of battling all our lives against the opponent within us, that’s how we achieve greater and greater perfection. And that’s how we best prepare ourselves לְהִכָּנֵס לַטְּרַקְלִין, to enter into the banquet hall of the Next World!

Have a Wonderful Shabbos

This week’s booklet is based on tapes:

108 – For What to Pray | 463 – Downfall of a Great Man | 544 – Middos: Whom Hashem Chooses | E-121 – The Great Opponent

Let’s Get Practical

Taking a Daily Inventory

Although Korach was great in Emunah, it was the se’or sheb’isah, the inner opponent known as the yetzer hara of middos, which was his downfall. This week I will try to remember that “kol inyanei haolam nisyonos l’odom”, everything in this world is a test. Every evening I will bli neder set aside a few minutes to review my day and take inventory of my middos and how I utilized them.