Rav Avigdor Miller on Pictures in the Mind

A:

And the answer is that you learn by experience, by means of practice. Let’s say you want to create a picture in your mind of what happened to Korach; so the next time you walk in the street and you see a deep ditch – let’s say, the gas workers are digging a deep hole so that they can lay a new pipe – so as you pass by you should think, “How would it feel if a man was put in that ditch and the bulldozer pushed all the dirt on top of him and covered him alive?” It’s no fun; it’s no fun!

Now, suppose the ditch is very deep – it’s deep and deep and deep – and you know it’s a one way trip; then it’s no fun at all!  And now Korach is diving down into that ditch.  Imagine Korach diving down into that ditch.  Oy, nebach, poor Korach.  Oy – if only he would have done teshuva just a second before; if only he would have shouted, “Moshe emes v’soraso emes – Moshe is true and all of his Torah is true and I am the shakran; I am wrong.” If only Korach would have shouted that, he would have been saved.

But no! יצאו נצבים – They went out with chutzpah until the last minute.

You know what he’s doing in Gehenom now?  In Gehenom, he’s trying to get back that last minute and he’s shouting, “Oy!  Moshe emes v’soraso emes!”

Rabbah bar bar Chana once had a vision. He once saw a vision of Gehenom; how Gehenom was boiling like a pot. And in the pot sometimes the food is on the bottom and sometimes the food is on the top, according to the movement of the waters.  So sometimes Korach is on the bottom of Gehenom, sometimes he’s on the top.  And the boiling waters brought him to the top of Gehenom and Rabbah bar bar Chana heard Korach crying out in despair.  He’s crying out forever and ever.  It’s thousands of years since then and he’s still crying out, “Moshe emes v’soraso emes!” because he wants to get that last minute back. But it’s too late. Had he done it before, he would have been saved.

And so that’s how you build up a tziyur. You have to think about it and describe it in your mind with details and repeat it again and again and little by little you get in your mind a picture: Isn’t it better for everybody to say in this world, “Moshe emes v’soraso emes;” rather than being a liberal, a rasha, and all his life he is a koifer and then when he’s dead it’s too late. And then he’s going to cry out in anguish forever and ever.  “Ah, ah, ah! Now I know that Moshe emes v’soraso emes! If only I could say those words with bechira.”  But it’s too late – bechira is only in this world.

And therefore, if you work on tziyurim by means repetition and giving live details to them, and you do it over and over again, so הבא לטהר מסעיין לו – Hashem will help those who help themselves, and you’ll be able to create real tziyurim in your mind.

TAPE # 501