Vayeira: Why Even Avraham Needed Chizuk—Perseverance in Torah and Avodas Hashem

Transcript

Why Beiloini? Rashi, Chazal tell us, hu nasan loi eitzah l'milah. Mamre was the one from the Aner, Eshkol, Mamre group. The whole group, he was the one that said to make the bris milah. Kashes, you doa, Avraham Avinu needs to discuss, Aner, Eshkol, Mamre, kayim tzivui Hashem. Hashem tells him to go do it. He goes to ask Aner, Eshkol, Mamre. Many terutzim were said to this kasha. Some mefarshim say the whole inyan of bris milah is against the nature of Avraham and against his shittah. His whole shittah was chesed, rachamim. So Avraham was confused how to deal with it, klapei chutz, how was the world. That's one teretz. Another teretz, some say for the shailah, should he do it b'tzinah or should he do it b'farhesya? Should he let people know about it? He shouldn't. So Mamre said that he should do it b'farhesya. Hashem came to him, bayeirei elav, to make a fanfare, bayeirei elav Hashem, Beiloni Mamre, because he was the one who gave the advice to do it b'farhesya. Other mefarshim, different terutzim, what was Mamre's role in the bris milah. So the truth is, baalei mussar say I can chalik in the heicher. Avraham Avinu had no question, he was going to do it. What was Mamre chizuk? Baalei mussar say even Avraham Avinu needs chizuk. It's a difficult thing to do. I want to show you an interesting Gemara, chizuk. The Gemara says, Tanu Rabbanan, arbaah tzrichim chizuk. Ve'eilu hein: Torah, maasim tovim, tefillah, and derech eretz. So Torah, maasim tovim needs—what kind of chizuk does it need? So Rashi gevaldik: sheyischazek adam bahem tamid, always. And how much? B'chol kocho. Oy, zeh chizuk is part of avodas Hashem. You know, over times over the years I thought to myself, how much can you darshen about the same thing, and how much can you talk, and how much—you know, the teretz is, the Gemara teaches us that everybody—I won't say only special people. It doesn't say people who are difficult, you know, or not so strong. It's mashma everybody. Everybody who's Torah, maasim tovim needs chizuk. What kind of chizuk? Tamid. What, when? That's when. And how much? B'chol kocho. That gives me the chizuk to keep on going, keep on talking to myself and to others. What am I—what I want to explain to you. L'maaseh, the last case is apel. You know what the last case is? Derech eretz. You know what derech eretz means? Rashi says derech eretz, that that needs chizuk. What is it? Im uman hu, lumnaso. It means for part of a job. Chizuk means job. This has nothing to do with Torah and yiras Shamayim—a job. Im uman hu, lumnaso. Im soicher hu, l'sochraso, for his schorah. You hear? So in the rule of giving chizuk for learning Torah, Chazal tell us even a guy who goes to work needs chizuk in his job. Not telling his job. That's what they say. You know what they say is, anything that you have to do, eventually, maybe sometimes, as soon as you start it, it can take a day or two, you start losing cheshek. As soon as you start. You know why everybody's laughing? Because everybody knows this yetzer hara. You know where this comes from? I'll tell you. Thought about it very... Kayin, Odom HaRishon was supposed to do the ratzon Hashem. So what happened? He didn't do the ratzon Hashem on his own. HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave a klalah, b'zeas apecha tochal lechem. What's the correlation between the chet and the klalah? Because he didn't listen to Hashem, so b'zeas apecha tochal lechem.

It's, if you can't do it on your own, then it's going to have to be told that you should do it, and that becomes hard. Chelek of the klal, zeh hasachar is that you're going to have to do it, and it's going to be hard, because you had it easy to be to do on your own. Even schar, even parnasah, anything that you have to do became the avodas hachayim, that you have to push hard to get it done. Even Avraham Avinu, even Avraham Avinu, tzaddik, oived Hashem, al himusa say, he went to Mamre, chizuk. Avraham needed chizuk, Polishke needed chizuk. Why am I telling you this? That's what I'm telling you. This Gemara is telling us this is what it is. This is the... This is what it is. Chizuk. Every person on a constant basis, every time, he needs some chizuk. It's ingrained in the avodah. It's inherent in the avodas ha'adam. Why am I telling you this? Why am I telling you this? Let me tell you. We start things in life. We get excited. Remember that original excitement. That's the real thing that's supposed to be. When it starts to... that's the yetzer hara. That's the klalah of... The original machshavah and the, how do you say, approach to it, the shemah, the want, that's the true person and the true way you're supposed to do the mitzvah, or whatever you're doing. The yetzer hara says, it starts saying, It's tiring, I'm bored of it, chavrusa, the rebbe's tired of... This is the... this is the... Constantly be excited and into it, wanting to do it, the same way. Because we have to work on this. This is the avodah. Avodah is not to just get excited. Avodah is to keep up. Tzrichin chizuk tamid. You know what chizuk can mean? A rebbe. Chizuk can mean a friend. Chizuk can mean anybody, and yourself. Don't lose. Keep on, every day, every minute, have a good day.