PARSHAS MISHPATIM: WHEN LIFE HURTS

You got big goals, big aspirations. You want a great deal of success in your life. So what holds you back? You don't mind me coming at you this morning. You want to make a million bucks. You want to build a big Yeshiva. Put your granddaddy's name on top of it. Maybe you want to just build a biased Nemanbi Yastrel a super happy marriage, beautiful kids. Become a big Talmud Khacha. Maybe you want all the above, along with becoming a talented violinist. You got big goals, big dreams. So what is stopping you? Well, I reckon you'll probably say it's not that easy. Life's hard. It's got an isionos. You don't know what it's like. Challenges they're draining and I don't always wake up inspired, ready to roll. Plus the setbacks, it's hard to keep up, let alone climb this Mount Everest towards success. I feel like I'm marching up barefoot on the ice. So it would make a great deal of sense that we jump into this Ramban and gain a larger, different, altered perspective on this isionos, life's challenges, so that we know, in our bit, better prepared for these setbacks. You see, right after the Jewish people were standing at the very foot of Harsenei and they were knocked dead because of the great revelation, they came to Moshe Rabbeinu and said well, maybe we don't want to hear straight from Hashem's mouth because we're just died and we don't want that to happen again. How about you get the commandments and then tell us so that we don't die? How does that sound? And Moshe's response Everybody don't be afraid. God is coming to challenge you, naasos Eschem. That's why God is coming. That's the point of the Ten Commandments. You hear that the point of the Ten Commandments wasn't for giving Mitzvot, it was K'ilavavur Naasos Eschem Bohelochim. God is coming to challenge you because a Jew needs to learn and chazer over and over again the foundations of our faith. Ramchal tells us, he puts it in clear wording, that everything in this world is in His Sion. It's all for the point of seeing if you will overcome the challenges. That's why you wake up in the morning and even Harsenei, it's very clear here, the greatest spiritual moment, the good times, it's really just also to see if you will endure when things get dark and things get tough and you feel like you're walking through hell. K'ilavavur Naasos Eschem. Here's the moment of clarity. See the ramban here, and Hashem is showing us a big flash of light to see if you'll be able to withstand it, to be able to keep the 613 after thousands of years of pogroms and Chelnitskyi massacres and assimilation, and it's hard, but that is Judaism. K'ilavavur Naasos Eschem. It's why we wake up in the morning, so that you will meet the challenge that should be expected and embraced and be able to prove your worth, prove your love of Hashem, your stick-to-itiveness, your persistence. That's it. Nisyonos are not in the way. The challenges are 100% the only way. So a person should never say why me? You should stand up and you say try me. If a person feels like he's walking through hell, you keep going, because that's the point of life as best as we can, to raise our chins and prove our love of Hashem, to do the best that we can, step by step, as we climb the mountain of success, to be m'yaleh bahar Hashem and m'yokum b'mekom k'otsho. This is what we are told. We are in Naasos Eschem bahalokim. God is just coming to test you.