Dead or Alive? | Rabbi Moshe Perlstein

The holy Baal Shem Tov gives a teitsh, a translation, of the famous Gemara, There is no joy except with meat and wine. Says the holy Baal Shem Tov, אין שמחה למעלה There’s no great joy up above in the Heavens, in front of the Aibishter, except with flesh and blood. Only the actions of a flesh and blood. Unbelievable. What does that mean? That means angels, Seraphim, all different types of heavenly angels, the Aibishter has enough of those. They’re doing perfectly what the Aibishter wants. I'm sure the Aibishter has pleasure from them and joy from them, as well. But that's not the great joy. The greatest joy is, and that's the purpose of our creation, to make a sanctification of God’s name down in this world, to be able to show that us, human beings, that were created with a Yetzer Hara and the Aibishter knows what the Yetzer Hara is doing to us, and it's with His permission, in order to give us that power to make the Aibishter happy. Through our overcoming, through our strengthening ourselves, that's what makes the Aibishter happy. And not only that, we know a fascinating thing. When a person is feeling holy, holiness, he's on fire. When a person overcomes, it just creates life. When a person's, God forbid, in the mode of when it doesn't work out, when he's falling, he feels lifeless. He can't get himself to pray, can't get himself to learn. His marital harmony, his education, everything feels like it's literally falling apart. The Gemara tells us a fascinating thing. Everybody knows the Gemara, Our holy Rabbi, holy Tanna, after he passes away, he comes back Friday night to make Kiddush for his wife and children. And everybody asks a question, How can he fulfill the obligation for his wife and children if he's dead? Says the holy Sefer Chasidim, He's called Our Holy Rabbi. Why? Because he was so holy. He didn't mess up. He always overcame and always won. Therefore, when he's holy, he’s always alive. He never died. It seems as if he died. So, therefore, he can fulfill the obligation for his children. Rather, when a person, sadly enough, is in the mode of falling and falling, that's considered death. Alexander the Great asked the sages, What can I do? What's the advice to live? The sages answered him, in the Gemara in Tamid, Kill yourself. He just asked: How can I stay alive? and you answer him to kill yourself? The Rishonim say, Kill yourself means kill those desires. If a person learns to overcome his desires, that's life, that’s vitality. What an uplifting prayer. How wonderful to go learn my Daf. How wonderful to come home and greet my wife and children and smile at them. I have vitality. Rabosai, Let us subdue our desires. Let us try to overcome and win. And what will give us the strength is the vitality, the delight, the life, that we acquire from those renewed commitments.