Choosing Our Challenges | Rabbi Doniel Osher Kleinman

We live in a world of challenges. Everybody knows, nobody comes down to this world to enjoy, to sit back, to kick back and relax. Life has its challenges. And different people have different sets of circumstances. Some people struggle with Parnassah, others with צער גידול בנים, others with health. There's a whole wide array of challenges that exist in this world. Did you ever wonder, could I pick my challenges? Can we choose the circumstances under which we struggle or is it just, like, random, open to Hashgachah? Obviously, the Ribono shel Olam has a Cheshbon, but is it something that we have no control over? There's an amazing Chazal. The pasuk says, Lucky is the person who gets ייסורים, who has challenges, struggles, difficulties from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. ומתורתך תלמדנו and yet, he learns the Torah. Simply, the pasuk means, If a person learns in spite of their Nisyonos, in spite of their difficulties, in spite of their suffering, they’re praised. But there’s a Medrash. The Medrash says an incredible thing. There is no person in the world that doesn't suffer. Everybody suffers. Praised is the person, lucky is the person, whose struggle comes from the Torah. What does it mean: Praised is the person, lucky is the person whose struggle comes from the Torah? I believe what it means is as follows. A Yid has a choice. You're driving down the highway, you’re on vacation somewhere, and you look up and you see something and you can enjoy it. It’s geshmak. The Yetzer Hara tells you: Big deal. Not so bad. You'll do Teshuva after. The Yetzer Hara tells you: Look, you're a human being. You can take it. But you see, if you took that הנאה, then you didn't struggle. You may have struggled, but then you ended up with pleasure. Then you have the person who's driving down the highway, he sees something, or he's walking down the street, or he’s by a Simcha, he’s in the supermarket, he’s anywhere, he's in the privacy of his own home, and he sees something and it's a struggle. It's difficult. He's suffering from the battle. Why is he struggling? Why is this Yid battling? Why is he putting in so much effort? Because the Torah told him to. It's... Chazal are teaching us, If your ייסורים come from the Torah, you can choose your ייסורים. Every person has an amount of ייסורים that they're going to have in their life. You know what your ייסורים can be? You can make your ייסורים the struggle of battling and overcoming your Yetzer Hara. And if you do that, you will relieve yourself of any other suffering you may have to endure and encounter. You’re lucky if you're wise enough to make your struggles Torah struggles. The next time you're encountered with a choice, remember, You have no idea how much ייסורים you can be being Yotzeh with these ייסורים, with the ייסורים of this struggle. It's your choice. Make the wise one.