It's All in Your Hands | Rabbi Zev Smith

A person is constantly faced with challenges. But I do believe there is a secret, the master key, that opens the door to success to all of our challenges. The Gemara tells us in Avoda Zora about a R’ Elazar ben Dordaya, a name not familiar to us. He was a terrible, terrible Baal Aveira. The Maharal describes him as אדוק בעבירה, he was stuck to Aveira בכל לבבו, נפשו ובכל מאודו. And once he traveled seven seas and paid an exorbitant amount of money to do a sin with a woman. And during the Aveira, something unexpected happened and this זונה, this woman, saw it as a message from Shomayim that Elazar, you are hopeless and helpless. You'll never, ever do Teshuva. But this, for some reason, ignited that pintele Yid in Elazar ben Dordaya, and he decided he's going to change that and he's going to do Teshuva. But he was so helpless, he cried out to the heavens and the earth, all of the stars, to the sun, the moon, but no one helped him. And then he realized the oldest truth, It's up to me. It's all in my hands. And he started crying. And he cried and he cried until he died, during a pure moment of Teshuva. And a heavenly voice rang out, Rabbi Elazar ben Dordaya you’re destined for life in the World to Come. Rabeinu Hakadosh heard about this and added, There is one who acquires his Olam Haba in one moment. How magnificent this moment was. And not only that his Teshuva was accepted, he was called a Rabbi, he was a Tana, because he taught Klal Yisroel a most important lesson, No matter how challenging it is, it's up to you, it's in our hands. I guess he understood what we’ve mentioned in the past, that a person is never given a challenge if he doesn't have the ability to overcome. So therefore, logically, it's all up to me. It's all in my hands. Rabbi Yaakov Salomon told the story of a drug addict who gave new meaning to the word, his life was drugs, and suddenly he changed. What was the secret? It was a regular morning and he was washing his face, and he looked in the mirror and he saw death. He realized he's not going to live much longer and it bothered him. And he said to himself these six magical words, And he said it over and over until it mesmerized him, and he changed. A moment of truth, a moment of believing in oneself, was able to transform this extreme drug addict into someone that taught the world the lesson, And when I heard this story, it struck me like a bolt of lightning. This is a non-Jew, who didn't have a Torah, didn’t have a guarantee that we're always bigger than our challenges, didn't have a Gemara saying הבא ליטהר מסייעין אותו but in a moment that he believed in himself, he was able to change the impossible. As we prepare now for the Day of Judgment, if I could humbly suggest that when we face a challenge, when we find a situation not just intimidating, but overwhelming, let us look in ourselves, let us look and see not death, but see life. Look in the mirror and see a person that's bigger than the challenge. I don't have to go to that party. I don't have to go to that show. Let us see a future, because we're going to teach Klal Yisroel ourselves that the matter depends on nothing other than myself. And we’ll enjoy a moment that we could say, There is one who acquires his Olam Haba in one moment.