Meriting the Impossible | Rabbi Fischel Schachter

So the Tchebiner Rav was one of the great Ge’onim of our times. And they see him Shabbos afternoon learning with a little boy. Okay. They said to the Tchebiner Rav, What happened? Didn't want to say, but they asked the kid. It turned out what happened was like this. This kid is... I don't want to use the word Smart Aleck, but let's say he was intellectually, um... not challenged, but he challenged everyone else. And the Rebbe said: Okay, there's going to be a test after Shabbos. And the little boy said, I can't take the test because my father is not home. I have no one to chazer, to review the studies with me. And the Rebbe said: You're responsible for the work. I don't have anyone to review it with me. And the Rebbe said: Go to the rabbi of the town. You have to know. So even though the Rebbe, of course, said that rhetorically, he banged on the Tchebiner Rav’s door. And the great Gadol HaDor opened up, and he said: Can you learn with me? My Rebbe said I should go to the rabbi of the town. You're the rabbi of Klal Yisroel, so why not? So the Tchebiner Rav realized the Rebbe said it rhetorically and he was about to tell this kid: You know, it's Shabbos afternoon and... and then, the Tchebiner Rav said, Never in my life did it ever happen that someone asked me to learn with him and I said no. I said: Okay. Come, little boy. We'll sit down to learn. And they learned פרק הכונס. And the Tchebiner Rav said: You know how many times I learned פרק הכונס? As many hairs as there are in my beard, that's how many times I learned it. But the Chiddushim, the insights, I merited, I was zoche to I never had before in my life. Because when you're really down and out and you're having a rough time and you want to say: Get out! and instead you say: Come in, you merit things that you never ever had before in your life. And the same is true conversely. When the Yetzer Hara is there and he wants to come in and you say: Stay out, then you merit things that you never had before, never ever had before in your life. So there's a story that there was this person that the Ganav of the town came to him and said: I'm dying, I'm dying of hunger. Well, you stole everything from everyone else. There's no one left to steal from. Therefore, I'm going to die of hunger? -Yeah. But one Yid said, Nah, nah, nah, I can't let someone die of hunger. It’s his fault, he’s a... Look at this person, he’s... I can't let him die of hunger. And he supported him for years and years, because he didn't have... He retired. He couldn't climb up, you know, to the second story, anymore. Both of them died simultaneously. And the way the story goes is they’re in Shomayim and the one who supported him is standing over there. They put his Mitzvos on one side of the scale, the Aveiros on the other side of the scale. Aveiros are coming down and down. They say: Okay. And he goes: No, no, why didn’t I do Teshuva in my lifetime? Why couldn’t I do more Mitzvos? They say: So-and-so, straight to Gan Eden! What? But I... What happened to my Aveiros? The Ganav standing behind you, he stole them. You committed yourself to the Ganav, he can help you. Those moments that you feel, I can't do this, and you say: It doesn't make sense. This is an impossible situation, but I'm going to close my eyes in impossible situations, then Hashem does impossible things for you.