Sacrificing the Animal Within | Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer

The most intense and holy moment of Yomim Nora’im is Ne’ilah. The moment that the Ribono shel Olam is about to close the gates. Last opportunity we have to grab on and return and do Teshuva. It's the culmination of Elul, Rosh Hashanah, עשרת ימי תשובה, and Yom Kippur. When it comes to Ne’ilah, what's going to be your zchus? How are you going to affect a change to be sealed in the Sefer HaChaim, in the Book of Life? We have a Talmid from BJX, a young man, who's a lifeguard on one of the beaches in Brooklyn. You have to understand, Brooklyn is not Eretz Yisroel. We don't have separate beaches. This fellow grew up totally secular. He came to us, he learned, he grew, he changed. And he says to me one day, I think I'm giving up my job. I said: What? Really? He needs the money. He's been exposed to the most inappropriate things in the world, growing up. I said: You’re giving up your job? He says: Yeah. I need Kedushah, Shmiras Einayim. I said: You're sacrificing so much. He said: Is there too much to sacrifice for Hashem? When it comes to Ne’ilah, what are you going to sacrifice? The pasuk says, When a person gives a sacrifice to Hashem from the animals, from the cattle and from the sheep. Asks the Be’er Mayim Chaim an astounding question, he says: There's two redundancies here. When a person brings from himself, he's bringing his animals, so obviously he's bringing from himself. It's his resources, it's his provisions. Second of all, why does it have to say מן הבהמה? It specifies, it says you're bringing from your cattle or your sheep, so why the generalization? Why does it say מן הבהמה? Answers the heiliger Be’er Mayim Chaim, he says: The ultimate sacrifice is not bringing your animals, is not bringing from your money. The ultimate sacrifice is when you're giving from yourself, מן הבהמה, from the animal inside of you. We all have a נפש בהמית, we all have animal instincts, we all have an animal impulse. God, more than your animals, more than your money, He wants you. He wants you to take that desire, He wants you to take that impulse, He wants you to take that temptation, He wants you to take that opportunity to look at something and say: No, I will not look. That is the sacrifice that He's looking for. From the animal that resides in you. When you go to Ne’ilah, think about the lifeguard from BJX, think about that student who grew up secular, who was willing to give up a job, his income, because he said: I don't want to look at something inappropriate. He's giving מכם, he's giving from himself. He's giving מן הבהמה, he’s giving the animal inside. Could you give from the animal inside of you, at Ne’ilah, just when the gates are closing, just when it's the last opportunity, the last chance, and you’re going to say to Hashem, I want a zchus, I want a merit. I am giving up that animal inside. I will not look. And then B’ezras Hashem, you'll be inscribed, sealed, in the Sefer HaChaim, in the Book of Life.