The Greater the Opposition | Rabbi Sadya Grama

In Parshas Achrei Mos the pasuk says, After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein you dwelt, you shall not do, and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, you shall not do. And Rashi over there says, Why is it mentioned in the pasuk only Eretz Mitzrayim and Eretz Canaan? Because the deeds of the Egytians and the Canaanites are worse than all. Always where Yidden live ended up being the worst places מצד the morality of the society that they're living in. And this is not only then, this is בכל דור ודור, because where Bnei Yisroel are, always the society is on the lowest level, the biggest Nisyonos are there. R’ Yeruchom says that this is actually a fact throughout history. And he explains that this is the מציאות in the בריאה. Wherever there is Kedushah, Klal Yisroel move in, the Kedushah is being performed, there is Torah, there is Mitzvos, there is מלחמת היצר, דווקא over there, the צד הטומאה is so frightened, and that's why it's דווקא מתגבר more and more and become stronger and makes the Nisyonos even greater. According to that, if we want to understand how much Kedushah there is in Klal Yisroel, we should just be aware of how much טומאה there is around, and that shows how much Kedushah there is. That means that there hasn’t been a דור of so much Kedushah in Klal Yisroel, because there hasn’t been a דור of so much טומאה in the world. In this תקופה of עקבתא דמשיחא, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives רשות to the צד הטומאה to start up with us. And what do we do? We fight back. And then the טומאה is מתגבר even more, and then we fight back. And it's a constant struggle. It's a מלחמה. Based on our מדרגה of Nisyonos that we withstand, the Kedushah that we put into the בריאה, that's how much טומאה there is. No other דור before had so many Nisyonos in טומאה, and that shows how much Kedushah there is in the דור, that shows how much our value is. The Chofetz Chaim writes, It is found in the holy books, that one who triumphs over his inclination in a matter of ערוה, he merits to have a great light shining on his head from above. And in the earlier generations they were able to see it. But there is a special light that shines from one's head all the way עד לשמיים, a special אור הקדושה when someone is מתגבר על יצרו בדבר ערוה. I have no ספק that in our days there are thousands and thousands of Ehrliche Yidden who are walking around with this אור from their head עד לשמיים, from the Nisyonos constantly that we are being מתגבר on. Rav Shimshon Pincus writes that the דור של משיח will have to stand in such big Nisyonos that never happened before, where there's going to be opportunities of falling into כל דבר אסור, just by עיניים, just by seeing things that we shouldn't see. The Nisyonos are going to be tremendous. And this אור בדווקא is what's going to bring Moshiach. We shouldn't underestimate our tremendous מדרגה, how valuable it is. Every little Nisayon that we fight, the tremendous Kedushah and קידוש שם שמיים that we are bringing into the world, every Nisayon that we control ourselves.