Today is not Yesterday | Rabbi Aryeh Cohen

Have you ever thought about why it is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created a world where we need to go to sleep at night? Of course, that's what we're used to and without it, we wouldn't have the rest to be able to have a productive day. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu could have created the day without the need to sleep. And imagine all of that time, how much more Torah we could learn, how much more Chesed we could do, how much more time we could have with our children, with our family, with our friends. The truth is of the greatest downfalls of humanity is that very often we hold on to our past. A person looks at something that's inappropriate, a person gives in to their Yetzer Hara, gives in to their temptations, and often it stays with us. And we start to label ourselves. That's who we are. I'm a person that looks at this. I'm a person that doesn't have the self-control. And if we wouldn't go to sleep at night, all of life would be one continuous day and it would be very difficult to let go of the past. It would be very difficult to move on. By going to sleep at night, by waking up in the morning, every morning there's התחדשות, there's renewal. It's a new day. It's a new world. It's a new life. My past is in the past. I'm not connected to what was. I can believe in the opportunity to be strong today, to not give in to my Yetzer Hara, to have self-control, to have the most incredible Shmiras Einayim today. It doesn't matter that I fell yesterday. There's a Medrash about Avraham Avinu, that he sits by the gates of Gehenom, And any Yid that falls into Gehenom, he'll pull out, if he has a Bris Milah. Unless that Yid sins יותר מדיי. What does that mean יותר מדיי? Translated as ‘more than enough’. What does that mean? So if a person looks at something inappropriate 50 times that’s יותר מדיי and Avraham won’t save him? 100 times? What number? What is that number? What is יותר מדיי? Hakadosh Baruch Hu is always waiting for us to do Teshuva. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is waiting with open arms to hug us when we're ready to pick ourselves up. A righteous person falls seven times and rises again. We always could get back up. יותר מדיי is not a number. It doesn't mean that I've fallen too many times. The heiliger Yismach Yisroel explains that you know what יותר מדיי means? It means that I don't believe in myself. It means that I've sinned, I've done something wrong, I've looked at something inappropriate, and I don't believe in myself. I don't believe that I can grow, I don't believe that I can improve, I don't believe of התחדשות, of a new beginning. By waking up in the morning, Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us a present, that every day is a new world, is a new opportunity, and again, I could believe in myself. The past is in the past. When I was in Eretz Yisroel, during Shovavim this year, I met with Rebbi U’mori, the Shvilei Pinchas, R’ Pinchas Friedman shlit”a, and I asked him: Rebbi, Share with me an Eitzah that I could share with my Talmidim in regards to Shmiras Einayim, something precious. He said: Tell them that every day when they wake up, they have to believe that it's a new day, a new world, and the past is in the past. If we could believe in ourselves, we wake up every morning and know that yesterday is not today. We have all the opportunity in the world to grow, to be one with Hashem, and live the life that Hashem wants us to. Today is not yesterday.