Strike Back


“Hashem is with us in all of our downfalls and He supports us in rising again.  Hashem is with us even in the worst moments, even if we are very distant, He is perpetually ready to receive us. A person stands in the midst of davening and daydreams and suddenly catches himself.  How do his tefillos appear?  Is there any purpose in invigorating the last brachos when the entire tefilla was a summer daydream, filled with foreign thoughts?  But, Hashem does not consider things this way.  Even with the final word, He waits for us to revive ourselves, to return to Him.

The Chofetz Chaim said, If he [the yetzer hora] snatched the bracha of Atah Chonein from you, seize back the bracha of Hashiveinu, and if he snags the bracha of S’lach Lanu from you, once again take back the bracha of Re’ei Na Vianiainu and so on.  Of primary importance is to never give up and just accept our situation, rather we must continue to strike back and grab another proper intention, another good thought, until the last word.” ~ Rav Menachem Azolai as translated by Dov Elias

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2 Responses to Strike Back

  1. Noach Peled says:

    Just because we are far from doing it all does not me we should do nothing.

    It can be likened to that which they had years ago on “The Price is Right”. There was this small all-glass booth with one or several powerful fans inside. The contestant would step inside, the door would be shut, and the fans would blow. Bills of cash would be poured in of every denomination – 1’s, 5’s, 10’s, 20’s, 50’s, and even 100’s. Cold, hard cash. “Grab ’em!!” the contestant was told.

    Naturally it was quite difficult to get any as the fans were moving everything about, but that didn’t stop anybody. Each and every contestant who ever entered that thing tried their very best to get whatever they could. I don’t believe there was ever even 1 contestant who just stood there idle saying “well, since I won’t get ’em all, I’m not even gonna try”.

    Its not all-or-nothing in this world.

    How much more so should this be our attitude about what we will have in the next world.

    Mar Shmuel said to Rav Yehuda (Eruvin 54a): “Grab and eat, grab and drink because we’re going to leave this world, which is similar to a huge feast!”

    This world is like a huge shmorg of mitzvas. Grab what you can.

  2. Jeremy says:

    Yasher Koach. Good mashul and great quote from Eruvin. ill have to save that one for another day.

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