{"id":784,"date":"2021-05-31T16:17:15","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T19:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/wordpress\/?p=784"},"modified":"2021-05-31T16:17:15","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T19:17:15","slug":"to-do-the-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/2021\/05\/31\/to-do-the-impossible\/","title":{"rendered":"TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

             (Courtesy: Rabbi Label Lam – Torah.org)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When you go out to war against your enemy and HASHEM your G-d will give him into you your hand\u2026\u201d (Devarim 21:10)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Torah is only speaking against the negative inclination. (Rashi) \u201cWage war with strategies.\u201d (Mishlei 20:18)
There are seven names for the negative inclination\u2026 King Salomon called him \u201cenemy\u201d (Sukkah 52A). How does one do battle against his real enemy, his own negative inclination? There are too many strategies to name all but let us consider at least one practical approach. Recorded in Meorot HaGedolim is the following observation from Nathan Tzvi Finkel ztl., the Alter from Slobodka, one of the truly great teachers of all time: In my youth in Vilna I saw a vendor standing in the market place selling beans. For some reason she got angry at her competitor and began to abuse her loudly. Her wrath increased until she foamed at the mouth and became drenched with sweat. At the peak of her rage, a customer approached her table and asked for a penny\u2019s worth of beans. In an instant, the vendor underwent an amazing transformation. Her face beamed. Her lips curled into a smile, and she graciously turned to wait on her customer. \u201cThis teaches us a great secret of the human personality. A mere penny has the power has the power to change a person from one extreme to another and to make him control his stormiest emotions. This is something no amount of wisdom can accomplish. If a penny can do it, so can praise, a compliment, even a smile, or a polite word, win people\u2019s hearts and dispel their wickedness. This is not the end of the story\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the customer had paid the penny for the beans, she started to thank him for his kindness and to heap blessings on him, his wife, children, and grandchildren. \u201cFrom here, we see that not only can a penny cause a person to control his bad midot-traits, it can transform him into a fountain of love and kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can the tool of a few pennies or dollars be employed to conquer our selves?
I believe the story is attributed to Reb Levi Yitzchak from Berditchov tzl. He had been working on himself in a private setting trying to overcome some issue on whatever high level he was struggling when he resigned to accept that it was not possible to change. Immediately afterward he stepped out<\/p>\n\n\n\n

into the street where he witnessed an argument between a wagon driver and a store owner. The store owner wanted the wagon driver to unload the goods into his store. The driver insisted, \u201cI can\u2019t!\u201d The store owner barked back. \u201cIt\u2019s not that you can\u2019t! It\u2019s that you don\u2019t want to!\u201d The fight went on just like but with ever increasing intensity and volume. \u201cI can\u2019t!\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s not that you can\u2019t! It\u2019s that you don\u2019t want to!\u201d Then something happened. The store owner quietly reached into his pocket and waved a few bills and said, \u201cWhat if I offered you 50 zlotas? Would you be able to?\u201d The wagon driver answered soberly, \u201cI\u2019ll give it try.\u201d Reb Levi Yitzchak marveled that the wagon driver was indeed then quite capable of doing the job. It was not that he was not able it really was because he did not really want to. He also understood that that incident played out before his eyes, was to instruct him about his own circumstance. If he could only meditate on and deeply realize the true value of the accomplishment at hand then he could gain enough power leverage himself to do the impossible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

             (Courtesy: Rabbi Label Lam – Torah.org) When you go out to war against your enemy and HASHEM your G-d will give him into you your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":785,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions\/785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}