Tefillah - 092 Overcoming Our Struggles

Hashem Will Gather Us Together – In The World, and On A Personal Level

 "מקבץ נדחי עמו ישראל" – we conclude the blessing of  השיבנו in Shemoneh Esrei with a prayer from Hashem that He gather all the dispersed of Israel, even those who are of the “nidchei Yisrael” – those who are distant from Judaism. In the writings of the Prophets, there are also verses which state that Hashem will bring all Jewish souls back with the Redemption, even those who become separated completely from Yiddishkeit. The prophet says that whether they are in Egypt or in Assyria, Hashem will gather them all together and bring them back.

This is true regarding the physical dimension, in which Hashem will bring back Jews from all over the world. But there is also a deeper understanding of this matter that Hashem will gather all the nidchei Yisrael together, which affects us on a personal soul level: Hashem will help those who feel like they have become separated from Judaism – that they will be inspired to do teshuvah and return.

In our own souls, we can feel like we are alienated from our own mesorah (tradition). It is not only the Jews scattered around the world who will return; it takes place as well in the dimension in our soul – that we, too, can feel inside as if we have separated from the fold of genuine Judaism. Yet Hashem can bring us back.

It is not only in the future that we will all return. Even now, we ask Hashem to bring back the dispersed. It is a concept concerning the future, but it can be applied to even nowadays.

This is not just because we must daven that Hashem should return all Jews who are currently ignorant of their Judaism. It is because all of us, in our own souls, can feel like we have separated from the mesorah and that we are distanced from the right way of living.

Many Jews are returning to Judaism nowadays, and this is all because of the guarantee stated by the prophet, that Hashem will gather the dispersed. Of course, all baalei teshuvah are returning due to their own free will, but ultimately it is being enabled by the “light” of Hashem, Who shows them the light and gathers them together.

Three Parts In Ourselves: Aspiration, Hopelessness, and Absolute Hopelessness

Each person, generally speaking, can feel three parts active inside himself:

There is a part of ourselves that seeks spiritual growth; we feel elated and the wish to ascend higher in spirituality. This might be about our Torah learning, our davening, our mitzvos, etc.

There is also another part in ourselves, however, in which we feel that we are hopeless. We feel that there are certain areas of our life in which we have no hope in improving in. We have stopped believing that we can change when it comes to certain parts of our life.

There is a third part of ourselves which feels that there are certain parts to our life in which we were hopeless in since we were born. We feel that this is how we were born, this is how we were raised, this is our nature, and that we can’t change, or that it’s too hard to change those areas. We feel that it is simply impossible for us to change the nature that we were born with, when it comes to those certain weak areas of our life.

As we pointed out before, when we say in Shemoneh Esrei that Hashem gathers the dispersed, it is not simply referring to how He gathers Jews from all over the world to do teshuvah. It applies to each of us, in our own soul, that there are parts in us which we feel are beyond hope. Hashem can help us improve even those “hopeless” areas of our life where we have “given up”. It is not only in the future that Hashem will remove all evil from our souls. Hashem can do it even now, even if we never reach the Redemption - and remove all the evil that we have in ourselves.

The Purpose of Our Failures

When a person thinks that he cannot overcome his struggles in Yiddishkeit, and he gives up, the truth is that he’s right for feeling that it’s so hard. But he still has a misconception. He doesn’t realize that it is only Hashem who can help him! He thinks it’s all up to him, while in reality, it is not. It is only with Hashem’s help that we can overcome anything!

Failures teach us that it is only Hashem who can help us overcome things. If not for failures, we would think that it’s up to us to change ourselves, and that it’s all from our own power. In reality, all victory can only come from Hashem.

So the mistake that people make is not that they feel like they can’t overcome a struggle. For that, people are right. The mistake that people are making is that they feel like there is no way to succeed. This is not true, because they can succeed. If we receive help from Hashem, then we have the power to overcome any struggle in the world.

We must realize that our successes – and our failures –are not due to our own power. The only way to succeed is if Hashem helps us. All we have to do is turn to Him and ask Him for help. If someone thinks that it is he who overcomes his evil inclination, this resembles idol worship, because he thinks he doesn’t need Hashem in his life, and instead he thinks he’s in control.

A person must not give up hope. He should instead place His trust in the Creator. We must draw our confidence not from ourselves, but from our trust in Hashem. If we rely on our own strength and power, then indeed, we have no hope. But if we realize that our strength can only come from Hashem, we will be able to succeed, in anything.

There is no such thing as a person being in control of his “hatzlacha” (success). It is not up to us. This is the depth of the power of humility – we must realize that successes are not up to us. “If not for Hashem helping, we wouldn’t be able to overcome the evil inclination.”

Attributing Our Success To Hashem

When this is the outlook on life – when it penetrates into his heart – he can realize that it is Hashem who brought him to any success in life.

When he feels successful in his learning – if he knows the Gemara well, or if he is zoche to write chiddushim - he should realize that it is only Hashem who lets him have any success in learning, and it is not due to his intellectual abilities. When he has a feel for davening, he should realize that it is only because Hashem allows him to enjoy davening; it is not because he naturally has the power to have a good davening. It’s all a gift from Hashem, and one must realize this. One must never attribute any success in his life to his own accomplishments.

This is the power of our inner emunah: we can do nothing on our own. Our souls revolve around this basic concept. It is only Hashem Who can do anything; only Hashem allows our soul’s light to be shined.

How To Stop Feeling Helpless

This is especially relevant to our current generation, in which there is so much impurity in the world, and it is even clearer to us more than ever that we can only overcome the evil surrounding us if we enlist in Hashem’s help. People nowadays are weak in spirituality and are in great need of inspiration.

On one hand, a person is very tempted to feel, “What can I do? There is yeridas hadoros (spiritual descent of the generations). There is too much evil nowadays; it’s impossible to overcome it.” When a person feels like this, he gives up totally from reaching any holiness. This is not the attitude which we should have.

The truth is that it is indeed impossible, from our own strength, to overcome the evil going on today. But herein lays the key. We need to realize that we indeed cannot overcome the evil we are surrounded with today. It’s a war that cannot be won with human strength. What we need is Hashem to help us. Our holy Avos couldn’t either overcome the evil in the world; but they turned to Hashem for help, for they realized they could not do it on their own.

Hashem is inside us - in our heart, in our thoughts, and in our senses; He really fills our entire existence. We have to realize that He is inside us, and that He can fight our wars for us. We must feel that He is inside us, to realize that as hard as we try, it is still not up to us to win; we are ultimately dependent on Hashem. When a person doesn’t turn to Hashem for help, though, he will indeed feel hopeless.

In Conclusion

It is not meant here that a person should take extreme measures in order to overcome his struggles. Rather, a person should try to overcome evil, as much as he can – not in an extreme way – and at the same time, to realize that only Hashem can allow him to win over any struggle.

May we merit to overcome our struggles and to try as hard as we can, at the same time realizing that success can only come from Hashem, and not from our own strength and power.[1]