064 Tanya Shvat 23 ~ m072 Adar I, 3
Questions for today:
Is my frustration from the faults that I am constantly working on praiseworthy, or, am I imagining myself in a league where I’ve retired from playing -inaccurately
A child is explaining to his mother why he was cut from the team; he says it was because of jealousy. “You know you tell Dad that the head coach always looks like he's doing nothing, with his hands in his pockets? Well, everyone was thinking that I look exactly like the head coach!”
One of the most frustrating things in life is the constant struggle. We have a great productive day, and the next day we're again fighting to hold back from pressing the snooze button. Or, we know the importance of acting like a mentch, but we feel an urge to write a really insulting comment on Facebook.
Tanya today reminds us that the struggle is not coming because of a weakness, rather it's in the game plan. Consider a defensive tackle wrestling in a scrimmage. The struggling of players is what thrills the audience and brings them to the game.
The audience to our challenges is G-d; our engaging in the struggle is a source for the Creator’s excitement.
If however, a person thinks to themselves that they shouldn't be fighting, it's not because he is so holy and upset about the fact that he has a weakness. Rather, maybe he has a little bit too much of an inflated opinion of himself, and thinks that he is supposed to be the head coach.
Tanya book 1, ch27 pt 1
A powerful deterrent to action is our frustration and self-deprecation from our constant struggle.
Like a star sports player, challenge is an opportunity, not a weakness.
Additionally, our disappointment at having inner struggles is not a result of piety, but rather an inaccurate self-awareness.
Study today’s Tanya in full:
https://www.chabadmed.com/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tdate=2/4/2022
See today’s video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRubu-Wftg&list=PLFZQPK6u-zSBls9Hwx3P5vKIBRnjBvHe&index=65