Part III. The Extremist is Quiet
Developing Desire
Now, the question is how do we accomplish that? After all, what we’re learning here tonight about Avraham’s desire for greatness and his keeping away from Malkitzedek in order that it shouldn't cramp his style – and about Rivka too, about her strength of character – it’s not intended to be just a story, something that we read and forget about. These are the Avos and Imahos, our models, the ones we want to emulate. And so we need to know what and how.
Number one is that you have to develop a desire for greatness, a desire to excel. There’s a fire, an eish shel Shamayim in all of us – the drive for shleimus, for perfection, is a fire that Hashem kindled in the human soul and we have to constantly stoke that fire: “I wish to get better! I wish to be great!”
Like it was said about a great man, 'י≈כ¿רַ„¿ ב ֹו בƒל הַ יַו ה – his heart became proud in the ways of Hashem (Divrei Hayamim II 17:6). Proud? Gaavah? The answer is he had the instinct for greatness. “Hashem put me here to become great, to become the best that I can be, and therefore I’m going to do it. Not the pshat that I’m going to belittle other people, that I’m going to try to make them smaller than I am. No, chas v’shalom. I want everyone to be great too. But I’m not going to let myself get lost in the herd, among people who are satisfied with being a plain Orthodox Jew. I want shleimus!”
Don’t Be a Nobody
I once told this to a frum Jew. He said “Shleimus?! To become greater? What about serving Hashem lishmah, leshem shamayim? You're going to run after shleimus, after your own perfection?!” He was upset at me.
