As has been explained many times here, we’re in this world only as a preparation for our station in the Next World. This world is a vestibule before the World to Come, a lobby where you have the opportunity to prepare yourself, in order that you should enter the banquet hall (Avos 4:16). The banquet hall of Olam Haba; that’s what we’re aiming for all the days of our lives.
Now, included in this world of preparation is the principle of nisayon, being tested. That’s a fundamental teaching laid down at the beginning of Mesillas Yesharim: Everything in this world was made for the purpose of testing man. It’s a good idea to memorize those words and repeat them to yourselves from time to time because it’s a statement that is intended to explain all the phenomena of this world.
The word ‘test’, however, has a broader meaning than what most people think because nisayon, test, comes from the word nes, a banner – it’s related to the word naso, to lift up. And that means that the purpose of the test is to elevate you, to make you better. How do we become better people, more worthy of Olam Haba? Primarily by being tested in various ways and elevating ourselves by means of our struggles and successes.
A History of Opponents
Now, included in the nisyonos of this world is that we have various opponents, enemies and adversaries, who were put here in this world for the purpose of testing us. The history of our nation is a history of facing opposition; all types of ideologies and nations and movements and ideals that test our emunah, our loyalty to Hashem.
In ancient times we were faced by the fact that all of mankind worshiped idols. Everyone around us implicitly believed in avodah zarah and there were thousands of people who claimed they were sick, baalei mumim, all kinds of other troubles, and when they went to the shrines of the idol they came out healed. People who walked in on crutches came out dancing.
All over the world similar stories were told and it became extremely difficult to resist that temptation. Even for the maamin in Hakadosh Baruch Hu it was a test; there were many foolish people who said, “Certainly we believe in Hashem but from time to time it pays to make use of avodah zarah in certain areas when we need help.”
Frum Akums
They didn’t chas v’shalom become meshumadim. They were still loyal to Hakadosh Baruch Hu – they were all shomrei Shabbos, they all kept kashrus and even kept the laws of tumah v’taharah that we don’t keep today – but they made the error of utilizing what they thought was an opportunity to help themselves.
Let’s say he wanted a refuah for a certain malady, a certain illness. So he went to this-and-this priest of avodah zarah – he paid him a nice price of course; the priest didn’t do it for nothing – and the priest made certain obeisances. He bowed down and he offered incense before his idol and he said, “That’s going to help you.” It was a tremendous yetzer hara and for many years avodah zarah remained a thorn in the side of our nation.
And yet we look back now and we understand that it was one big test – and the majority of the people withstood that nisayon and were zocheh to excellence just because of that. And they’re in Olam Haba now enjoying the reward for that nisayon that they had to endure, the opponent that they used as a ladder to climb towards greatness.
New Days, New Tests
As time passed the test was changed. Because idolatry evolved into world religions and for the past more than a thousand years Christianity and Islam have to some extent been a test of our emunah.
Now anybody who knows the subject will laugh at that. That’s a test? An ignorant meshugene who was alone in his tent smoking hashish and hearing voices. It’s as silly as can be!
The whole thing is such a shtus! Anybody who looks in the Koran or the New Testament sees right away how ridiculous the whole thing is; they’re both silly books from beginning to end. But still it was a test because the gentile religions spread across the world and their libraries are full of ‘learned’ works explaining how the arguments for their religion are true and until recently it made a tremendous impression.
Today they don't have the effect anymore because evolution took over; but up until a certain time – because they were so powerful and so many – it had a tremendous influence in the world. And some of our people, ignorami, weaklings, were persuaded and went lost. We had meshumadim in Europe, people who bowed before the opponent and went lost.
Islamic Terror
In the Arab countries too; there was a time when in Teiman there was a gezeiras hashmad – they terrorized the Jews – and there were those who folded. That’s why they wrote to the Rambam for his help, his advice. That’s when he wrote his famous Iggeres Teiman, to encourage them against the opponent of Islam.
And the truth is, even in more recent times there have been some Jews who lived in their countries who were persuaded by them to go over to their religion. Even to this day, in Medinas Yisroel, there are Jewish girls who marry Arabs.
In fact, the religions were a test for us in other ways as well. We had to suffer the laws that they made against us for hundreds of years, the persecutions and ridicule and scorn that they showered upon us. For centuries they have called us every name. Look in the selichos. They called us kelev. They called us everything else. They killed us too. Jews were always in physical danger in Christian Europe and in the Mohammaden countries. We were always standing on a powder keg.
And yet, to a very great extent, ruba d’ruba of the nation passed the test. There were a few Jews, meshumadim, who sold their souls in order to get glory among the gentiles but Klal Yisroel passed the test. And we acquired more Olam Haba by means of that; by means of resisting – not only resisting but ridiculing – the wiles of these powerful religions. The gentile religions were a great opponent but the nation of Hashem was up to the task.
Test of Tolerance
And then came the time of ‘enlightenment’ – a different type of test, the test of tolerance. Hakadosh Baruch Hu saw that we had passed the test of oppression; that despite all the tzaros, despite all the hatred and oppression, we remained loyal. And so He tested us in a different way.
It was a bitter test and very many went away. But the loyal ones preferred to remain stuck in the crowded ghetto with its narrow little streets, with its difficulties of making a living. And even among those who left the ghetto, there were opportunities for greatness.
I always give the example of the Jews in Germany. When there was so much assimilation a number of German Jews decided that they were going to fight for the preservation of the Torah. And they built up an Orthodox kehillah that was excellent in every detail.
They were machmir in everything; in some respects they were more frum than the Jews in Russia and Poland were. They organized kashrus, strict hashgacha; not rabbanim who gave hechsherim and were paid for it. No. The kehillas gave hashgacha; and they were very strict on every detail. The German kehilla, the strong ones who withstood the test, became great because of that. Those that remained loyal, they were a glorious example of the am kadosh, who knew that this world is only a hallway before the Next World.
The Government Tests
Now, today we face another great opponent, a very powerful opponent and that is the academicians, the scientists. I prefer to call them the ‘evolutionists’, the ‘materialists’. Now actually evolution is as silly as could be. Anybody who studies the subject well knows there's nothing at all to back up anything. On the contrary, there are very many big questions that cannot be answered according to their theory. It's a theory full of holes and lies; thousands of falsifications.
But today this opponent has unleashed all of its weapons in a massive attack on belief in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Today, the entire civilized world has been employed by this opponent. All the colleges teach evolution. All the press teaches evolution. Even the government has been employed by the yetzer hara; like it says in Mesichta Sota (49b), the government itself becomes minus. The government is spending billions of dollars – our dollars – trying to demonstrate that the world happened by itself.
Elevated By Evolution
The courts too; judges have given verdicts in favor of evolution. Evolution has to be preached in all the schools but to teach there’s a Borei? It’s forbidden by federal law to speak of the Creator. It’s a meshugas! The whole world, meshugoyim!
But like all of our opponents, this is also a test made for our benefit. It’s a pattern of history, of Hashem’s Hand in history. The goyim come along and are metamei the world with all kinds of false ideas and we turn our backs on them. Whatever they throw our way, we remain loyal to the Torah.
Today, it’s even worse – they want to poison even the little children with the worst ideas; all types of immorality and hefkeirus they want to ruin us with. And still, the Am Yisroel fights back with all their koach against them. And by standing with a stiff backbone against all these opponents, we are elevated. By passing these tests we become greater and greater.
