Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin from Salant, known as Rav Yisrael Salanter, was the founder of the Mussar movement. He held that it was vital to put away time to work on one’s personal straits and bringing them closer to perfection. He included it in the curriculum of the Yeshiva. The Mussar movement had a lot of opposition from great Rabbanim who didn't see the need to spend so much time outside the regular Torah study.
In order to convince his ideal, Rav Yisrael Salanter traveled from town to town and gave Shiurei Torah in the Yeshivos proving his profound Torah knowledge and thus being able to convince Talmidei Chachamim to spend time studying Mussar.
He would come to a town, hang a sign in the main Beis Hamedrash stating that he would give a shiur - Torah discourse in a couple of days. He would write the topic of the Shiur and there would be a list of twenty or thirty references from Gemarah, Rishonim and Poskim, giving the local Talmidei Chachamim time to prepare the topic that they would be able to be follow his shiur. Without preparation, they might not be able to follow along with his questions, may not understand the depth of his answers and the greatness of his explanation. After proper preparation, the Torah scholars could truly appreciate the depth of the shiur and his greatness. In this way Rabbi Yisrael Salanter could then continue to convince his listeners the importance of studying Mussar.
On one of his trips he hung up a sign and went back to his lodgings. In the meantime, two Avreichim who were opponents of the Mussar movement decided to play a game on him that would bring his downfall in their town. They took down the references and replaced them with a new list of references out of their imagination that had no connection to one another, but far worse, nothing close to the original list.
The local Talmidei Chachamim looked at the topic and the references but couldn't understand the connection between the topic and the strange references. Even so they studied the references and awaited the shiur.
Rav Yisrael Salanter came to the Beis Hamedrash, ascended the steps to the Aron Hakodesh and asked for the list of references. He gave a look at the list and turned white. The two young men who had changed the list were smiling, sure they had achieved their goal. Rav Yisrael would leave the town in shame and the Mussar movement would have a downfall.
After a couple of minutes of silence Rav Yisrael Salanter started his shiur. "Dear listeners, the topic I am to talk about today is a famous one, which is why the references are not the standard ones." And with that, he continued to speak for three hours giving a profound genius lecture encompassing all the non-relevant references, and using them to build the most astounding shiur.
The listeners were amazed, such a genius shiur they hadn't expected. They were sure that Rabbi Yisrael Salanter had prepared this shiur up front. But as the shiur continued, the two brazen scholars paled. They realized that they had insulted one of the greatest Geonim of their generation.
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter finished his shiur and fainted. Everyone was in a state of shock. But the two scholars knew that they were the cause of him going thru such pressure and strain the last hours giving a discourse unprepared.
When he recovered a little, they came to ask his forgiveness. Rav Yisrael gave an amazing rely. "For what you did, you surely need to ask for forgiveness. But don't think that is why I fainted. I will tell you the real reason why I fainted. Hashem doesn't give out talents as gifts to anyone. Hashem gives every person their tasks and gives them the tools to fulfill and complete those tasks. If a person is wealthy, it is in order that they can support the poor and honor Hashem with his money. If someone is a singer, it is so he can honor Hashem with his beautiful voice. Every talent is given to a person to utilize it to fulfil their task. I knew” said Rav Yisrael, “that I have the potential and talent of a thousand standard scholars and therefore I knew what was expected from me. However, today I saw that I am much more talented than I thought, to be able in a moment, to put together such a shiur, unprepared, is the potential of ten thousand ordinary people. I then realized I haven't been maximizing my potential to that of a ten thousand people. When I arrive at the Heavenly Court and I am asked why didn't you maximize your true potential what will I reply? That's why I fainted."
The Lesson from Noach and the Power of Prayer
In the Zohar from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, it says the the Mabul - the flood in the days of Noach is named after Noach and is called "mei Noach" - the waters of Noach. Noach is blamed for the Mabul.
Why?
Since Noach didn't pray to save his generation, they perished in the flood.
One hundred and twenty years, Noach spent building the Teiva. Not one person other than his family joined him or took his threats seriously. How was Noach meant to know that if he would have prayed the whole world would have been saved?
But his prayers would have made the difference, even though he never realized. But since the world perished, it is documented that he was to blame.
We may not have the talents of a thousand or ten thousand people. But are we aware of our own amazing talents and potential?
Do we have any clue when each and every one of us were to put in a sincere prayer, how many lives we could save?
The Gemarah in Nedarim (40.) says that someone who visits a sick person - Bikur Cholim, causes him to live, and someone who doesn't visit the sick causes them to die.
Why?
When a person visits sick people he has pity on them and prays for their recovery. If he doesn't visit them, he doesn't see the true situation so his feelings aren't so aroused. Even if he prays at home, it doesn't have the same sincerity, so the person never recovered.
We are all blessed with the amazing talents and potential. We all have the ability to pray from the depths of our hearts to Hashem to have mercy on us! We all have the ability to give more charity as Chazal say 'Tzedaka tazil memaves' - charity saves from death.
