Avraham returned to his youths, and they got up and went together to Beer Sheva (Bereishis 22:19)
Avraham went “together” with his youths, implying that he was equal to them, on the same madreigah. But this is Avraham after the Akeidah. He is equal to his young assistants?!
The truth is that when Avraham came back from the Akeidah, he felt disappointed. He felt that he did not attain the madreigah he should have. Avraham so wanted to sacrifice his son for the sake of Hashem’s great Name. He so desired to show that his love for Hashem is above all. But it didn’t work out; the angel stopped him from carrying through with it.
Avraham felt that he had lost out. He could have sacrificed Yitzchak, but Yitzchak is right here, alive and well. True, Avraham received promises from Hashem, but he did not merit performing the Akeidah as he could and should have. That’s how he felt.
So Hashem said to him, so to speak: That’s how you look at it. But as far as I am concerned, Yitzchak’s ashes are piled up on the Mizbeach before Me. I see him as slaughtered and burnt up. And the Jewish people will live on this zechus until the end of generations.
Here the Torah teaches us the true way to look at an act that a person did, that he put all his strength and energy into, but to him it seems that it did not work out right at the end. We all try and try, and sometimes it seems as if it just isn’t working.
For instance, let’s say a bachur decides that from today on, he is going to get up for the minyan in the morning. He tries once, he tries again, and it just isn’t going. He is frustrated. He feels that all his efforts went to waste and are worth zilch.
This is a mistake. Hishtadlus like this is priceless. We should never underestimate the value of any effort to improve ourselves.
People are trying and trying all the time and constantly feel frustration. Nothing seems to succeed. This is because they don’t know how to appreciate the value of a Jew who honestly tries and sincerely wants, and an angel comes and stops him.
I think it doesn’t matter whether it is a special angel sent from Heaven, or whether it is the same old Satan. If you truly wanted to do the right thing, you exerted yourself, you tried, you made an effort – that’s what counts. Even if the result was not the desired one, because the Satan stood in the way, the good thought you had is considered by Hakadosh Baruch Hu as if you accomplished what you set out to do.
מחשבה טובה מצרפה למעשה. Yitzchak’s ashes are piled up on the Mizbeach.
This is not a chiddush. I am not saying anything new. Chazal say:
If a person thought to do a mitzvah, and was prevented from doing it, due to circumstances beyond his control, Scripture considers it as if he did the mitzvah.
This is a fact. A spiritual reality. If Hashem commanded you to do something, and you tried, you wanted, as far as Hashem is concerned you did your job.
Our whole lives are full of acts of hishtadlus. And that is what we live on. What do people tend to do? They try and fall and try again, until they give up and just lie there sprawled out on the ground. This is silly. שבע יפול צדיק וקם – “A tzaddik falls seven times and gets up”!
Let’s say a person wants to succeed in becoming a true talmid chacham. For twenty years he tries and falls and tries again and falls again. Every act of hishtadlus is like Akeidas Yitzchak. An angel stops him. But the zechus of the Akeidah is his, nonetheless. No one can take that from him. This is a true ben Torah.
What do people tend to do? They try once, twice, and when it doesn’t go, they stop trying and go to sleep. That’s it; I tried. It didn’t go.
But Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants more acts of hishtadlus like these. This is the only way to become great. You keep trying and trying, and don’t give up.
