The following story demonstrates that when one knows he is tested, he will pass the test:
A group of Arabs kidnapped a high-ranking official of the Israeli Intelligence (from the Shabak). They tortured him and hardly gave him food and drink, and tried to get him to reveal the secrets of the Israeli agency. But he was loyal to his country and refused to speak. One day, his cell door was slightly open, and his captors stood outside his room, conversing with each other. He saw them holding screwdrivers and hammers, and he understood that they were about to smash his head. He realized that he didn’t have a choice; he would tell them everything he knew.
However, he listened carefully to their conversation and heard they were conversing in Hebrew! He then understood that they weren’t Arabs. They were members of the Israeli Intelligence, and they were testing his loyalty. They entered his cell and warned him that if he didn’t speak, they would open his skull, but he didn’t say anything. He wasn’t afraid. He knew that it was only a test.
Because when one knows that he is being tested, he is empowered. He has the strength to stand up to difficult challenges and remain faithful.
The following din Torah came before Reb Nissin Karelitz zt'l: In an apartment building in Bnei Brak, there's an elevator, which can carry only four people at a time (as the sign on the elevator clearly states). Four people were already on the elevator, and another two people squeezed in. As the elevator headed up to the next floor, the elevator broke. The question is, who is responsible for paying for the repairs? Some said the two people who entered last should pay because they overloaded the elevator. Others claimed that all six were responsible, because when they saw two people insisting on coming in, they should have left the elevator.
(See Bava Kama 10:, regarding ten people sitting on a bench and the bench broke, which discusses a similar scenario.)
Reb Nissin Karelitz wisely ruled that it isn't the two and it isn't the six. The one who pressed the elevator button to send the elevator to the next floor must pay, because he caused the elevator to overwork and collapse.
Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Succos passed, and baruch Hashem, we are 'loaded' with holiness. But hara poses enable us to grow higher and higher.
Avraham's first test is לך לך to leave his father's home to go to Eretz Canaan. The tenth test is לך ולך ...בנך את נא קח, that Avraham should go to the akeidah. Both tests state לך לך. The Midrash (Bereishis Rabba 39:9) states, "It says twice לך לך, and we don’t know which is more beloved, the second or the first?" The Midrash concludes that the second לך לך, of the akeidah, was a greater test, and thus, more beloved to Hashem.
But we wonder, isn't it obvious that the tenth test was more difficult? Which test is greater than offering one's own child as a korban?
Perhaps the answer is that after Avraham passed many tests, it was easier for him to pass another one. Therefore, the first test of leaving his father's home could potentially be the hardest test. Nevertheless, the Midrash concludes that the test of the Akeidah was a harder test.
We learn zerizus from Avraham Avinu. By the akeidah, it states (22:3) בבקר אברהם וישכם, "Avraham awoke early in the morning." Also, when Avraham davened for Sedom, it states (19:27) בבוקר אברהם וישכם. We should do the same. We should get into the mode of serving Hashem early in the morning, and then we will be able to accomplish a lot during the day.
Hashem says (Shemos 19:4), כנפי על אתכם ואשא נשרים, "I carried you on eagle wings..." An eagle carries her children on her wings. As the eagle flies high in the sky, the children can look down and see the world below. But how do the birds climb up onto the eagle's wings? The young birds have to hop on. The mother eagle doesn't help them. This hints to us that Hashem can raise us to very high levels, but we must take the first step.
That isn't sufficient. We have to "press the button", to get to the next level. We have to continue growing. We shouldn’t be complacent about our current level and current achievements.
