By Rabbi Joey Haber
Rav Shalom Schwadron, who was known as “the Maggid of Yerushalayim,” once worked as a teacher in a yeshiva, and he noticed that a certain student did not attend the shiur for several nights in a row. He decided to go to the young man’s house and ask him why he had not been in the class, if perhaps he was ill or had some other problem.
The boy explained to him that the World Cup soccer competition was going on at that time. He was not attending the shiurim because he needed to watch the games... The boy assured the Rabbi that the following week, once the World Cup was over, he would come back to the shiur.
Rav Schwadron asked the boy what soccer was. The boy explained that there are two goals on both sides of the field, and each team has to try to kick the ball, without touching it with their hands, into the opposing team’s goal.
The Rabbi Thinks He Can Also Kick the Ball into the Goal Post
“Ok,” the Rabbi replied. “That doesn’t sound too difficult. I could do that.”
“No, Rabbi, you don’t understand,” the boy explained. “The opposing team has a goalie that stands in the goal and blocks the ball so it won’t go in.”
“I see,” the Rabbi said. “I assume that if we go right now to a soccer field, there won’t be any goalie there. So why don’t we just go right now, and we can kick the ball into the goal all we want!!”
The boy laughed. “What would be the point?!” he said. “The whole fun is struggling against the opposing team to try to score goals.”
Understanding that the Real ‘Fun’ is the Struggle
“Exactly!” the Rabbi exclaimed. “The point is to struggle. Attending shiur next week, after the World Cup is over, is simple. The real ‘fun’ is to struggle to attend shiur this week, when it’s not easy, when you have to make a sacrifice for it.”
Hashem created the world and our lives in such a way that we have to work hard to achieve. He intentionally did not make things easy – because if things were easy, then there would be no point in “scoring.” We achieve and grow through struggle and hard work.
Reprinted from the iTorah.com website
