Accessing the Inner Reserves by Getting Real
We can all reach this place—and it doesn’t necessarily need to involve yissurim, R”l. Yissurim are helpful, because they help a person feel vulnerable and helpless and dependent upon the Ribbono shel Olam. The doctor tells him one word, and in an instant all of his illusory successes are gone! But it doesn’t have to be in this way.
The yesod is that the external things distract us from seeing who we really are, and we are thus prevented from feeling elevated. And when we don’t feel elevated, we are likely to gravitate to foreign sources of feeling great. And then we look at the next person, and we say, “He probably feels greater because he gets more kavod.” This becomes our worldview—as though these outer trappings give us true elevation... when in truth, they give nothing.
