The Secret Of Greatness - A Matzav - Enough Cholent

Li-rfuas: Yaakov Dov Ben Blima Chana,  Shoshana Chaya Bas Blima Chana, & Avraham Yosef Ben Blima Chana.

The gemara says [Shabbos 105] that the way of the yetzer hara is to tell you today to do this, tomorrow to do that, until he eventually tells you to serve idols. כך אומנותו של היצר הרע - So is the "craft" of the yetzer. He is a tricky craftsman.

The simple meaning of the gemara is that he gets you to go from aveira until eventually it leads to avoda zara. Rav Charlap explains that it doesn't have to be an aveira but it can even be activities which are not necessarily bad or improper.

People are restless. They are always looking for new exciting things. People like a "matzav". They go from this to that and then on to another thing. Eventually, it often leads to really bad things including avoda zara and it's accessories.

Herein lies the secret of greatness - consistency. When you start something with the desire to continue - don't quit. Quiting any project is dangerous because it accustoms a person to being lazy and lacksadaisical.

I would like to take this idea one step further. The yetzer hara even gets a person to fly from mitzva to mitzva. Yes - the yetzer hara wants you to do mitzvos [when he can't get you to do aveiros]. So, for example, a person starts a chavrusa - but after the initial excitment he breaks it off and looks for something else new and exciting. He starts attending a shiur in hilchos shabbos but a little bit into bishul he had enough [talk about] cholent and stops attending. This way - he never completes anything. Everything is superficial and based soley on his mood on the present day. Tomorrow will be different. A sure-fire recipe for a feeling of failure which is actually based in reality. Not completing projects cannot be defined as a spiritual success. Once someone decides that a project is worthwhile then he must stick with it come heaven or high water. If you read the biographies of great people you will see that the secret of their success was not in the "fire and thunder" of avodas Hashem but in sticking to a routine.

Example: Rav Chaim Kneyevsky had a chavrusa after the vasikin minyan. In 14 years, they NEVER MISSED [except, I believe, the day after the chavrusa's wedding].

Rav Elyashiv had [according to his next door neighbor who could hear what was going on in his apartment through the thin Meah Shearim walls that separated them] the same exact seder ha-yom for decades and NEVER ONCE CHANGED IT. He was up at 2:30AM. He put hot water on the fire. A few minutes later he took it and drank. He learned until six. He didn't daven vasikin because that would have meant changing his schedule daily in accordance with the time of sunrise. He davened at precisely 6 and then started his day. He NEVER ONCE [according to this neighbor who was a tzadik and kept different hours than we keep] woke up, let's say, at 3 [to "spoil himself" a bit:-)]. Consistency.

I read the same thing about Rav Vosner ztz"l. Same exact seder ha-yom for decades - never veering.

Don't jump from chavrusa to chavrusa, rebbi to rebbi, shiur to shiur and mitzva to mitzva, if it means stopping what you started. Start AND finish. It is true that at times we need some hischadshus and a "matzav" but try to find the "matzav" in the routine. If you take a kabbala upon yourself - keep it until almost the point of yehareig vi-al yaavor.

THAT is the secret of greatness.