Beads of Perseverance
One Shabbat afternoon, while I was delivering my regular shiur on the works of the Ben Ish Chai, the Satan decided to interfere and caused the air-conditioning in the Beit Hamidrash to stop. Within a few moments, everyone felt the thick heat which was beginning to permeate the air. Beads of sweat formed on our foreheads, and the temperature in the room, which had been cool and pleasant, began to rise higher and higher. But we rose above our physical discomfort and continued our studies. We persisted in this manner for approximately another two hours. Our sweat merely made us stick to our studies.
Throughout this time, my Yetzer Hara whispered in my ear, “It’s sweltering. The congregation, too, is suffering from the brutal heat. Why do you stubbornly insist on carrying on with the regular shiur? Can’t you cancel it just this once? You deliver a shiur every Shabbat; what would be so terrible if you called it off today?!”
But then descriptions of the holy Ben Ish Chai’s self-sacrifice for Torah flitted through my mind. He would deliver a Torah discourse before tens of thousands for hours on end. Did he have air-conditioning in Bavel, which is modern-day Iraq, notorious for its terrible heat?!
In this manner, I subdued my Yetzer Hara and continued delivering my shiur, as on every Shabbat. I knew that whoever participated in the shiur was guaranteed tremendous reward for their efforts to remain, in spite of the heat. Chazal tell us (Avot 5:23), “According to the pain is the reward.”
