Parshas Ki Savo

"English is your native language : You're expected to read on a 10th
grade level. She just moved here from Russia : If she can read The Cat In
The Hat, I'll give her a good grade."

When the Torah tells us that we will be punished for "not serving G-d
with happiness" (Divorim 28:47), that is when our test is "HOW we do a
mitzva". If our test is " IF we will do the mitzva at all", and we overcome
the desire not to do the mitzva (or don't succumb to do the sin), we are
certainly victorious!!

We all need to strive for improvement, but never allow the yetzer horah
(the evil inclination) to tell you that your victory was a failure!!

Have a great Shabbos !!

Rabbi Chaim Flom

Dear Rabbi Flom,
Your words were incredibly relevant to me and others,I'm sure (in general that is true with your Shortvort). Sometimes with great difficulty I don't do an aveira, and I can't say that I am super happy about not doing the sin. Yet, there are numerous times in the Torah where it talks about doing mitzvos with happiness and often I wondered if I really won.
Sincerely,
Mark

Dear Mark,
Thanks for the compliments.
The reason I wrote the dvar Torah was because a couple years ago, I had a dvar Torah about doing Mitzvos with simcha, happiness, and someone asked me your exact point. You should know that Chazal (the very end of the 5th chapter of Pirkei Avos)tell us that reward for mitzvos is " lefum tzaar agra" "based on the difficulty of doing the Mitzva". As time goes on and we successfully beat the yeter hora, that particular "nisayon" becomes easier to overcome in general. Rav Aharon Kotler zt"l said that we will always get the reward like the time when it was harder for us to beat the yetzer hora!!
As I wrote in my dvar Torah,(but I didn't give a specific example) if I daven daily, and I don't have yetzer hora not to go to shul, then my test is "how do I daven"--do I have kavana etc.
I hope that this has been helpful.
Rabbi Flom