The willpower to work hard

00:00 So this is what I want to say: among chassidim, this is how it is. Without effort, without working hard, you don’t get anywhere. Something that comes without effort, something that comes easily, is very simple, very simple. You travel to the Rebbe, [unclear] to the Rebbe. Without any spiritual effort, without any physical effort—very simple. It’s very simple, very simple. But if you want to receive the inner dimension, you need effort; you need to work hard. We say this sometimes, and we see it all the time. There is always effort and hard work. Of course, traveling to the Rebbe, coming to Chassidus—that is something in its own right. [unclear] the impressions one can receive from the Rebbe, [unclear] not just like that, on a superficial level. There are also people who say that there are heroes here, heroic chassidim. Heroic chassidim today, like the chassidim of earlier times, of great Rebbes—great chassidim. But here I want to say: [unclear] from an older person, and yet two small children—they can get there without the Rebbe? They cannot get there [unclear] mesirus nefesh. And this is a well-known story, [unclear] mesirus nefesh comes from the Rebbe. [unclear]. At one point, the parents had already seen what things were like in America, and he didn’t really understand what the Rebbe was like, and he

01:27 was already here, [unclear] what things were like. And one day [unclear], and he [unclear] what things were like. Mesirus nefesh. But everything comes through effort. What comes easily is very simple. The parents are chassidim, and they send the young men to classes—easy. And since they adopt the outward form, when he [unclear] from the Rebbe, they adopt [unclear] from the Rebbe. [unclear] that here they receive the Chassidus of earlier times, and for everyone it is already [unclear]. And to study Gemara [unclear], and the light of [unclear], and [unclear]. It fills the whole [unclear], fills the entire inner being. With all that effort, sometimes [unclear], he doesn’t feel it inwardly. A young man’s inner life is like this, [unclear]. They didn’t think about it without studying, without [unclear]. And you don’t just say something like, “I’m already a young man, I’m already a young man.” [unclear] that these are the main things in life—they stumble over this; without effort it certainly cannot come. What are the main things in life? These are the main things in life, not [unclear], but [unclear], and studying righteousness, and the main things in life, and the [unclear] of the Chasam Sofer. What do they say without chassidim? [unclear] tremendous, the main thing [unclear]. Because a young man who [unclear] completely already. But to want—to want to be [unclear].

02:47 He thinks, he wants, he searches, he asks; he isn’t satisfied with himself. He needs to be better. And here there is a young man who sits [unclear] all day, but he asks, asks [unclear]. It doesn’t weigh on him; in spiritual matters it isn’t like that [unclear]. He sits and studies, [unclear], but [unclear]. But a young man who wants to be better, even if he has already grown accustomed to studying, as it says [unclear], and when you sit all day. That desire to be that way all day—that is [unclear]. Because it doesn’t weigh on him. If there is no effort, no desire to be better, to rise higher, there is nothing in it. [unclear] still only the outward form. What matters most to the Rebbes is the inner dimension. What [unclear] in yeshivah, the inner life a person develops in yeshivah—afterward, when he leaves yeshivah altogether, that remains [unclear]. But the outward form, [unclear]. Someone who takes it inward, inward [unclear]. Someone who works, [unclear]. But the outward form is here [unclear]. And the inner dimension—how do you put it—specifically the inner dimension: does he carry it with him?