The Bull and the Shoelace | Rabbi Naftali Horowitz

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Vayimaen’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

One day, Farmer Frank goes to visit his friend, Farmer Joe. And as he's walking around his farm, he notices this massive bull tied to a tree with a shoelace. And he says to Farmer Joe, is there something wrong with that bull? Why on earth is he tied to a tree with a shoelace? Don't you realize he can run free? Farmer Joe says, Of course, he can run free, but he doesn't realize that. You see, I own this bull since he was very, very young. And when he was just a baby calf, I would tie him to that tree with this shoelace. And once or twice he tried to break free, but he couldn't. And since then, he's come to think that this shoelace is absolutely unbreakable. He's grown up, he's strong, he's powerful, he plows fields for me, he carries things for me all the time, but when it comes to that shoelace, he thinks he's absolutely weak. The Piaseczno Rebbe tells us, The Yetzer Hara doesn't win over us because he is stronger than us. He's not. He's much, much weaker than us. He wins over us, because we think we are weaker.

Jump to a moment

1. 0:06One day, Farmer Frank goes to visit his friend, Farmer Joe. And as he's walking around…
2. 0:37And once or twice he tried to break free, but he couldn't. And since then, he's…
3. 1:10When two fighters enter a ring, one stronger and one weaker, the one that's going to…
4. 1:41some of us have gotten Smichah, we've done Chesed, we’ve davened thousands and thousands of Tefillos,…
5. 2:12I am not weak, you are weak. I am stronger, and I will prevail.…

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