Raising the sparks

What the Rav said:

The wicked people ask, ‘Master of the World, why didn’t You create us to be Tzadikim? Why did You create us to be wicked, without any light?’

Hashem replies to them, ‘your light is greater than the light of all the Tzadikim. It’s just that I gave you much harder work’.

‘I gave you much harder work – to raise up sparks that no Tzadik is able to raise up.’

‘And how do you raise them up? By nullifying yourself to those Tzadikim who sing and play tunes.’

My thoughts:

The place where a Ba’al Teshuva stands, a pure Tzadik cannot stand.

Why not?

One of the reasons is that the Ba’al Teshuva falls to some very low places. Places which a true Tzadik would never fall.

However, when a Ba’al Teshuva picks himself up – from that lowly place – and starts serving Hashem again, in doing so, he raises up untold numbers of sparks that are found in those lowly places and brings them back to Hashem.

Only a ‘wicked’ person has the merit of such avodat Hashem.

Of course, no one should deliberately throw himself into a low place to raise sparks from there. Who knows if he’ll have the merit to make it back in one-piece.

But, if you do find yourself in one of those places, then know that Hashem gave you a very special task to raise the sparks that no other person can raise – only you!