בְּרֵאשִׁית ו:יט  וּמִכָּל-הָחַי מִכָּל-בָּשָׂר שְׁנַיִם מִכֹּל, תָּבִיא אֶל הַתֵּבָה לְהַחֲיֹת אִתָּךְ…

בְּרֵאשִׁית ז:ב מִכֹּל הַבְּהֵמָה הַטְּהוֹרָה, תִּקַּח-לְךָ

Bereishis 6:19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shall be brought into the ark, to keep them alive with you…

7:2 Of every clean beast you shall take for yourself….

The Torah tells us that the animals came to Noach in order to be put into the ark, without him having to pursue them. Yet, when the Torah discusses bringing in the Kosher animals, it uses the words “You should bring” – Noach must actively take these animals into the ark. Why should this be so?

I heard once a story about Reb Meir Shapiro, the Rosh Hayeshiva of the famed Hachmei Lublin Yeshiva. In that institution, the custom was that any bochur who stayed and learned 18 of 24 hours each day was given a pillar to help support himself while learning in the Beis Medrash. A rich man came once to examine the yeshiva and decide how much to contribute to this grand institution. Reb Meir pointed out those bochurim who excel in diligence and are there 18 hours each day. The man scoffed and asked “18 hours each day? That is not a big deal! I sometimes stay in my office 36 hours straight!” Reb Meir immediately replied “There is no comparison between the two situations. What do you do when you do not have any customers or clients at your work place?” The man replied “I say tehillim or learn.” Reb Meir explained “The yetzer hara in your situation gives you a push to have the ability to stay at your job in order that you don’t ‘chas v’shalom’ do any learning! Whereas the yetzer hara is pulling these bochurim away from their learning so that they should do things that are not Torah-mitzvohs!”

We see from this story that the yetzer hara makes it so that a person has to work in order to achieve a mitzvah. This is much harder than doing other work which is not a mitzvah. Possibly Noach understood by the fact that he had to work in order to get these animals, that they were supposed to be used for a mitzvah of korbanos.

In our lives many times we try to do mitzvohs and are frustrated because of all the difficulties that prop up, and we wonder “We are trying to do a mitzvah—why isn’t it going easier!?!” The answer is that the yetzer hara has a vested interested in your not succeeding in performing that mitzvah. We should take that difficulty as a sign to redouble our efforts because obviously what we are doing bothers the yetzer hara and that means it will bring satisfaction to Hashem.