Fighting the Yetzer Hara

10 Elul 5768

I would venture to guess that you want to do Teshuva. After all, that's why you're reading this blog. The one thing standing in your way, however, is the Yetzer Hara. Let us study how to fight him.

Step One is acknowledging the constant battle. Most Jews do not even realize there is a fight raging inside of them at every moment of the day. Whether to get up for minyan, or whether to sleep in a few more minutes. Whether to wait the full six hours between meat and milk (if that's your minhag), or to cheat some ice cream at five and a half hours. Whether to say the lashon hara, or to keep it to yourself. There are a million examples. Every moment, every decision, every thought - everything is a battle between the Yetzer Tov and the Yetzer Hara.

Once we are sensitive to this, once we realize that a battle is indeed being fought, then we can continue to the battlefront.

The Torah tells us at the beginning of this week's Parsha:
כי חצא למלחמה על אויבך ונתנו ה' אלקיך בידך ושבית שביו
When you go out to war, Hashem will give your enemy over to you, and you will take a captive.

The Chafetz Chaim comments famously that this pasuk is alluding to the war against the Yetzer Hara (it is no coincidence we read this Parsha every Elul). כי תצא למלחמה על אויבך - when you go out to battle against your personal enemy, the Yetzer Hara - ונתנו ה' אלקיך בידך ןשבית שביו - Hashem will give him over to you, and you will be succeessful in that battle . This pasuk is a promise from Hashem: if we go out to battle the Yetzer Hara, we will receive סייעתא דשמיא, help from Above, and we will defeat him.

How encouraging is this pasuk! Hashem says that He will help us if we merely go out to battle! Not if we do XYZ mitzvos, or refrain from ABC aveiros. All we have to do to merit Divine assistance is just go out there. Try. Fight. Struggle in battle. You don't even have to succeed, necessarily. Although success will not be far behind.
There is a similar statement of Chazal: בדרך שאדם רוצה לילך, מוליכין אותו. In the path that a person wishes to travel, Hashem takes him down that path. That means the following: if a person wants to grow, Hashem will help him. And if a person wants to go downwards, chas veshalom, Hashem will also "help" him. It all depends on where a person wants to go.
Here, too, all a person has to do to merit Divine help is want to grow. And Hashem will help him.

Wanting to move in the right direction is Step Two. Like I said before, if you're reading this blog, you have already accomplished this step. So feel good about yourself! One of the terrible tricks of the Yetzer Hara is his incredible ability to make us feel depressed. We'll talk about this at a later time, but don't get down! You're already on the right path, and Hashem is already giving you סייעתא דשמיא.

Next time we'll discuss how to fight the Yetzer Hara. While many people do not realize they're constantly fighting the Yetzer Hara, many others do not realize how to fight him. We'll tackle that tomorrow, so stay tuned.

One last thing - if you have any topics you'd like me to discuss, PLEASE post it below. First off, it is therapudic for a reader to hear that he/she is not alone in struggling with a particular area of halacha. Second, while I do have what to say, we're hopefully going to take this all the way to Hoshana Rabba, and I'd love to discuss topics that people need to get chizuk in. So feel free to post, anonymously if you wish.

הצלחה רבה!