15 Elul 5768
Sorry for the delay, had a busy weekend.
Okay, so we know how the Yetzer Hara attacks us - with כפירה, גאוה, and תאוה. How do we fight him? How do we defend ourselves against these three weapons?
I'm not going to tell you anything new, just that Jews have been fighting the Yetzer Hara with these defenses since the beginning of creation. So don't feel afraid or alone when you battle - you're part of a greater whole, a greater כלל.
The way to fight כפירה is, not surprisingly, to learn Torah. If you know the halachos cold, there's less of a chance the Yetzer Hara will be able to say, "Come on, that's not really assur." You'll be able to say back, "No! It is assur! I learned it last week, I know the halachos." There's a smaller window for the Yetzer Hara to pull shtick, because you know what the issur/mitzvah is and you know the punishment or reward.
The way to fight גאוה and תאוה is to learn mussar, to work on our middos. Now, this doesn't mean that you should just read Mesillas Yesharim and you'll be fine. Don't get me wrong, that's great, but "learning mussar" means a lot more than that. It means sitting down, thinking about what you need to work on, and working on it. Let's discuss how to do this.
First off, choose two things that you want to work on. Not more, you will lose focus that way. They should be specific, not general. For example, don't choose "I want to daven Shemoneh Esrei better." Choose "I want to work on מודים." The reason for this is twofold: One, you'll be more alerted to a focused goal than on a broader one. Second, and more important, it's much easier for the Yezter Hara to stop us from performing a broad goal than it is for him to stop a short, quick goal. If your goal is Shemoneh Esrei, it's easier for the Yezter Hara to say, "Eh, breeze through the first few brachos, you'll still concentrate on the last few." But if you're focusing on Modim specifically, then you don't have another option later on - it's a specific goal, right now, without any way of getting around it.
Anyway, pick two middos. Got them? Good. Share them if you want (I'm saying Bircas HaMazon with a bencher and trying to learn Chofetz Chaim 5 minutes before I go to bed). Now, after you've shared them, WRITE THEM DOWN. Make a chart, and check off each time you accomplish your goals. For example, if you're working on מודים, you should have three sections a day, one for each Shemoneh Esrei. Check off when you have extra כונה, and leave it blank when you don't.
Why should you write it down? Because that way the Yetzer Hara can't get you depressed. He can't convince you that you're not succeeding when you really are (he's very good at that, see earlier post titled The Yetzer Hara's trap). When the Yetzer Hara tries to get you to feel down about yourself, you'll be able to point to the sheet and say, "Hey, I'm doing well here!" You'll be able to chart your progress, and feel good about yourself. That's one of the most important parts to the whole process, because simcha leads to דביקות בהקב"ה.
After two weeks, check out your sheet. Are you succeeding in your goals? Have the middos become second nature to you to the point where you have check marks every single day? If that's the case, great. Pick another middah or two, and start all over again. This is how we can live all our lives in true dedication to perfecting ourselves and our character traits.
May Hashem grant us סייעתא דשמיא and guide us along His path.
Next time, we'll discuss a bit about how we can improve our Tefillos. Until then, הצלחה רבה!
Showing posts with label yetzer hara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yetzer hara. Show all posts
Monday, September 15, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
The Yetzer Hara's Offensive Gameplan
11 Elul 5768
In order to fight our enemy, we have to know how he operates. A nation does not go to war without reconnaissance on the enemy. A football team does not show up on Sunday without a detailed game plan. So let's figure out how the Yetzer Hara works, and then we will be able to fight him.
The first time the Yetzer Hara appears in Chumash tells us a lot about how he operates. Let's analyze the first interaction between the Yetzer Hara and man - the Nachash's seduction of Chavah. Instead of typing up the five or six psukim, I'll ask you to grab a Chumash and follow along if you can:
The first thing the Yetzer Hara does when he's trying to get us to sin is this: He says, "Okay, what halacha are we dealing with here?" He's no fool; he knows you are a frum Jew. So he begins with something easy - what can't you do, and what is the punishment if you disobey? The Nachash asked Chavah to delineate the halachos of eating from the עץ הדעת, and she complied, listing off the issur of not eating and the punishment (death). This was her first mistake - she shouldn't even have gotten into a conversation with the Yetzer Hara. But if we do find ourselves in a conversation, in the throes of battle, we must win.
Think about an aveirah that you struggle with considerably. Got it? Good. Think about the process you go through when you commit this sin, and keep it in mind throughout the next few paragraphs. Let's see the Yetzer Hara's three strategies:
1) כפירה - We all have that little bit of כפירה inside of us. We disregard what we know from the Torah. The Yetzer Hara tries to rationalize for us right before we sin: "Oh, it's not really assur," or "That's not the real punishment," or my personal favorite, "Eh, it's only דרבנן." (Other examples of דרבנן's - Chanuka candles, Megillah, Muktzah, having a סעודה on Shabbos - we keep those, don't we?) The Yetzer Hara is very good at this tactic, and this is his first attack. We see this from where the Nachash tells Chavah "לא מות תמותון" - you aren't really going to die! Chavah had just said one pasuk earlier that the punishment for eating from the tree was death. The first thing the Nachash did was knock it down a bit - otherwise, there was no way Chavah was going to sin. Death? For a piece of fruit? I don't think so. But if the punishment is not death, then we can start talking.
2) גאוה - We all have a bit of arrogance when we're about to sin. We all think, "Who is Hashem to tell me what to do? I want to do this aveirah! I don't care that He made it assur!" This is what the Yetzer Hara is whispering to us, and this is what he said to Chavah. והייתם כאלקים יודעי טוב ורע - if you eat this fruit, you will be just like God. He made the rule not to eat this fruit, and I made the rule that allows me to eat it. We all think that we're on par with Hashem, that we can disobey His laws without giving it a second thought.
3) תאוה - Right before each sin, the Yetzer Hara shines up that aveirah real nice and somehow gives us an extra desire for it. We're not thinking about the cheeseburger until right before we're challenged not to eat it. We're not thinking about the woman (hopefully) before she walks by in a tank-top and a skirt that looks like a belt. But right before we are challenged, we all get a strong desire to sin. (Notice that if you resist the temptation, this desire to sin usually leaves soon afterwards.) The pasuk says this straight up - ותרא האשה כי טוב העץ למאכל וכי תאוה הוא לעינים. Chavah had a desire for the fruit which did not exist until she was right about to sin.
These are the three tactics the Yetzer Hara uses. Watch out for them. Know they're coming. Tomorrow we'll discuss how to counteract them.
הצלחה רבה!
In order to fight our enemy, we have to know how he operates. A nation does not go to war without reconnaissance on the enemy. A football team does not show up on Sunday without a detailed game plan. So let's figure out how the Yetzer Hara works, and then we will be able to fight him.
The first time the Yetzer Hara appears in Chumash tells us a lot about how he operates. Let's analyze the first interaction between the Yetzer Hara and man - the Nachash's seduction of Chavah. Instead of typing up the five or six psukim, I'll ask you to grab a Chumash and follow along if you can:
The first thing the Yetzer Hara does when he's trying to get us to sin is this: He says, "Okay, what halacha are we dealing with here?" He's no fool; he knows you are a frum Jew. So he begins with something easy - what can't you do, and what is the punishment if you disobey? The Nachash asked Chavah to delineate the halachos of eating from the עץ הדעת, and she complied, listing off the issur of not eating and the punishment (death). This was her first mistake - she shouldn't even have gotten into a conversation with the Yetzer Hara. But if we do find ourselves in a conversation, in the throes of battle, we must win.
Think about an aveirah that you struggle with considerably. Got it? Good. Think about the process you go through when you commit this sin, and keep it in mind throughout the next few paragraphs. Let's see the Yetzer Hara's three strategies:
1) כפירה - We all have that little bit of כפירה inside of us. We disregard what we know from the Torah. The Yetzer Hara tries to rationalize for us right before we sin: "Oh, it's not really assur," or "That's not the real punishment," or my personal favorite, "Eh, it's only דרבנן." (Other examples of דרבנן's - Chanuka candles, Megillah, Muktzah, having a סעודה on Shabbos - we keep those, don't we?) The Yetzer Hara is very good at this tactic, and this is his first attack. We see this from where the Nachash tells Chavah "לא מות תמותון" - you aren't really going to die! Chavah had just said one pasuk earlier that the punishment for eating from the tree was death. The first thing the Nachash did was knock it down a bit - otherwise, there was no way Chavah was going to sin. Death? For a piece of fruit? I don't think so. But if the punishment is not death, then we can start talking.
2) גאוה - We all have a bit of arrogance when we're about to sin. We all think, "Who is Hashem to tell me what to do? I want to do this aveirah! I don't care that He made it assur!" This is what the Yetzer Hara is whispering to us, and this is what he said to Chavah. והייתם כאלקים יודעי טוב ורע - if you eat this fruit, you will be just like God. He made the rule not to eat this fruit, and I made the rule that allows me to eat it. We all think that we're on par with Hashem, that we can disobey His laws without giving it a second thought.
3) תאוה - Right before each sin, the Yetzer Hara shines up that aveirah real nice and somehow gives us an extra desire for it. We're not thinking about the cheeseburger until right before we're challenged not to eat it. We're not thinking about the woman (hopefully) before she walks by in a tank-top and a skirt that looks like a belt. But right before we are challenged, we all get a strong desire to sin. (Notice that if you resist the temptation, this desire to sin usually leaves soon afterwards.) The pasuk says this straight up - ותרא האשה כי טוב העץ למאכל וכי תאוה הוא לעינים. Chavah had a desire for the fruit which did not exist until she was right about to sin.
These are the three tactics the Yetzer Hara uses. Watch out for them. Know they're coming. Tomorrow we'll discuss how to counteract them.
הצלחה רבה!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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!
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!
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