One might think that the Yetzer Hora is some sort of
other worldly Rambo armed to the teeth with whatever it needs to push us in the
direction of the aveira de jure.
It’s not.
The truth is that it can’t throw much of a punch at
all. But it does know how to deal.
The biggest weapon in the Yetzer Hora’s arsenal is
its ability to distract us with every conceivable
form of sleight of hand in addition to innumerable inconceivable ploys that take us away from the work at hand.
It’s the Celestial Three Card Monte master.
The power of the Yetzer Hora lies in making sure
that we never think about anything of spiritual consequence. It’s about instilling a lack of awareness
within us of what we are about to do at any given point in our lives.
Rabbi Lazer Brody reminds us that when we are
running on auto-pilot we are grist for the Yetzer Horas’s mill because we don’t
think. And if we don’t think when the
Yetzer is shuffling the cards the results are toxic. We are terminally mistake prone, which is
manifested by all of the stupid things we say or do that we belatedly regret.
You have an urge to say or do something?
Shake hands with your Yetzer Hora, which is the
source of any urge that’s not pointing you in the direction of Torah and
Mitzvos.
So when your inner voice tells you to say this, eat that, look at this, listen to that or march in lock step shoulder
to shoulder with any of the unlimited tricks up the Yetzer Hora’s sleeve, don’t
go passively like some yutz over your ruchniyas cliff.
Generally speaking, mitzvohs are (ideally) done with
pre-meditation and aveiros (sins) without. So if you find yourself suddenly being
pushed in a previously un-contemplated direction, don’t even think about making
a move without ascertaining who’s giving the marching orders.
Open a mouth and ask yourself:
Who’s
playing this song? Let me see some ID here.
And also don’t forget to ask:
Why?
Why
am I about to say this? Why should I
close my gemara? Why do I need to look at this? And so on for the myriad whys one needs to ask in order to spike the like number of curveballs
coming his way courtesy of his Yetzer Hora.
If the answer to your question is Why not or anything else that would tend
to indicate that Hashem is not humming this tune then flip the page on the subliminal
suggestion that tried to take you down, pick up the cards and move on.
