Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

Our Parsha begins, “When you go out to war against your enemies…” Chassidic commentators note that the verse is grammatically in the singular. They interpret this to mean that there is no greater enemy for any individual than the “Yetzer Ha-rah” – the “evil inclination” — which tempts us to sin. The verse therefore comes to teach us something about our “war”, our struggles, against our “enemies” — selfishness, ingratitude, envy, hatred, and all the spiritual maladies that we humans are prone to.

The Chatam Sofer (c.1800) teaches that we can learn how to defeat the evil inclination (Yetzer Ha-rah)  by studying its ways and methods carefully. The Yetzer Ha-rah is persistent. It doesn’t try to lure us from the righteous path all at once. Today it urges us to do one thing, the next day it seduces us into doing something else. If it succeeds one day, it will build on that success the following day. It starts with enticing us with a small transgression, then tries to lead us to larger ones, one temptation at a time.  

To be victorious over our evil inclination, The Chatam Sofer advises us to take the same strategy.  We should take things slowly and be patient with ourselves. We ought not try to change long standing, self-defeating behaviors in one sudden leap – I will never get angry again, I will stop this bad habit immediately, for example. These approaches are doomed to failure and might convince us that we are indeed unable to change. We should not expect dramatic transformation but work toward slow and steady spiritual and behavioral growth. Negative character traits and bad habits that take years to develop do not disappear overnight.

Victory over our inclination for evil is never easy. It demands strength of mind, heart, and soul. It requires the willingness to fail and try again. We fall, and then we rise — recommitting to the struggle step by step, patiently, one day at a time, one hour at a time, even one moment at a time. Judaism rejects stagnation, inertia, pessimism, and cynicism. Our tradition urges us to continuously battle our Yetzer Ha-rah so that we can build a better tomorrow bit by bit over time.

Shabbat Shalom

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