One day, Rebbe Naftali of Ropshitz caught his son Eliezer doing some kind of prank.
“It’s not my fault,” said the boy. - God is to blame. He gave me yetzer ha-ra (one of the two natural forces - the inclination to evil), which only does what pushes me to all sorts of mischief. So don’t blame me, but God!
Rebbe Naftali frowned, then smiled and answered his son:
“God gave you the yetzer ha-ra as a mentor.”
- Mentor? So what can I learn from this villain?
“Fortitude and perseverance,” said Rabbi Naftali. “Look how diligently the yetzer ha-ra does his job.” Knowing neither boredom nor fatigue, he fulfills the mission entrusted to him by God - to seduce people into selfish actions. You, too, must tirelessly do what God created you to do—overcome the yetzer ha-ra.
Eliezer listened carefully to his father and, when he finished, objected:
- But you forgot one very important thing, dad.
- What exactly?
— The yetzer ha-ra performs its task flawlessly, since it does not have its own yetzer ha-ra that would prevent it from doing what God has assigned. But with people everything is completely different, for “sin lies at the door.” Every time we open the door to a new experience, the yetzer ha-ra is waiting for us at the threshold and enticing us into dubious tricks.
Commentary by Rami Shapiro Every door is fraught with its own dangers. At every second we have to make a choice, being aware of what impulse we are guided by: yetzer ha-ra - or yetzer ha-tov? Or will we be able to do both? We follow the yetzer ha-ra when we satisfy the needs of our ego, and we follow the yetzer ha-tov by considering and respecting the rights and interests of others. Will you be able to realize both inclinations, balancing the impulses of the ego and the interests of others? Will you be able to live a full life and at the same time realize that the world in which you live is holy?
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru