Daily Chidush: Who is the Satan and how can I beat him?

0:00How are you? Hope you had a great day. I wanted to answer an amazing question about who the Yetzer Hara is. The question was: "Hashem Yishmor, what's his story?" That's the exact wording of the question. Well, there are fewer and fewer people who believe that the Yetzer Hara actually exists. On one end, they say, "No, no, Kvodo Harav, it was the Yetzer Hara that did it, I didn't mean to." Okay, but the Yetzer Hara, after 25 years of being Mechalel Shabbat, how much Yetzer Hara? At some point, you get to beat him. That's the reality of things. But yes, all of us have a Yetzer Hara. The Gemara tells us that man is born with just a Yetzer Hara. And only during his Bar Mitzvah does he actually get the Yetzer Tov. This is the reason why the Yetzer Hara is so much stronger during those teenage years, because the Yetzer Hara is already a "teenager," whereas the Yetzer Tov, the good inclination, is still very young. versus the evil inclination, the good inclination is so young and so immature. So it takes a lot of mitzvot and a lot of Torah in order for us to beat the Yetzer Hara. But we have to understand, in order for us to beat the Yetzer Hara, we have to understand what we're dealing with here. In Gemara Berachot, Tractate Berachot, it says that Hashem created the Yetzer Hara, created the evil inclination.

1:27The evil inclination, the Satan, and the Malach HaMavet—the angel of death—are all the same entity. This was created at the beginning of time. The first Yetzer HaRa was in the serpent, the snake, who committed the first official sin in history by speaking Lashon Hara, evil speech, about Hashem Himself. Now, this Yetzer HaRa is still here. It's not going anywhere until the Mashiach comes, b'ezrat Hashem, the time that Hashem promises us that He will slaughter him and remove him from the world. But nonetheless, until that time, the Gemara asks Hashem, "You created this Yetzer Hara that's stronger than all of mankind put together, that's smarter than all of mankind put together, that's bigger and stronger than all mankind put together." And the holy books say that the Yetzer Hara can reach from the ground all the way to the sky, and it's all full of eyes. As a matter of fact, the Zohar HaKadosh says that in order to make the world even, the good and the evil even, meaning that Hashem had to create a balance in the world. For every good there has to be a bad, for every even there has to be an uneven, or plus versus minus.

2:55So just like Hashem has His holy throne, the Kisei HaKavod, He also made one for the Yetzer Hara. So this gives us an understanding of what we're dealing with here. It's something big, it's something strong, it's wiser than you can even imagine. So the Gemara asks, how can we beat such a thing? You promised us that you're not going to give us a test that we can't fail. But here you gave us the Yetzirah that has all of these qualities that we cannot even compete with. And the Gemara answers, I created the Yetzirah, but I also created a potion to beat him, which is called Torah. The Torah is the only way one can actually beat the Yetzirah. But before you even get the Torah, you have to acknowledge, as part of this Torah learning, that the yetzer hara does exist. So where does the yetzer hara attack us? First and foremost, the yetzer hara attacks us in every single thing that's negative. Someone has anger, it's yetzer hara. Someone is tired, yetzer hara. Someone forgets, yetzer hara. Someone is inconsiderate, comes from yetzer hara.

4:27every single thing that's negative is under the influence of the yetzer hara. It's not necessarily that he does it, because still, you have free choice. All of us have free choice. The only thing we have is the free choice of whether to fear Hashem or not. Whether we're born or not is not up to us. Whether we're tall, short, fat, skinny, good-looking, ugly, male, female, rich, or poor, In general, most of that, with the exception of fat and skinny, because some people overeat, none of that is actually up to us. So in essence, whether we sin or not, is up to us. But the yetzer hara, the evil inclination, is always going to influence us to do something against the Torah because that is the mission that Hashem gave him in order to give this world a balance. The reward for committing the smallest mitzvah, the smallest one—pick the smallest mitzvah you can possibly think of—is worth more than all of the money that ever existed put together. The smallest mitzvah.

5:42So with such a reward, one must understand that there has to be some type of risk. And that's why the smallest sin is a very, very big problem. Nonetheless, the evil inclination has to remind us that we have to stick to the Torah, we have to consistently use this prescription. And part of learning Torah is learning who we're up against. You can never beat your competition on a regular basis unless you know who you're dealing with. If you underestimate your competition, you've lost before you even started the game. If you see yourself waking up in a bad mood every day, just remember, thank you, Hashem, for returning my soul because just moments ago I was dead and the yetzer hara is trying to make me forget it. So the first thing we say is we thank Hashem that He brought our neshamah back to our bodies and focus on the gratefulness that we're supposed to have versus the bad mood, the Tisha B'Av that we're waking up with. Thank you, Hashem, for returning my soul because just moments ago I was dead, and the Yetzer Hara is trying to make me forget it. So the first thing we say is we thank Hashem that He brought our neshama back to our bodies and focus on the gratitude that we're supposed to have, versus the bad mood—the Tisha B'Av—that we're waking up with.

6:56You see yourself getting angry very quickly. Look at what you're getting angry at. Is what you're getting angry at really worth it? Do you know that being angry is like drinking poison but expecting the other guy to die? It makes no sense. Why get angry? Because the yetzer hara wants you to get angry. If you get angry, according to the Ramban, who wrote in the letter that he wrote to his tzaddik son... All types of Gehinnom control him. When someone gets angry, it's the worst middah, and all types of Gehinnom control him. So what does it mean, all types of Gehinnom control him? Every single moment a person commits a mitzvah, they create for themselves a malach. A malach that's going to influence them for good, that's going to protect them. But, as we said, everything has to be on an even playing field. Every time one commits a sin, he creates a bad angel for himself, and that bad angel will drag him down and try to influence him and overpower him to commit even more sins. This means when a small discussion gets out of hand and someone makes an offhand comment and curses the other person, that's one sin and then...

8:25that one sin is committed, that person already has lost control, and then it becomes another curse and another yell, and the next thing you know, all types of Gehinnom are controlling him. This is the reason why we have to be very, very careful with anger, very, very careful when we're fighting against the Yetzer Hara. Hashem told us exactly how. you read my Torah on a day-to-day basis as you're commanded to, anyway, you're commanded. It's not a hobby to learn Torah. It's not a side project to learn Torah. The fact that you're listening to this video right now is learning Torah. There are all types and forms of learning Torah; you can listen to audio of Torah, watch a video of Torah, go to a lecture of Torah, or read a book. but you have to learn Torah every single day, and you have to make time to learn Torah. As Rabbi Ephraim said in a lecture that we just published this morning, one of the main questions they ask someone after they pass away is, "Did you make time to learn Torah?" Permanent time. You have to set aside some time during the day and some time at night. Hashem is not telling you this because He needs your Torah.

9:47Hashem is telling you this because He knows that you need this Torah. In order for us to battle this huge, huge evil inclination, we have to first start with learning Torah. However, some of us can't learn as much Torah as we would like. We like it, we enjoy it, we love it, but our evil inclination is too strong at this point. The amount of sins we've made in our life has built something called klipot, which literally translates to "peels" that are covering our soul. In order for us to learn Torah, we have to first unpeel ourselves, unpeel this sin. So, we open a sefer Torah; you know, before we read the sefer, if we were reading the newspaper, we could read the newspaper for five hours... because the yetzer hara doesn't care about you reading the newspaper. He doesn't care about you watching TV. He wants you to watch TV. He wants you to work for him. He wants you to watch all the immodesty. He wants you to waste your life with sports. He wants you to play video games and card games and all of those things because, in essence, that's what he wants you to do. That's his job. But on the other hand, if you open a sefer Torah,

11:08the beginning: if you were like me when I first started my teshuva, five minutes sleeping—not sleeping the whole day—I couldn't even go to sleep if I wanted to. But if I opened a sefer or went to a shiur, after five minutes I would fall asleep. Why? Because of so many sins that we consumed and acquired, unfortunately, throughout our lives without knowledge. So at the beginning, you have to fight it. Learn that five minutes. That five minutes is taking off one thick peel. The next thing you know, you're going to learn six minutes. It's another peel. Next, ten minutes. It's another peel. Before you know it, you're able to learn comfortably for a half-hour. Next thing you know, an hour. And b'ezrat Hashem, much, much more. But the only way to get that is to unpeel these sins by fighting hard against the yetzer hara, just like you fight for any promotion, for any contract, or anything that you want material in this world, you have to fight for your neshama. You have to fight the yetzer hara with this potion that Hashem gave you. There is also another secret. There's also another way to fight the yetzer hara in such a way

12:27you are literally destroying him, and you're going to be able to start instead by learning for five minutes, gradually increasing until it takes a half hour, an hour, or two hours. You could expedite this whole process. There was one time a major sage, whom everyone knows about, as mentioned on page 81, says... That Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess used to rebuke the sinners. So the Yetzer Hara came to him and wanted to taunt him. So one day he pretended, you know, he pretended to be a pretty woman. That was something that Rabbi Meir was not able to understand. Something beyond anything normal. And this pretty woman was on the other side of the lake. Rabbi Meir lost control at that moment. Started going towards the other side of the lake, and at that moment, the pretty woman revealed herself as the Yetzer Hara himself. The Satan said, "If they didn't say in Shamayim, in Heaven, 'Be careful of Rabbi Meir, his Torah is very precious to us,' I would slaughter you right now for the sin you're about to make."

13:56a similar story in the same Masechet Kiddushin on page 81 tells of a similar incident where a sage almost succumbed to the temptation of a beautiful woman. This beauty wasn't as we typically perceive it in this world, but rather a heavenly beauty. These sages were extraordinary individuals who would not ordinarily glance at women. However, the Yetzir Hara wanted to demonstrate its power and who they were contending with. But also the value of their Torah. And right before Rabbi Akiva sinned, the Yetzer Hara exposed itself and said, if they didn't say in Shamayim how valuable your Torah is, Rabbi Akiva, I would slaughter you right now for the sin you're about to make. So now this answers the same thing I already said for the past 15 minutes. Torah.

14:57What's the difference in the Torah of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes and Rabbi Akiva in the Torah that we talked about for the first 15 minutes? And in Mishnah Avot, Pirkei Avot, chapter 5, section 21, it says, Kol ha-mezakeh et ha-rabim ein chet ba'al yado, ve-kol ha-machti et ha-rabim ein maspikin b'yado la'asot teshuva. Whoever influences the masses to become meritorious and do teshuva shall not be the cause of sin. But one who influences the masses to sin will not be given the means to repent. This Mishnah is a life changer. If you look at the details here, the Mishnah explains the Gemara in Kiddushin. The reason why... Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes were not like us. They were not allowed to fail. When we have a test, we may fail. Someone sees whether it's a woman, money, or the possibility to do something wrong and against Hashem. Sometimes we unfortunately fail. But Hashem did not let Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes and Rabbi Akiva fail.

16:20They were able to fail their free choice, failed, and they were about to commit a sin, but he did not let them fail. Why? Because he wrote it in his Torah. Someone who is "mezakah et harabim" (influences the public to do Teshuva) will not be allowed to fail. I don't let the sin come into his hand. I'll test him, but I won't let him officially sin. Whereas someone who does the opposite, someone who tells people, "No, no, come with me to the beach on Shabbat. No, come with me to the club and see immodest women. Come with me, do all of these things." That person that influences people to sin, Hashem knows what type of problems he's setting himself up to. But we'll talk about the first part. How can we do this? Not everyone can give lectures, not everyone can do shiurim, but everyone can do kiruv. Everyone can contribute to help Am Yisrael do teshuva. Whether it is supporting someone that's doing kiruv, like many of you are already doing, Baruch Hashem, thank you very much. Or whether it is actually being proactive yourself.

17:38Set up shiurim in your community. Bring a good rabbi to speak and tell you about things that are relevant to life. Mussar, even if it's hard to hear. Don't learn about aggadot and things that are not relevant to your life. Learn about things that are relevant to your life. The stuff that touches your heart. Set up the lectures. If setting up lectures is not enough or you can't do it, support some discs, get some discs, b'ezrat Hashem. We're setting up a disc drive coming up later this week, within the next couple of days, b'ezrat Hashem. We're gonna be printing our first set of CDs; anyone that wants to support it is more than welcome to. It's only one dollar per CD, and b'ezrat Hashem, we're gonna swamp the world with these CDs. We'll do a teshuva revolution. You all can be partners. Each person that contributes to a CD, and someone does teshuva, goes into your account, my friends. Every mitzvah that they will ever do, every mitzvah that they ever contribute to, goes into your account. You officially become a partner in kiruv. You contribute to CDs. You give someone the CD. It costs a dollar. You give it to him. Next thing you know, he watches it, he does teshuva. You bought yourself the next world.

19:05You can't do a CD, you don't have money, you don't feel like it, you don't believe it, whatever the reason is, whatever the yetzer hara is going to convince you is true to you, it's going to be true. So I got something easier for you. This is the same thing that I said to the talmidim in the kollel in Netanya, Israel, I said: Someone who learns Torah and does not teach or share it is like someone who does not have a God. You learn Torah. You watch the video for five minutes. You listen to this clip for 20 minutes. You watch Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi, Rabbi Ephraim Kachlon, or Rabbi Zamir Cohen, or perhaps one of my shiurim online. Be a good Jew. Be a good Gentile. take the link, copy it, and paste it all over Facebook, all over Twitter, all over social media. Send it via text, and spread it around the world, five minutes a day. Find a clip that you've watched, find something that you've viewed, and share it with the world. Show the world the Torah for five minutes a day. Five minutes a day of Kiruv can lead you to a situation where

20:32Just like this Mishnah in Pirkei Avot says, no sin will come to him. Why? Because if he cares enough to save my children, I'll care enough to save him when the time comes. Thank you for learning with me, and may Hashem continue to bless you. Kol Tuv.