I TRUST-cutting the Yetser Hara's power of speech
Most of us are almost constantly at war,there is a tug of war between our bodies pulling us downwards and our souls soaring upwards.When our souls lead the way then our bodies find their wings.
We all have a very powerful enemy that never lets up, always changes tactics,latches on to where we are weakest to bring us down, to let the worst in us shine.That enemy is the Yetser Hara, so powerful in fact that only with Hashem's help can we overcome it.
The Yetser Hara with all it's nefarious conduct is sent by Hashem as an opportunity for us to get closer to Hashem, to constantly become the expression of our highest selves as unique aspects of Hashem by leaps and bounds as we overcome it at our pace in each area of our lives.
We, though cannot sit on our laurels we have to do our maximum Hishtadlut(effort) to combat the Yetser Hara.
One major aim of the Yetser Hara is to distract us ,to destabilize us,to confuse us,to cloud our understanding of what is right, to keep us guessing.
It is no wonder that the quintessential embodiment of the Yetser Hara, is the snake in the Garden Of Eden as the word snake in hebrew is Nachash(נחש) which has the same root letters as the word Lenachesh(לנחש) to guess.
The Yetser Hara bombards us with harsh destabilizing, at times frightening thoughts that we feel we have to engage , verbally fence them off..shouting " No ..that's not true!!!.."I don't feel that way etc etc.Then our imaginations go wild, urges start permeating our bodies , as a tremor that shudders through us,the tentacles of temptation reach out,our rationalizing kicks in with endless excuses and justifications spewing forth as if in a courtroom fighting for our lives and then we block the voice of the Yetser Tov only to find ourselves, if we release our conscience from it's incarceration ,saying afterwards" What have I done!!!!!!!!"."How could I have done such a thing!!!!!" etc etc
One way to fight this and silence the voice of the Yetser Hara is ecrypted in a verse in Mishle/Proverbs (43,5)
בְּטַח אֶל יְהוָה בְּכָל לִבֶּךָ וְאֶל בִּינָתְךָ אַל תִּשָּׁעֵן
Trust in the Hashem with all your heart and do not rely upon your understanding.
When it comes to the Yetser Hara we are in a battle and many times our understanding confuses us after we have engaged: temptation,imagination rationalizations running wild with our bodies pulling us downward with renewed strength ...We block out ramification and anything the Yetser HaTov has to say.
We are told in the verse above..not to rely on our understanding but to trust in Hashem ....this tremendous power packed paradigm shift is a nuclear armageddon to the Yetser Hara.
Why?.....Anything in life that we do,feel ,think etc that was hard for us at one stage and is now a part of us , a habit etc means that by constantly doing thinking saying etc what we wanted to do we conditioned ourselves to do it,it might have taken time and energy but eventually without relenting we succeeded.
After all what is a habit but a choice that we made so often that we got used to it and forgot it was a choice.
Why?.....Anything in life that we do,feel ,think etc that was hard for us at one stage and is now a part of us , a habit etc means that by constantly doing thinking saying etc what we wanted to do we conditioned ourselves to it ,it might have taken time and energy but eventually without relenting we succeeded.
So to with the Yetser Hara no matter how tempting,deviously exciting or even frightening the thoughts may be , let them play out like a movie or any recording all the while repeating I TRUST HASHEM..as they have no power but the power we give them.By repeating I TRUST HASHEM we dont even give the Yetser Hara a chance, we refuse to engage and so all the convoluted logic , excuses, rationalizations etc that lead us down extremely regretful roads in the grasp of the tentacles of temptation and spiritual disarray do not even have an opportunity to take hold
This will take some time and constant effort,it is a conditioning process but remember we are fighting for our lives here.We can never be off duty ,always on guard, we are too important for the Yetser Hara to ignore us so it regroups and retaliates but eventually after relentlessly day in day out repelling attacks with I TRUST HASHEM and thus not even engaging the Yetser Hara we will find, when Hashem deems the time opportune, that the voice of the Yetser Hara will be silenced,it's power of speech muzzled.With the Yetser Hara losing its voice our Yetser Hatov will start it's victory dance spreading through our entire being and by the grace of Hashem we will live a life with renewed sight,with cataracts of distraction removed beholding the endless beautiful miracles that have always been around us, basking in the warmth of Hashem unhindered light.
I TRUST HASHEM-your blade of light that cuts through the darkness of the Yetser Hara ..use it, repeat it ..you are worth the effort Hashem believes it so should you.
Live Authentically ,Live Gratefully Live Intentionally- You can always take it higher you have G-D within you
