Those Shameful Thoughts and What They Really Say about You
This week’s Torah portion states, “When you will go out to war against your enemies, and God, your God will deliver them into your hand…(21:10). Everything in the Torah is applicable to every single Jew in every place and time. For those of us not going out in war, what does this mean?
Lesson:
Our Sages explain that our enemies discussed here are not only external enemies, but rather our internal evil inclination that acts against us. We all have a good inclination, the part of us that wants to do the right thing, and the opposing force that tries to slip us up and do that which is contrary to acting in a way that helps us fulfill our highest, holiest potential. God, however, created us with these two opposing forces for a reason: without it we would have no free will. If we had no evil inclination, we’d only want to do good – there would be no choice.
The point of life is to utilize our free will and choose to do good. It’s not an easy battle. Our evil inclination is a persistent enemy that is constantly waging battle against us. Our Torah portion holds the key: When you go out to war you know who the enemy is and are properly prepared to fight. We too have to come prepared against our internal enemy, the evil inclination, so that we don’t get ambushed and before we know it have already lost the battle.
How do we prepare? Put in your effort devising an effective battleplan, and then ask God to help. God created us with love and created the evil inclination so that we could fight it and win, not so that we fall prey to it. Identifying areas of weakness and asking God to help us are sure ways to win the battle. There is a concept in Judaism that when you ask God to help and make an effort the size of the eye of a needle, God turns that effort into the size as large as a banquet hall. When we get God’s help, we can conquer anything and we will see ‘God deliver them [the evil inclination] into our hand,’ just as this week’s portion promised.
Exercise: Identify an area of weakness, implement your battleplan and ask God to help you overcome it.
