29 Aug STRATEGIC IMPROVEMENT

The Kasav Sofer,
zt”l, zy”a, says that the
blowing of the shofar
during Elul reminds us
of the objective of shapru
ma’aseichem, make your
ways prettier. (Shofar
and shapru, to be pretty,
share the same root.) One
of the ways to improve
is to work on our perennial battle with the
yeitzer hara, the evil inclination, and to
more often enable the yeitzer tov, the good
inclination, to get the upper hand. The first
task to accomplish this is to recognize what
our personal yeitzer haras are. As the Mishna
says in the beginning of the fourth perek of
Pirkei Avos, “Eizehu gibor? Hakoveish es
yitzro – Who is mighty? He who conquers
his own inclination.” There isn’t much of a
trick in not talking in shul, if that is not our
temptation. For us, it might be screaming at
home, saying insensitive words, looking at
forbidden sights, or saying untruths.
Rav Twerski, zt”l, zy”a, teaches that
sometimes it’s difficult to know if something
is stemming from the yeitzer hara or from the
yeitzer tov. Certain people who react harshly
because of righteous indignation might be
acting with proper zealotry or they might

be succumbing to the awful yeitzer hara of
machlokes, strife and dissention. He offers
a wonderful litmus test to determine if any
proposed action is emanating from a good
place or from the sitra achra, the side of
tumah, contamination.
Rav Twerski cites a Medrash in Bereishis
on the posuk, “V’yar Elokim es kol asher
asah, v’hinei tov meod – And Hashem saw
all the He did and it was very good.” The
Medrash elaborates: Tov, good, refers to the
yeitzer tov. On the other hand, meod, very
much, refers to the yeitzer hara. Rav Twerski
wonders why we would refer to the yeitzer
hara as very good. He explains ingeniously
that the word meod means very much and the
Medrash is teaching us that anything that we
want to do ‘very much’ should be suspect.
As Rav Twerski says, anything ‘too’ is
suspicious. That’s not the way that the yeitzer
tov operates. He doesn’t push us to do things.
If we feel a real urgency to get involved in
something, when we feel that something is
pushing us, we should at least investigate
whether it is coming from an unwholesome
source. This is an incredible forensic device
to uncover our true motivations in any
given action. When using this method, we
might find to our surprise that we are being
motivated by a desire for koved, pride, or a

subliminal need to even the score or, even
worse, for vengeance.
I’d like to share another piece of advice
when it comes to the yeitzer hara. When we
are trying to fashion our To-Do-Better list
for the New Year, often times we face what
seems to be a brick wall. We would like to say
that we will get up early for minyan, but we
feel that it’s beyond our bechirah point. We
just don’t think we could do it. Or, when we
think about not raising our voice in the home,
we think regretfully that we’re just too old
to change. We must know that the Gemora
teaches us, “Yitzro shel adam misgaber alov
b’chol yom v’im ein HaKodosh Boruch Hu
ozro, eino yochol lo – A person’s inclination
prevails upon him every day and if Hashem
wouldn’t help him, he wouldn’t be able to
prevail.”
This means that every time a person
initiates a battle against the evil inclination,
Hashem offers him assistance. When we
make the mental calculation of whether we
can improve, we tend to think only about our
ability. Then, we might correctly assess that
it’s beyond our ability. We must add to the
equation Hashem’s assistance and, with that,
it changes the whole picture. Then we should
be fortified that we will be able to succeed
and accomplish our desired improvement.

I hope these strategies will help us in our
mission to better ourselves and in that merit
may Hashem bless us with long life, good
health, and everything wonderful.