02 Dec PICKING THE RIGHT FIGHT

The revered and holy
Mashgiach of Lakewood,
Rav Nosson Vachtfogel,
zt”l, zy”a, pondered an
interesting contemporary
phenomenon. In his sefer,
Likutei Reshimos, he
wonders why millions of
people across the globe
have a fascination with soccer. He bluntly
depicts it as an activity of kicking a ball
through a gate. Why, he questions, are peopele
mesmerized to the point of obsession about
such an activity? To take the Mashgiachs’s
question a bit further, in America, boxing and
wrestling are a multi-billion dollar industry.
One wonders why 21st century civilized man
has such a fascination for watching people
punch one another up.
Rav Vachtfogel’s answer provides a profound
and vital understanding of the human psyche.
Man, he explains, was created with an inner
programming built into his very DNA to be
a warrior against his yeitzer hara, his evil
inclination. Every day, Hashem wants us to
battle against, and successfully vanquish,
our sinful and more base urges. Thus, the
successful man or woman will combat daily
their urges to succumb to anger, the temptations
of lust and greed, the lures of sinful gossip, the
inclinations to be lazy or insensitive, and the

like. It is life’s premier mission to succeed at
this inner battle.
Even when we are fully cognizant of this
hornet’s nest brewing within us, we still need
Hashem’s help to succeed. As we are taught,
“Yitzro shel adom misgaber alov bechol yom,
v’im ein HaKadosh Baruch Hu ozro, eino
yachol lo – One’s evil inclination prevails
upon him every day and if Hashem would not
assist him, he would not be able to best it.”
Thus, Rav Vachtfogel continues, Hashem gave
us an inner drive to be a fighter, to have that
warrior spirit, so that we should succeed in the
directive of the Gemara stated in the beginning
of Masechtas Berachos, “L’olam yargiz adom
yeitzer tov al yeitzer hara – One should always
incite one’s good inclination against one’s evil
inclination.”
If, however, one fails at this mission and lives
his or her life on cruise control, just coasting
through life without putting up a fight, then
that warrior spirit needs to manifest itself
in other fashions. Rav Vachtfogel looked at
the myriads of people who are riveted to the
competitive spirit of soccer and identify with
one team of fighters as a means to assuage
the warrior spirit within. Now we understand
why so many are fascinated with the barbaric
nature of boxing and wrestling for these talk to
the fighter within one’s heart as well.
We might add that these substitutes are

relatively harmless. While, of course, one’s
time can be better spent with learning and
performing acts of kindness, being a passionate
soccer or wrestling fan is not disastrous.
However, in many people the warrior spirit
rears its ugly head in much more serious and
nefarious ways. For example, there are those
who sink their teeth into shul politics, into
the nasty infighting that sometimes goes on
between different factions within a kehila,
sometimes revolving around a controversial
gabbai, a dislike of the rabbi, shul elections,
the opening and closing of windows in the
winter, or even on the holy subject of not
talking in shul. It is a great sadness when one
transfers the spirit of the fight which Hashem
gave to him to combat his yeitzer hara to the
unholy occupation of bringing the ruination of
machlokes to his shul. Sometimes this divinely
instilled feistiness comes out in bickering and
quarrels between husband and wife, brother
and sister, and between child and parent.
Rav Vachtfogel, the great expert of the human
soul, reveals to us that we should harness this
competitive spirit within, that natural tendency
toward combativeness, and use it to wage the
daily battles against our yeitzer hara which
constantly tempts us to veer from the path
of Torah. When we do so, not only are we
succeeding at life’s great achievement, we will
also free ourselves from sinking into the lethal

quicksand of all kinds of machlokes.
May it be Hashem’s will that all our battles be
only of the spiritual kind and in that merit may
He bless us all with good health, happiness and
everything wonderful.