10 Dec VAYISHLACH: FIGHTING THE YETZER HARA WITHOUT FEAR

When a country
sends its army to war,
they don’t just teach
the soldiers how to
shoot and then tell
them, “Go to the front!”
The great minds of the
army prepare (hopefully)
wise strategies and
tactics to outmaneuver
and win the opposing
army.
The war against the
yetzer hara is compared
to a fight between
countries. And since the
battle against the yetzer hara is a war, we need
strategies to win our war with the yetzer hara.
About this, Chazal (Brachos 17.) say, “A
person should be clever with his yiras
Shamayim.” One must be clever to be
successful in this great battle.
Tzaddikim would speak about armies and
how they won wars and battles and learn
strategies that we can use against the yetzer
hara.
One primary strategy of war is to be
courageous and fearless.
A general once told Napoleon that he foresaw
that they would lose a particular battle.
Napoleon replied, “If you thought we could

win, we would have. But since you were
pessimistic, we will lose.”
The Yesod HoAvodah zt’l tells about a
general who said to his wife, “I just received a
telegram that tells terrible news. It predicts
that we are losing at a certain battle.”
His wife responded, “I just received another
telegram. It came this moment; it tells of an
even greater problem. It says you lost your
courage, which is the greatest problem.”
The same is true when we fight with the
yetzer hara. We must be courageous and fight
with confidence that with Hashem’s help, we
can win and overcome the yetzer hara.
Reb Yaakov Meir Shechter shlita explained
the power of courage with an analogy:
When you are among a pack of dogs and
show them you are afraid, they’ll run after
you. But if you show them you aren’t scared,
the dogs will leave you alone.
Reb Yaakov Meir explained that this is also
how it is with the yetzer hara. If you show fear
and meekness in front of the yetzer hara, the
yetzer hara can overpower you. But if you
show confidence and courage, the yetzer hara
leaves you alone.
Czar Nikolai’s army would fight during the
day and drink at night. One soldier drank too
much, and he was still asleep when his troop
moved on. Upon awakening, he knew he had
to catch up with his battalion quickly, but first,

he wanted something to eat.
It was Friday night. He came to a Jewish
home and helped himself to the pot of steaming
cholent. He mounted his horse, placed the pot
of hot cholent on the horse’s mane, and set off
to find his division. The hot cholent burned the
horse’s back, which spurred the horse to run
quickly. It didn’t take long before he reached
his battalion, but his horse, on fire, kept
charging forward, straight towards the front.
The enemy soldiers saw him charging full
speed towards them, and they were afraid.
They assumed he surely had a powerful
weapon since he wasn’t scared to face them
alone. They fled in panic. In this manner, Czar
Nikolai’s army won the war without firing a
single gunshot. Reb Mendel Futerfas zt’l told
this story and explained that it is the same with
our battle against the yetzer hara. If one shows
courage and hislahavus, the yetzer hara will be
afraid of him and leave him alone.
The Tanya (ch.26) writes, “There is a great
rule that I must tell you: When two people are
wrestling if one of them is lazy and moves
about heavily, he will fall, even if he is the
stronger one. The same is true with the war
against the yetzer hara. You can’t win this war
with laziness and heaviness, which are the
product of sadness and a closed heart – a heart
as hard as a stone. You only win the battle with
zrizus, which comes from a pure heart that is
alert, clear from all worldly worries and

sadness.” Because it isn’t always the one who
is stronger that wins a war. Zerizus and courage
are major factors in the battle’s outcome.
Shulchan Aruch begins “Be mighty like a
lion to awaken in the morning.”
Also, in Pirkei Avos (5:20) it states “Be
mighty like a lion to do the will of your Father
in heaven.”
What is unique about a lion? It isn’t its
strength. There are animals stronger than a
lion. The lion’s strength is its courage.
The Taz (Orach Chaim 1:1) writes, “By its
nature, the lion isn’t afraid of any animal, as it
states (Yeshaya 31:4) ‘[The lion] isn’t afraid of
their shouts.’ So too, a person shouldn’t be
afraid of the yetzer hara, although the yetzer
hara is stronger than him.” And with courage,
zrizus, and joy, you can win the war against the
yetzer hara.