Q:
You said that when a person tries to do something good in avodas Hashem so right away the yetzer horah puts up roadblocks. So if I would like to start working on improving my middos, mistama the yetzer horah will come against me because its a good thing. How might the yetzer horah come against a person who is working on his middos?
A:
The yetzer horah will say, “You’re a good fellow! Don’t listen to the one who tells you that you have to criticize yourself. Don’t go overboard; don’t be meshuga. You’re good enough as you are. If you have any spare time, put it into something else. Maybe you can putter around the house, maybe just resting up, or maybe learning something else. But you don’t have to bother too much with self criticism. After all, there’s this tzadik and that tzadik and they’re not doing it.” Maybe they are but the yetzer horah tell you they’re not doing it and you start thinking the whole thing is unnecessary.
Then of course, there’s laziness. Laziness is the enemy of mankind! עפריות החומריות גס – The materialism of the human body is heavy and slothful. And people, even if they have good intentions, they finally get tired and they would rather do things that are not so hard to do, and they just finally surrender. Many times you start good things and you decide it’s too much work and you drop it. That’s the big yetzer horah.
So there are two yetzer horahs; number one is to convince you that it’s not that necessary. And secondly, you’ll get tired.
TAPE # E-9