Today in battling our Yetzer Hara, the Gemara gives us very good advise.
What this quote is telling us is that from the day we are born, the Yetzer Hara is there, but it hasn’t taken over your identity. The more you submit to it, however, the more it becomes attached to your personality, until finally it’s the boss, it becomes you.
To be able to come back and do Teshuvah at this point it becomes almost impossible. For a person to reset his personality it becomes a superhuman task. This is why it says “where a Baal Teshuvah (a returnee) stands a Tzadik can’t stand.
The Maharal explains that if you have no scruples about buying stolen merchandise, then you have descended to the level where stealing is ok.
A person that buys stolen merchandise is even worst than the thief because he has no remorse and guilt, the thief, on the other hand, can still harbor feelings of guilt.
The way to fight this trap is to become sensitive to the outcome of our actions by not even opening the door to the Yetzer Hara and not allowing him in, for once he is in he will surround us little by little, like a spider web which is easy to break out at the beginning but the more it envelops us the harder it will be to see the wrong and we will be unable to set ourselves free.
Some excerpts from “Battle Plans” by Rebbetzin Tzipora Heller and Sarah Yoheved Rigler
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