The Evil Inclination

The Satan is a genius angel. He is very experienced. He knows all kinds of people and all their weaknesses. He knows how to always attract you to negative. He knows what will appeal to you. How can he convince you not to do what you're about to do, something good? And how to always push you to the walls in such a way that you won't even realize he's fooling you. Not only the infatuations before you commit the sin, all these illusions and desires. After you commit the sin, he comes to you and says, dear Yitzchak, dear Avi, dear David, you're such a loser. Hashem cannot look at you. Look at you. Look what you just did. Shame on you. Why you pretend to be religious? Take off this yarmulke. You don't deserve to wear it. You put in tzitzit? Someone dirty like you put a tzitzit? A thief like you deserve to give tzedakah? Who do you think you are? What's the point of giving tzedakah? You have zero faith. It puts you down. It brings you into depression. It's called marash chora. Mara means bitter, shchora means black. Black bitterness. You feel darkness around your soul. And then you don't want to wake up in the morning. I'm depressed. I'm in depression. Deep depression. Why? First committing sins, then the Satan puts you down and make you look, feel like a loser. Because you care about Hashem and you want to be righteous, it gets you into depression. Don't ever let him fool you. If he fooled you first committing a sin, do not let him come a minute later and tell you that you're a loser. You must remember that there's nothing that stands in front of repentance, teshuvah, even a thousand times. A thousand times the same sin, a thousand and one times, you still can do teshuvah. Yes, it looks like a joke. Every day I commit the same sins and ask Hashem for forgiveness and commit that I won't do it. And the next day I do it again, and the next day I do it again. And it's been going on for years. Yes, everybody knows what I'm talking here about. But that's what the teshuvah was designed, even a million times. Why? As long as you keep addressing the issue and keep failing, the bad news is that you're failing. You're not a strong character. You're not trying hard enough. If someone would put a gun to your head, you would succeed. But because you don't have a gun to your head, you count on the next time. On the next time I'll repent. Right now, I don't put my full energy into it. I'm still young. There will be time to do a perfect repentance. 'You are one of a kind.' After you hear this in your mind, you're not even aware that this is what Satan is whispering inside your brain. He gives you these ideas. What would be your reaction? The Satan is a genius. He have no idea how. He is a divine creature. Hashem designed him. His job is to make sure to bury you as deep as possible. Just like the prosecutors here in the court. Or in Israel. They are very cruel, vicious. And thirsty for blood. Like sharks. Sharks are blind, but they smell blood. If you have a little wound, la peta chatatrovet, one drop of blood drips from your leg or from your hand, the sharks immediately come from a mile away. You become materialistic, immediately Hashem sends to your direction more and more tests, which you will fail all of them. You open a window, an ocean will come to your direction. Not one drop or two, because he opened a hole, that's it. Save us from the Satan in front of us and behind us. In front of us, it's a trap. Everybody wants to be saved from the trap. But what does it mean from behind us if I already overcome the Satan? I skipped that obstacle, that trap. He's behind me. Why do I have to still waste time on what I already passed? The answer is just as hard as it was to overcome this desire and this test, just as hard is to overcome the great pride.