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"The struggle with the evil inclination"


“It makes no difference whether the struggle with the evil inclination, the yetzer hara, is over something great or something small — whether one struggles to withstand sinning or one struggles to use one’s time wisely.

In either case, the battle is of equal intensity and importance.

For instance, a person who has learned Torah for nine or ten hours may feel unable to continue.

At that moment, the effort to go on is a battle no less demanding than the war against the evil inclination’s most fiery desires.

In the final analysis, there is no qualitative difference between a person who sins because he gave in to the distractions of the street and a scholar who does not increase his study schedule or pray with kavvanah.

Neither is prepared to struggle, and neither steps beyond his limitations.”

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz


From Understanding the Tanya, p. 84, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz