I'm in the middle of learning a sweet daf of Gemara... My chavrusa and I are throwing out questions, finding answers, formulating different mehalchim. There is no room for the Yetzer Hara in mind. Or so I think... We get stuck on a piece, brainstorming for a few minutes...
"I got it!" shouts my chavrusa. I look at him. He smiles and begins to build his case with his signature hand motions.
Just then, the Yetzer Hara hits... it was a surprise attack - completely out of nowhere. He had gotten past my defenses and was staring me in the eye... alone, at first.
"Hey Will", says the Y"H, a troubling grin on his face.
"Get out of here", I shoot back.
He smiles... "I'm going, I'm going... but, uh... I just thought I should tell you that, uhh... your neder (vow) expired yesterday... y'know, the one you had against intentionally looking at 'exciting things' and acting out. Well, it's over... which means that technically, you can do whatever you want now... and it wont cost you a thing. Anyway, I'll, uhh... I'll leave now." He began walking towards the end of my mind, disappearing behind a recess.
My face goes white. I was doing so well that I had forgotten to renew the neder before it expired.
"Oh no." I think... "This Yetzer Hara is too powerful for me to battle without a tangible ally (my neder)."
I frantically look around for Menachem, the guy I make my nedarim with. He's nowhere in the Beis Medrash. I look for the Yetzer Hara... he's nowhere to be found... he has left me alone. He just planted the idea and left.
"Ok, no biggie", I think to myself. "He's gone for now... I can make it through the rest of this daf, and then I'll call Menachem to schedule an emergency neder session."
I calm down a bit... and look back at my chavrusa. He's still going at it, clarifying his mehalech and pointing excitedly all over the daf and its neighbor. I try to put my mind back into it entirely. I'm just finding the place, when suddenly.... BOOM.
The Yetzer Hara comes racing out into my conscious, fully dressed in his battle gear. But this time he's not alone... an entire army flanks his right and left... an army of memories. Every image that I ever tried to forget, every fantasy I ever had... they were there, and advancing. "Oh no... I fell for it!", I yell... "THE RETREATING ATTAAAACK!!!" I run for cover, falling back into battle stance... looking desperately for backup... but no... all of my defenses are too distant to utilize.
The Yetzer Hara and his army were getting closer and closer... their spears forming an impenetrable wall, threatening every area of my exposed neshama. They were not letting up. I look at the massive army and its general... there is no hope. Caught off guard with no defenses, it was "shooting fish in a teacup" - and I was the fish.
"I'm done for", I think... "his army is too powerful."
I slowly put down my weapons. "It was a good streak... but nothing lasts...", I think sadly.
The Yetzer Hara is smiling... victory is his, yet again. I begin scheming for my acting out, the Yetzer Hara being very helpful...
And just then it hit me. "That's it! Nothing lasts... nothing lasts... NOTHING LASTS!!! All of these memories that are threatening my neshama... all of these 'pleasures' that are promising me happiness... they DON'T LAST! Why in the world should I even think about giving in to such fake fulfillment?"
And that's when I heard the air sirens... a formation of thousands of planes coming out of nowhere. I squinted towards them... they were friendly! They were allies! They were sent by Hashem himself!
I watched as the air strike flew in low, letting loose a barrage of missiles, assaulting the Yetzer Hara's army. Memory by memory, each one was blown up... any temptation that I had as a result of them were obliterated along with them. I scrambled for my weapons and began running towards the Yetzer Hara. "GET OUT OF HERE!!", I screamed. The Yetzer Hara looked at me, dumbstruck, and ran helter skelter in the opposite direction.
"Phew... that was close!"
I looked back at the planes just in time to see them get back in formation and disappear into the horizons of my mind.
I looked up. "Thank You Hashem... Thank You!"
"And THAT'S exactly what Rashi was hinting to over here, and now it all makes sense!! Gevaldig!" finished my chavrusa.
"Uh, WOW! Good thinking!" I quickly said.
We both looked back into our Gemaras... I sneak a peak at my watch.
That was the longest 30 seconds of my life.