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We Need to Use Force

Thursday, 08 October 2015

Dear chashuva fellow strugglers,
You might ask, if the Jews said naaseh v'nishma, why did the Creator find it necessary to force them to accept the Torah by hanging a mountain over their heads?

The answer is that the Creator of all things knew that even though the people WANTED to accept the Torah, there was something standing in the way - the Yetzer Hara. Using force takes away the Yetzer Hara and allows the true ratzon of the people to be expressed. Like the husband who wont give the wife a get, we beat him until he says that he "wants." Why is this? The Rambam says that he really does want to give the get, but the Yetzer Hara is standing in the way. The beating removes the Yetzer Hara and allows his true ratzon to emerge, which is to do the will of Hashem.

It is the same by us. We all want to do what Hashem wants, but the strong magnet of addiction is in the way. So we have to resort to extreme measures to make sure that the power of the addiction does not get in the way of our ratzon. Like filters, accountability software, personal knasos, vows, or anything that you can think of, that will, if only in a small way, weaken the power ofthe Yetzer Hara.