A 10-year-old boy decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident. The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training the master had taught him only one move.
“Sensei,” the boy finally said, “Shouldn’t I be learning more moves?”
“This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,” the sensei replied.
Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training. Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament.
Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches.
The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his only move to win the match.
Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals. This time, his opponent was bigger and stronger. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out.
He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened. “No,” the sensei insisted, “Let him continue.”
Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him.
The boy had won the match and the tournament.
“Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?”
“You won for two reasons,” the sensei answered. “First, you’ve almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defence for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm.”
The boy’s biggest weakness had become his biggest strength.
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As addicts, we have a weakness. We are powerless over lust. But once we recognize this, we have no choice but to surrender lusting altogether. And this becomes our greatest strength because the Yetzer Hara's strongest tool to getting even the big "benei Torah" to stumble and lose their connection with Hashem is by damaging their Kedusha. Once the Yesod is damaged, the connection is lost and the Torah's light can no longer be "machziro lemutav".
With today's technology, internet, movies, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. it is so easy to get damaged in this area. But as addicts with this weakness, we simply cannot afford to begin lusting even a little. We have no choice but to surrender all these things that "normal people" can do (like watching movies and browsing the internet freely), otherwise we know we're finished.
So yes, we may be missing our left hand, but the Yetzer Hara's biggest tool is gone. He can't grab us by the left-arm any more. Our weakness becomes our strength!