To help keep our adrenalin levels up when our momentum threatens to run out, it’s worthwhile knowing the following points:
Stolen waters taste sweet. Rav Avigdor Miller, ztz“l, explains the reason for the sweetness – because it’s not yours. When a glass of that glistening, sparkling water is handed to you and is honestly yours, suddenly the magic is gone and it’s quite tasteless. Much of the longing to gaze is simply because it is forbidden.
Sin entices with false fantasies, but with the awareness that it’s a customized nisayon made for one to overcome and thereby earning vast reward for eternity, the infatuation, like a helium-filled balloon, will soon deflate and drop down to the ground.
The Satan inflates the desires, too. How so? The Kadmonim write that lust is from the yesod hamayim – the water element of creation. Water has the property to distort the appearance of things. The Satan makes a savvy impostor who offers no apologies for his theatrical deceptions.
More than simply exaggerating, Satan can craft a complete illusion. For the sake of a test, writes the Maharsha (Sanhedrin 100b), the Satan can give grace and beauty to an otherwise unattractive woman. But if we are wise we subtract all that glitter and, suddenly, he is unmasked. The smokescreen clears and gone is the appeal of the unreal.
“What is your name?” Yaakov Avinu asked Eisav’s guardian angel. “Why do you ask?” came the immediate reply. Why couldn’t the angel answer such a straightforward question? Because that’s part and parcel of his very essence – to elude us.
That slippery, scheming Satan – how shall we pin down his essence? How do we track an assailant who blurs all his outlines so that he doesn’t register on our radar? We have some vague misgivings, and niggling suspicions that he’s hatching something dark, but, true to form, he won’t be leaving his calling card on our desk.
He prefers when his victims are oblivious to his true colours and not quite sure when they are under attack. He can whip up a whirl of doubts which leave us uncertain of the forces at work, since he thrives on secrecy and ambiguity. Often we’re not fully aware that the Yeitzer Hora is leading us astray.
In that case, suggests Rav Moshe Soloveitchik, ztz ״l, of Zurich, as soon as we get an inkling that something’s brewing, we should pull away the Satan’s mask by articulating, “Here comes trouble and there is no doubt, it’s absolutely forbidden!”
These few words work wonders and will help us remain the undisputed master of our better judgment. Because he chooses to remain obscure, in all likelihood he’ll flee as soon as we announce his arrival. After that abrupt warning, drop the subject; too much effort to disconnect can have a negative effect. Be alert. The less these issues play on our conscious mind, the better.
And it’s best to slam him as soon as we can. Preferring his assault to go unnoticed, he doesn’t usually pounce on us with a full-force temptation. He starts in a small way, but then with every passing moment of our considering the forbidden, the temptation gathers momentum. Forewarned is forearmed; by dismissing the temptation at its onset before it’s gained much thrust, we are beating him at his own game.