Chapter 25- Celebrating Our Victories
Overcoming desire is an astounding accomplishment. The Sefer Menoras Hama’or (1:2:3:4) relates that a person who is challenged with a strong craving for sin but controls himself receives the reward of performing a mitzvah. Not only that, he even merits having a miracle done for him! This is derived from the Gemara (Kiddushin 39b-40a):
Rav Tuvi the son of Rav asked Rava a contradiction: The Mishnah (ibid 39b) states that when a person does a mitzvah, they do good for him [from Heaven]. This implies that if he didn’t do a mitzvah, they don’t do so — meaning the only way to earn reward is to do a mitzvah. But a different Mishnah (Makkos 23b) teaches us that a person who holds himself back from sinning is rewarded as if he performed a mitzvah! [There seems to be a contradiction whether a person who refrains from sinning is rewarded!]
Rava answered, “[A person isn’t rewarded for not sinning if he wasn’t tested. But] if an opportunity to sin arose and he abstained, he is rewarded.”
Rashi explains: “The statement that ‘one who refrains from sinning is rewarded like one who does a mitzvah’ refers to a situation where he was able to sin and he overcame his impulses. There is no mitzvah greater than this.”