The Secret Weapon

The biggest problem that we have, is that we do not recognize who we are. And when I say that this is the biggest problem that we have – I mean it! This is literally the root of all our problems! 

Let’s explain. 

You need to know that your life looks to you, exactly the way that you look to yourself! Meaning that if you see yourself as worthy, honorable and important – then you will never act in a way that is against that self-image. But if you see yourself as a person who is cheap, or bad, or even worse, as a sinner, you will continue to act accordingly. 

Therefore, the root of our behavior stems from the way we see ourselves! 

Acheive your Dreams

The Evil Inclination (Yetzer Hara) knows this very well. Therefore, the war against the Yetzer Hara is primarily a psychological war. He wants to convince you that you are bad, or a sinner, and are lowly and unworthy. He wants you to believe that you are not as loved by Hashem as you are. The point is to push you until you fall into the most dangerous emotion there is, which is like spiritual death – despair. Until you feel that you cannot be fixed, that you have no way out, and no hope. Until there is nothing left of you that could be strengthened, G-d forbid. 

But we have a secret weapon against this most dangerous situation. With it, you can smash the Evil Inclination into smithereens, and truly achieve every spiritual height you desire. Not only do you need to learn it very well, but you must remember it every moment of your life, in order to fight the Evil Inclination and destroy it at its root, before it can weed its way into you even a tiny bit. This weapon is called: Know who you really are! 

A Clear Distinction 

So, who are you, really? What do I mean when I say: “Know who you really are”? I want you to recognize that you are a neshama – a soul. The soul is a part of G-d Himself! G-d is absolutely only and perfectly good – and therefore, you are also absolutely only and perfectly good! You are your soul – and your soul is perfectly righteous, and wants with all of its power, only to do what is good and right in Hashem’s eyes. 

It’s like saying that you are your jacket. The body with all of its instincts and desires is just like a jacket for the soul. So what, if someone talks about your jacket? You are not your jacket! So too, you are not your body, and you are not your bad deeds – you are a pure and holy soul, whose only desire is to do good!  

So, what goes wrong? Everyone sees that we have bad desires, negative emotions, and evil deeds... 

The important word here is distinction. All that bad – it isn’t you!!! That bad (ra) comes from the Yetzer HaRa – the Evil Inclination, which really is – the desire to do bad. But you – meaning your soul – has no bad, not even a tiny bit! As Rebbe Nachman said, “Anyone who knows the holiness of the souls of Israel, and from where they are taken…knows that they have no connection whatsoever to sin, according to their great holiness…” 

Your Inner Essence 

It’s true that the Evil Inclination has an important task. That task is to make us connect to Hashem constantly, and ask for His help. But even the blackest deeds don’t at all testify that the Jew is bad. The Jewish soul always remains pure and uncontaminated! 

The point of the Evil Inclination in inciting you to sin isn’t to change your essence – he can't do that. The only benefit he gets is your own self-doubt – that hopefully (in his eyes) you will forget that you are only good. If he can get you to believe the lie that you yourself are bad, and that your bad deeds or bad desires come from your true self G-d forbid, then he won! Now you are in real danger, and this is a surefire recipe for you to crash into the lowest spiritual levels, G-d should save us. 

But if you remember that the sin is not you, and that really, you are purely good, and only truly want to do good – then you are totally protected from the Evil Inclination. Even if he tells you, “Oh, you are so bad, you did X, Y and Z bad things, you are the worst of the worst…” you will laugh in his face and say, “So you came to tell me that I have a Yetzer Hara? I know that already… but that is not ME!” And you have just totally nullified the Evil Inclination! It doesn’t matter anymore what he tries to tell you. You know to ignore him, and therefore you will beat him, and you will rise! And even if you fall, you will easily do teshuva afterwards no matter what you did, and keep moving forward, and going up. It will be easy and even sweet to pray and constantly strengthen yourself.  

Perfect and Complete Emuna (Emuna Shleima) 

This is called: Believe in Yourself! This is also called perfect and complete emuna – because you cannot truly believe in Hashem, if you don’t believe in yourself! This is also the aspect of truly believing in Hashem’s mercy – that G-d is full of rachamim.  

This knowledge also enables you to believe in everyone else in the world. They, too, are only good! They also only want to get closer to G-d and fulfill their true purpose in life – and they fumble up sometimes, unfortunately even in big ways, just like you do. Now it’s easy to forgive them, to let go, and even more – to help them come closer to Hashem, because you know that deep inside, they want it too.