We Have the Power!

Translated by Rabbi Lazer Brody

The quality of a person’s life is governed by his mindset. Positive thinkers live upbeat lives; the opposite is also true, for a pessimist is never happy. Nothing is so conducive to a healthy and tranquil thought process as personal holiness. People plagued by promiscuity live lives of internal uproar, for as their lust is never satisfied, they are never satisfied.
 
Guarding one’s personal holiness is very conducive to guarding one’s thoughts from negative emotions, especially sadness and depression. As such, the more a person guards his personal holiness, the more pure, positive and tranquil his thoughts are, and the happier he is.
 
Holiness brings a person to “straightness of heart” – peace with himself and with others, self-composure, calmness, patience, magnanimity, and both material and spiritual contentment. One who guards his holiness and loyalty merits lucent emuna and greater spiritual cognizance and understanding. He earns true prestige and more readily climbs the ladders of Torah and teshuva.
 
A person who sanctifies himself attains a sublime measure of spiritual sweetness. Divine service, particularly prayer, become a deep pleasure and not some mere weighty obligation. Anger and cruelness fall by the wayside. Such a person is confident and therefore free from the need to flatter and forcibly please other people. He fears no one – man, animal or any other threat.
 
A guardian of personal holiness speaks in a wholesome and pleasing manner, both in quality and in quantity. He is truly capable of feeling the illumination of Shabbat and holidays. He merits both mental and physical health and well-being. Even his dreams become more pleasant, for holy angels frequent his soul.
 
Guardians of personal holiness merit children who love Torah and who become upright Torah scholars. Since they overcome their natural tendencies, Hashem in measure-for-measure fashion overcomes nature to perform miracles for them. They are saved from potential incarceration and, if incarcerated, are set free.
 
Those who strive for holiness and loyalty merit stronger memories and spiritual sensitivity. They are often saved from calamity, car accidents and many many more dangers.
 
Many doubt their ability to change, to overcome habitual behavior or to improve their character. Rebbe Nachman says that with sufficient prayer a person can completely overcome negative traits and bodily lust (see Likutei Moharan I:52).
 
Rebbe Nachman explains: “By way of this [personal prayer], a person can nullify every type of lust and negative character traits.” Contrary to popular misconception, a person need not “fight” lust and overtake it his entire life, for anyway – as they misconstrue – it’s impossible to defeat. That’s not true! As Rebbe Nachman promises, a person can nullify every type of lust and negative character traits to the extent that he’ll no longer need to struggle with his base evil inclination and where lust is no longer a temptation for him. Then, once he overcomes his base evil inclination, he is now free to overcome his higher spiritual evil inclination, which in essence is an angel. Rebbe Nachman writes (ibid, I:72):
 
“There are several aspects of the evil inclination. Crass people on a low spiritual level have a crass and coarse evil inclination. Most people have the evil inclination in their blood, particularly in the heart’s left ventricle where it is most powerful. Their main confusion stems from its effect on their blood. For a person with minimal spiritual awareness, this evil inclination is nonsense and idiocy, and they need little effort to overcome it. What’s considered a test or temptation for most people, such as promiscuity, is nonsense to him  and not even considered a temptation at all. A spiritually-aware individual has at least a minimal concept of Hashem’s greatness… and for him, lust is not even a temptation. He doesn’t have to overcome it at all. But, he has an evil inclination that is an angel, and even so, it’s still the evil inclination, and one needs concerted effort to overcome it and escape it… these are the severe judgments that one must overcome and mitigate, so that everything will become good.” Rebbe Nachman calls the lust that subdues most people by the name of “nonsense and idiocy.” This is the base lust that’s not even considered a temptation or trial, as any person with the slightest spiritual awareness can realize.
 
The book “Siach Sarfei Kodesh” by Rabbi Avraham Weitzhandler tells that Rebbe Nachman’s simplest pupils overcame the base evil inclination of lust. One of them, Rabbi Leib, the brother of Reb Sander Terevitzer was a holy man who once grabbed his own beard and declared, “This beard hasn’t pondered a single thought of lust for the last twenty five years!”

Rebbe Alter Tepliker in “Meshivat Nefesh” writes that one’s brain is a barrier against promiscuity and lust. A person must believe that by virtue of his brainpower, he can withstand lust and promiscuity. One’s brain and intellect is his soul, and the soul of the lowest Jew can certainly stand against the entire world and its bodily lusts. We have the power!