The Gory Gambler

Aren't all terrorists extremists? Doesn't everyone pay for sexual misconduct? Won't anyone who refuses to work hard for something not to get it?

Normally, this is supposed to be the case. Radicalism is evil, as is sexual immorality and laziness. Anyone who chooses this path without repenting is paving their own personal road to perdition.

But that's not today's "new normal". Hashem gave the Satan the keys to your heart to create resistance against every step forward that you try to take in using your precious time on this earth.

How does the Satan use this power? What does he do to trip you up? He uses a very subtle tactic that wreaks havoc on all of us. The only defense is in the Torah, which reveals how Satan works against you.

The numerical total for the Hebrew letters which make up the word Amalek, Satan's nation, is the same as the sum total of the Hebrew letters for the term Safek, or doubt. That's his strategy – to sow doubt in your heart in order to blur your vision.

How does he do it? What should you be on the lookout for?

The Satan creates exceptions to every rule G-d put in this world in order to move you forward. Today's media likes to parade exceptions to every rule as an excuse to discard the rule itself. These messengers of doubt attack with the goal of rendering you spiritually impotent.

They parade hundreds of lawyers, doctors, and academics from extreme ideals then demand that you treat the ideal itself as mainstream. They dig up "family" men who work for "noble" causes, and leaders in the business community who engage in perversion to convince you that whatever sexual acts are their moral flavor of the month, should be treated like a new universal law.

If you read about someone who inherited ten million dollars, won a large settlement by burning his tongue on a cup of coffee, or sold a startup after 2 years and retired, then why should you put in an effort for anything you want in life whether financial, personal, or spiritual?

The devil is in the details. These sordid exceptions to the rule attack everything inside you that's worth fighting for.

So how do any of us fall into the trap?

For the same reason we buy a lottery ticket. A lottery is where you sit in a huge room with 292 million people, everyone holding a lottery ticket. If 291,999,999 people out of 292,000,000 will lose their money on this venture, does it really make sense to invest?

Yet we are suckered into it time after time, because of the one person who serves as the exception.

This is the hand Hashem gave Satan to play against us. Now, in the End of Days, the Satan has four aces. We were warned in the Zohar that right before the end, Satan will be at his most powerful. For this brief moment in time, he gets to pile his end of the table with loads of chips.

This is the test Hashem is giving you. By staying in the game, and fighting with all your might, you are earning your membership into the world that will be ruled by eternal goodness.

Let the Satan keep gambling. Anybody who stays at the table long enough will watch everything he has go back to the house.

This is the world we are advancing towards.

G-d is the only Absolute. He created this world that we live in, and created the bodies that we use to serve Him in the world. Every moment of our life is like Adam in the Garden of Eden. As long as we follow His instructions, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat…" (Genesis 2:16). These are the rules.

He did not give us a mandate to change these rules. "But of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for on the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:17).

Don't get distracted by propaganda. Stay the course and enjoy that sweet moment when you are standing at the end of the finish line.

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Dovber Halevi developed http://www.abetterlifeinisrael.com/, a 5-hour, 20-video series which gives you day to day guidance on How to Enjoy a Better Life in Israel.