Al Chet 19
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Exploring the Al Chet Prayer
Rabbi Shraga Simmons
19. For the mistakes we committed before You with the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination).
The Yetzer Hara is that little voice inside each of us that tries to convince us to pursue physical comfort, at the expense of greater spiritual pleasures.
Ask yourself:
- Have I pursued my physical drives for their own sake -- without involving any spiritual dimension?
- Do I resort to the excuse that "I couldn't help myself"?
- Have I studied Torah techniques for channeling physical drives into holiness?
Al Chet # 19
44 Roots of Mistakes
by George Brock
The Sin: The Mistakes we committed before You with the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination).
- The Yetzer Hara is that little voice inside each one of us- that tries to convince us to pursue 'physical comfort'; at the expense of a greater 'Spiritual pleasure'.
The Battle: The 'good inclination' (Yetzer HaTov) {vs} The 'evil inclination' (Yetzer Hara).
The Cause:
- Self discipline- can only be achieved when one realizes one has a 'good' and 'evil' inclination.
- Desires- causes one to confuse (what one is) and (what one desires to become).
- Desires are illusions- Nothing is what it seems to be.
- When one has a sense of- 'doing without', it drives one toward evil. But, When one feels guilty for giving in to that desire, It will drive one back towards good.
The Victory:
- The evil inclination seeks to test itself against the good inclination.
- Evil reaches for one and attacks one from behind.
- Discipline- will remove the 'conflict' within oneself.
- The Victory comes- when one realizes that any 'physical' desire that keeps one from one's 'Spiritual' need, is to many desires.
- Only through T'shuvah can one overcome his forbidden lusts and desires.
The Goal:
- One needs to seek truth, learn it's ways and seek not to change truth, but learn to follow it.
- One also needs to ask G-d for the strength and courage to do the 'right thing', which is the voice of the 'good inclination'. Also one needs to reject the voice of the 'evil inclination' which says 'to do your own thing'.