Sinful Thoughts
I once spoke about how the Yetzer Hara causes a person to become despondent in his Avodat Hashem. Often, when one sees how abundant his sins are, he falls into despair vis-à-vis his relationship with Hashem. The Yetzer Hara convinces him that his sins are too great to bear, and he will never succeed in doing teshuvah. Man’s mission is to ignore the suggestions of the Yetzer Hara and plow on full-speed ahead in serving Hashem.
A member of the audience approached me after the speech. “Honored Rav,” he began, “your words were right on target. Regrettably, in the recent past, I have transgressed many sins, and I have despaired of ever returning to Hashem’s good graces. It has reached the point where I have no inclination for prayer and Torah study. I am certain that Hashem will never accept my prayers after all that I transgressed, and He certainly is not interested in my Torah study.”
I was shaken to hear his forceful declaration. “I am sure that it is the Yetzer Hara himself speaking from your throat! With his cunning manner, he places thoughts of despair in your heart by blowing up your sins to exaggerated proportions. He makes you doubt your chances of doing complete teshuvah, preventing you from praying, learning Torah, and repenting.”
The man was stunned by the twist of my approach. I continued:
“You must know that all of the Yetzer Hara’s propositions are nothing but nonsense. The Attribute of Justice can lock all the gates before a person – the gate of livelihood, the gate of health, and the gate of blessing. But there is one gate to which he does not hold the key. That is the gate of repentance. This gate does not have a lock; it is open to everyone, at every level. Every day, Hashem awaits our teshuvah. As soon as we repent our misdeeds, He welcomes us back with open arms.”
The man heard my words. It is my fervent hope that he accepted them and merited doing teshuvah for his sins, serving Hashem sincerely.
