One day, he came upon a village of wise men. After hearing his rant against the king, the wise villagers turned to him in disbelief, saying, “Our king is so great that it cannot be true that someone who knows him as well as you do should oppose him or seek to rebel against him. This must be a trick of the king himself to test our loyalty!”
Similarly, a truly wise person recognizes that G-d is everywhere, is responsible for everything that happens, and is always acting solely in their best interests. With this in mind, one can see past the satan’s seductions and recognize the devious designs as the tests they truly are, aimed at revealing the depth of our commitment to our Father in Heaven.
The satan is G-d’s undercover agent. When we recognize that its ploys are actually a farce and do not even reflect the satan’s own true desire, this helps us take them less seriously and see them for what they are—an opportunity for us to rise above our current station and prove ourselves in the face of such generative adversity.
The satan is an agent rather than an adversary of G-d, deployed to test our spiritual integrity rather than to trap or trip us up in sin.
A king had an only son whom he loved dearly. He therefore warned him not to go near any promiscuous women, lest he be deemed unworthy of entering his father’s palace. Hearing this and knowing how much his father loved him, the prince declared his allegiance to his father and promised that he would never act contrary to his wishes.
Days passed, and the king wished to give the kingdom to his son. In order to do so, however, the king had to first test his son’s loyalty.
He hired a beautiful courtesan to attempt to seduce his son and thus test him. If the prince is able to overcome the lure of her charms and pushes her away, thus maintaining his allegiance to the king, his father then rejoices doubly in his son and brings him into the inner chambers of his palace. He showers him with precious gifts. Who occasioned all the honor for the king’s son? Was it not the courtesan? Should she not be praised for her efforts?
FOOTNOTES
1. Sotah 3a.
2. E.g., Sforno on Genesis 3:1.
3. Sanhedrin 107a.
4. Bava Batra 16a.
5. Bereishit Rabbah 9:7.
6. Genesis 1:31.
7. Zohar I:14a; Bereishit Rabbah ibid.
8. II:163a.
9. Keter Shem Tov Vol. 1, 115.
10. Zohar ibid.
Reprinted from the current website of Chabad.Org
