Keep the Yetzer Hara Away
Fortunate are those who install a filter on their computer! It accomplishes so much! But when possible, it is so much better not to have anything to do with the internet. When the yetzer hara gets his foot inside, even a tiny foot, you don’t know where it will end, as the following mashal, told by the Toldos Yaakov Yosef zt’l, demonstrates:
A poor person knocked on a wealthy man’s door and asked to buy one of the pegs hanging in his foyer. The rich man replied that it was not for sale. But the poor person kept coming back, begging to buy the peg. Finally, the wealthy person agreed to sell it to him. (He thought he wouldn’t be bothered after the sale anymore; he was mistaken.) The poor man paid a large sum, the wealthy man wrote out a contract, and the peg was now his. The next day, the poor man returned and hung some clothes on the peg. He claimed that the peg was now his and had the right to use it as he desired.
Every day, the pauper came back to the wealthy home to hang up another item or to take something down. One day, he arrived with a carcass and hung it on the peg. The stench was terrible. The wealthy man and his family fled from their home. They couldn't live there. That’s how the entire house became the property of the poor man.
The nimshal is that the yetzer hara comes to a person and tries to convince him to sin with something relatively minor. The person pushes the yetzer hara away, but after the yetzer hara bothers him so many times, he gives in to “one small thing.” He figures that if he gives in, the yetzer hara will leave him alone. But now that the yetzer hara has a grip on him, he will keep coming back until he brings very stinking sins, and then he can rule over the person, chalilah.
The Rebbes of Vizhnitz zt'l told a mashal of a plot of land surrounded by a fence. The fence aimed to keep the animals out so they wouldn’t destroy the crop. There was only one minor breach in the gate. He thought it was small and insignificant, but this small breach in the fence became a significant problem. The animals circled the gate until they reached the opening and came inside.
The nimshal is that we must seek to keep as far away as possible from the yetzer hara and his enticements. Lowering our guard, even in one area, gives the yetzer hara a foothold from where he can cause much more damage.
