Rav Zamir Cohen shared a story about one of the previous Gedolim, that when he visited a certain community, he was hosted by the wealthiest resident of the town, who placed a room at his disposal on the top floor of his mansion. During the night, the Rav woke up and felt a sudden craving for some snuff. He got up to look for his snuffbox, and then he realized that it was in his coat pocket, which had been left in the lobby on the ground floor.
He decided that he would go down to get it, but then he hesitated. He said to himself, “Am I such an indulger, that I can’t conquer my desire for some snuff? Should I go down all those stairs in the middle of the night, just to get a pinch of snuff? It is not necessary! I will go back to sleep!”
He sat back down on his bed, determined to return to sleep, when another thought struck him. “Maybe the reason I’m not going downstairs for that snuff is really not because I wish to conquer my desires. Perhaps the reason really stems from laziness, and I am just coming up with an excuse to avoid exerting myself?”
He rose again, then sat down quickly and asked himself, “But maybe the idea of me being lazy is only the excuse I am giving myself, so that I can happily surrender to my craving for some snuff?” He continued debating the matter internally for some time, until he decided to act.
He left his bed, went down to the ground floor, and located his snuffbox. He raised it, then put it back down, leaving it on the table without taking any snuff, and then he returned to sleep. With this, he managed to overcome both his craving, and his laziness, with one action!
Reprinted from the Parshas Naso 5785 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
