If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," which you have not known, you or your fathers. Of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth,
The Ohr Hachaim explains that this possuk hints to the ways the Yetzer Hara approaches a person to convince them to sin and veer from the straight and narrow path.
When a person is born, a power to convince him to veer is inserted in him. The Gemara (Sanhedrin 91b) explains the possuk וְאִּם לֹא תֵיטִּיב לַפֶתַח חַטָאת רֹבֵץ - But if you do not improve, sin is lying at the entrance, that a person is born with sin at his heart, and his evil nature joins him when he is born.
Another enticer is added to a person when he performs one sin. The Mishna (Avos 4:2) says עֲבֵרָה גוֹרֶרֶת עֲבֵרָה – one sin drags another sin in its wake. When a person does an aveira, he surrounds himself with an aura of sin and an evil spirit. It is that spirit that drags him to increased sin. The Mekubalim write, at great length, that when a person does one aveira, he acquires a prosecuting angel that combines with his inner power to sin. As he sins more and more, his connection to sin is strengthened and deepened. This is why Chazal tell us that the place that Baalei Teshuva stand is a place complete Tzadikim cannot stand. A Ba’al Teshuva has a difficult time fighting against his enticer, because he has such a great enticer inside him, after all of his aveiros that have empowered his inner enticer. When he withstands his double evil inclination, he needs an extra measure of strength, and when he is successful, displays extraordinary strength of conviction, greater than that of a complete tzadik.
When a person veers towards sin, he acquires another evil power. He has an evil soul inside of him. Just like a tzadik receives an extra neshama of holiness based on his mitzvos, so too does a sinner add an extra neshama of impurity, based on his misdeeds. He now has an evil soul, who drags him to the evil side.
Eventually, he reaches the fourth level of impurity. In this case, his entire soul is combined with the evil part of his being. Now he is totally connected with his evil side, and this causes a person to feny Hashem and follow idols.
All of this is included in these pessukim.
First Level: The Inherent Evil
כִּי יְסִּיתְךָ אָחִּיךָ – if your brother shall entice you. This refers to the evil part of a person that is inherent in his creation. When he is born, he has a brother right next to him, who entices him to commit evil. The possuk continues בֶן אִּמֶךָ – the son of your mother, telling us where this enticer comes from. Our collective mother, the one who committed the first sin eating from the tree of knowledge and involving herself with the snake. This caused confusion and a mixture between the forces of good and the forces of bad, and since then, everyone who is born has this mixture inside of him, and the evil force in his essence attempts to persuade him to sin.
Second Level: The Evil Created by One's Actions
The next level of evil to entice a person isאוֹ בִּנְךָ אוֹ בִּתְךָ - or your son or daughter. These are the people a person produces with his own actions. This is similar to the evil spirit that a person creates with his aveiros. Some aveiros a person does are quite strong, and the evil spirit he produces is considered a male spirit. If his aveira is weaker and he did not do it with malice and evil, the spirit produced is a female one, akin to a daughter. This all depends on how terrible the aveira was.
Third Level: The Acquired Evil Soul
Another power of evil that can engulf a person is the acquiring of an evil soul. This is called אֵשֶת חֵיקֶ ךָ - the wife of your bosom, i.e. the one you chose to become close to you. This lives close to his soul like a wife with whom he builds a home.
Fourth Level: Total Identification with Evil
After he reaches this level, he descends to the level that he becomes one with his evil spirit. This is called רֵעֲךָ אֲשֶר כְנַפְשְךָ- your friend that is like your soul. This evil soul is like your own because it is its parallel. This sould drags a person down to the bottom of the pit of idol worship. This power is hidden, and is calledבַסֵתֶר - in secret. It hides itself, pretending to be a person’s friend, when it is his greatest enemy.
He then gives him advice and pushes him to certain positions that seem innocuous, but the purpose of this advice is נֵ לְכָה וְנַעַבְדָה א לוקים אֲחֵרִּ ים - Let us go and serve other gods. He pretends that he will go along with him on this path of death and destruction.
When a person has been overtaken by evil in such measures, he ready to go and worship idols and totally abandon Hashem. This enticer lives in hiding, it thrives in darkness. The person thinks he is as holy as he was previously; he does not realize how these evil forces are dragging him from where he belongs.
The possuk continues אֲשֶר לֹא יָדַעְתָ אַתָה וַאֲבֹתֶיךָ – that you didn’t know, you or your fathers. The Ohr Hachaim explains that this is one of the claims of the evil inclination. When he attempts to persuade a person to sin and follow idols, the person will answer that he has already accepted the Torah and his ancestors were all part of a covenant to keep far from idol worship. To this, the evil enticer says that this type of idol worship is not included in that acceptance, because it is a new form of worship. Neither you, nor your ancestors knew about this form of idol worship, and that should permit you to worship it.
The next possuk continues with the new enticement of the evil inclination. מֵא לֹהֵי הָעַמִּים – the evil inclination will claim that all other nations that live around Eretz Yisroel are successful and happy, even though they worship all kinds of idols. Chazal tell us that the evil kingdom is destined to spread all over the world. When one religion takes over the world, it may seem like a valid claim for its powers, G-d forbid.
We are still commanded to ignore it and refuse its wily demands, we are not to argue with them or discuss their claims at all. We are to tell them that we don’t want to hear about their foolish claims, and that’s it.
