Shalom Rubashkin, a religious Jew who was thrown into federal prison for allegations that many federal judges felt were unfair, and who was ultimately even pardoned by the president of the United States, remained a religious Jew throughout his many years in federal prison. He admits that on the first day that he arrived there, he grappled with the question -  how strictly and unyieldingly should he insist on continuing all of his religious customs and practices? Should he perhaps take a more flexible approach given his circumstances? He answered this question for himself when he recalled a story he heard as a child of two chassidic boys who sailed to the United States together from Europe. They befriended one another on the boat, and then bid each other farewell and parted ways at Ellis Island. One remained fully loyal to his chassidic upbringing as he grew and became an adult, whereas the other abandoned Judaism altogether. Some thirty years after arriving in the U.S., the two men happened to meet one another.

After engaging in small talk and finding out about each other's lives, the non-observant man asked the other, "honestly, I really admire you for sticking with your tradition for all of these years. But tell me, do you really need to wear that enormous, silly-looking yamuka on your head? Can't you wear something normal?"

"That's a great question," the other fellow replied. "The Yetzer ha'ra asked me that very question the morning after I arrived in New York. I thought about it and realized that if I listened to the Yetzer Ha'ra and changed my yamuka, the Yetzer Ha'ra would throw another challenge at me the next day; It would never stop. As soon as it pushes me one step away, it will begin its work pushing me to the next step. I realized then and there that I was much better off just fighting the same fight every single day, which is much easier than constantly having to fight new fights. And so, I've been fighting this challenge of the yamuka every day for the last 30 years, and I haven't lost yet."

Along these lines, consider the following Gemara: 

Anger, the Gemara tells us (105b), is associated with idol-worship. The Gemara proceeds to explain why unrestrained anger must be regarded with such severity: "For this is the craft of the evil inclination - it tells him today to do one thing, tomorrow to do another, until it tells him, 'go worship idols,' and he goes and worships."

The message being conveyed by the story above and the Gemara is that once a person surrenders to the Yetzer Ha'ra, even just slightly, by giving in on some minor matter, the battleground shifts, and the Yetzer Ha'ra then launches the next struggle, targeting a matter of slightly greater severity. If the person continues surrendering, one step at a time, he can eventually end up doing things he would never have imagined possible, and back in the day when there was a strong Yetzer Ha'ra to worship idols, he could even come to commit such a severe cardinal sin!

The Sages answer our above-mentioned question (of why our passuk specifies many of the materials that idols can be made of) by explaining that the Torah, through our passuk, is providing a similar explanation into fundamentally understanding how every person’s Yetzer Ha'ra operates. All Jews know that one should never commit the cardinal sin of idolatry. Therefore, the Yetzer Ha'ra knows that if he goes ahead and tells someone to serve an idol, he will never succeed. However, if he can convince someone to let his guard down and just go near those idols, something that isn’t great but is not necessarily an outright sin, slowly but surely he can succeed. Therefore, he will try his best to convince a Jew to do the “small sin” of just being around idols because “they could never actually entice you. They are as worthless as stone and wood”...slowly but surely, though, he will get him to take another wrong “small” step...then another...until this person unfortunately values these idols as greatly as silver or gold – something this Jew never thought he would even consider. The Yetzer Ha'ra does this through minute, gradual steps. It may take many years for him to win, but the Yetzer Ha'ra is patient and tries his best to wage “small” battles. This tactic of the Yetzer Ha'ra is what the Torah is warning us about by forbidding idols made from “stone, wood, silver and gold“. 

Living Inspired

We learn from our Parshah how the Yetzer Ha'ra constantly tries to win small battles against us and that if we give in on those occasions, it could lead a person to do sins one never thought that he was capable of committing. How do we battle such a tactic? Also, can we use this understanding to our advantage in achieving spiritual greatness?

The Mesillas Yeshurim, in his very first chapter, explains that every moment of life is a “small” battle. There isn’t a single action or inaction one takes that is not either elevating him closer to Hashem or bringing him down; essentially, through each and every “mundane” act and moment of your regular daily routine, you can do something to elevate yourself, or the opposite. Therefore, the Yetzer Ha'ra constantly tries to win each small battle which eventually changes a person significantly. 

The Mesillas Yeshurim’s words therefore infer that if one wants to achieve greatness, he must focus on and internalize the tactics of the Yetzer Ha'ra of trying to win the “small” battles and use this knowledge to his advantage - just like the chassid in the above-mentioned story, who fought each day to not change his yamuka and was therefore saved from the more severe battles. In fact, if he utilizes this knowledge to stay on guard and to win many of his “small” day to day battles, like not losing his temper, connecting to Hashem more by asking Him in one’s own words for success in day to day activities, adding at least a small amount of l’shem shamayim intention when doing regular activities* – through such actions of constantly winning the “small” battles each day, he can and certainly will live a life of true greatness. 

This Elul and on, let us all make an extra effort to attain true spiritual greatness – by internalizing that succeeding in life is about mastering the “small” stuff, by making an extra effort to “win” the “small” day to day battles, and by taking more pride in this very LARGE achievement.  

Gut Shabbos

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* - For example, eating or sleeping each day to have energy to: serve Hashem, to be in a better mood around family & around those who one can make a Kiddush Hashem on, etc.