A man was charged with committing a serious crime against the king and placed in prison until his trial. When it came time for him to stand trial, one of the king’s guards took him from his cell and escorted him to the place of justice.
The king’s guard, suspecting that the prisoner might try to escape, took a pair of handcuffs from his pocket. He then placed one of the cuffs around the wrist of the prisoner and the other one around his own wrist. In this way, they marched through the city street.
A crowd of spectators gathered along the sides of the street to curse and make fun of the prisoner.
Insulted and humiliated, the prisoner turned to the crowd and said, “You are making a mistake. He is not escorting me; rather, it is I who is escorting him…”
A wise man spoke up from among the many people in the crowd. “If that is the case,” he said, “then unlock the handcuff on your wrist! If you are capable of breaking free from your escort, it is a sign that you are in control of him. But if he can break away, then it proves that he is in control of you!”
The same thing applies to man and his yetzer hara – the evil inclination. There are instances when the yetzer hara binds himself to a person by accustoming him to a repeated transgression. If this person would like to know who is truly in control of whom, let him check himself to determine whether he is capable of breaking his “bad habits” or not.
This is precisely what we request in our morning prayers each day: “Let not the evil inclination – the yetzer hara – dominate us.”
May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)
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Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. (Joel 1:3)
