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as are the evil inclinations of greed and the desire for acclaim; and pray, the stronger your intent will be, and the stronger your intent, and impels him to engage in, unless he makes a great
in addition some people have more specific cravings. Each person the more you will pray at length. Ultimately, you will change your effort to distance himself from two things: he distances
has one and only one solution: to proceed in accordance with this nature entirely, because heaven will guide you on the path of himself from [the influence of his] sense of sight and he
book and all of the principles stated above, and to engage in a daily holiness. That is the essence of the service of Hashem, the essence distances himself from [the influence of his] thoughts.
half hour of prayer until he overcomes his craving. of why you came into this world. But if a person does not do these two things, he cannot
control this [evil] spirit in order to destroy it within
Even if you must invest years in doing this, that makes no Everyone has his own test, his own evil inclination, his own
difference. That is your service of Hashem. Do it with joy and with craving. The service of every individual is to apply the work of himself.
great enthusiasm, and do not be bewildered by what you undergo the will to that craving, which besieges him so forcefully, which
on the way. At the moment that you do your work, you attain attacks him so fiercely, that he does not understand why it does In other words, the holy Ohr Hachaim is saying that a person
a tremendous level, because you are fulfilling your role and your so. This appears to be unfair, it appears to dwarf his capabilities does not have the power to keep from engaging in forbidden
mission. and it seems to keep him from serving Hashem. But you must relations. The only factors that can prevent him from doing so are
know, first of all, that everything has been crafted with the ultimate having eyes that are entirely guarded and thoughts that are entirely
The Old Books precision in accordance with your mission and in accordance with clean. That is to say, in order to be protected from engaging in
everything you need to rectify in this incarnation of yours and in forbidden relations, a person must be a Holy of Holies. And what
will all other people do, who are as far from this as the East is from
Let us take as an example the craving for eating. This is the most other incarnations. Secondly, this struggle does not disturb your the West? They need the help of the Holy One, blessed be He. If
difficult of the desires, because everyone must eat in order to live, service of Hashem, because this struggle is itself your service. This Hashem does not help them, they cannot succeed, because this
but a person does not have to eat for the sake of eating. Everyone is what heaven wants from you: that you engage in the work of the challenge is beyond their power!
knows that there are many harmful types of food, such as sugar, will to overcome this craving that assails you day after day, however
saturated fats, food colorings and so forth. Secondly, many people long it may take, until you annihilate it completely. This means that our sages have explicitly stated that overcoming
overeat—they are well aware that this is very harmful, yet they the evil inclination is beyond a person’s abilities. The evil inclination
During this time, do not condemn yourself. You are not guilty
cannot stop their craving for food. They try all sorts of diets and for the fact that this craving assaults you, because this is a test from constitutes a person’s nature. Therefore, he has to change his evil
all sorts of attempts at self-control, but in the end they fail, and heaven. You are not guilty for all of your descents, because the nature. But that is not in his power—it is only in the power of
they feel more and more depressed and despondent. They blame the Creator. Thus, we must learn the remaining laws of reality in
themselves, and as a result they overeat even more. And they evil inclination has very great power, and if not for the fact that order to know what is under our control—we must know what can
the Holy One, blessed be He, helps you, you could not overcome
constantly read new books and pay for new devices, but they do change our nature, and how we can accomplish that change. But
not find relief for their problem. it. You only need engage in the work of the will until you become the first principle is to know that we require assistance.
someone who possesses intent. In the meantime, do not look at
We must turn expressly to the old books, the books of our holy others and do not envy anyone else’s work, because everyone has This is particularly relevant to our generation, in which we see the
rabbis, who knew all of the secrets of creation and the laws of life, his own task. Hashem is happy with you and takes pride in you as upsurge of the evil inclination and its cravings to such an alarming
and who taught us that it is not in our power to overcome craving, you are, and you give the Creator great pleasure when you battle degree that they appear to have gone out of control, so that almost
that only Hashem can help us. And they taught us that by engaging your evil inclination. all people either surrender to their cravings and enter with them
in much prayer we change nature, and that when a person has into dark and murky places, or else they try to overcome them
Some evil inclinations are common to everyone and bombard
a strong and forceful will, Hashem will help him and lead him. everyone, and all people must engage in the work of the will to with their own strength and fail each time, again and again, until
Therefore, a person who suffers from the craving for eating must they despair. Each time they are tested, they fail. That is because
do the core work every day—i.e., he must engage in a half hour battle will until heaven will nullify them. And some individuals they are attempting to proceed on the basis of their own ability.
have a particular evil inclination and particular craving, a special or
daily of the work of the will, with great regularity and with much difficult addiction that constitutes the essence of their rectification Afterwards, they grow depressed, blame themselves and torment
prayer, until it will have an effect. themselves. This is caused by their belief that they have the power
and work. The evil inclination for forbidden relations is shared by
everyone; the evil inclination for overeating is shared by most people, to overcome their evil inclination, which leads them to think that

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