We must be very careful about these things.
The Gemara in Sukkah 52a points out: “The greater the man, the stronger
is his yetzer hara”. The greater a man’s stature in Torah and service of
Hashem, the more the yetzer hara (the evil impulse) tries to invade his mind.
When a person is on such a high moral level that he would never stop to commit
a major or even a minor sin, the yetzer hara disguises himself as the yetzer
tov.
He blinds and poisons the pious man’s mind,
misleading him into thinking that the sin is really a mitzvah, showing him that
it is a virtuous and kosher deed. Like a bird, the pious man is caught in the
yetzer hara’s snare, oblivious of the mortal danger he is in.
So, be very cautious. Do not allow the
yetzer hara to beguile you by telling you. “The main thing is to purity your
thoughts properly, cleaving to G-d in your thoughts all the time. Don’t let
anything divert your thoughts from concentrating your thoughts on Heaven.” It
sounds like saintly advice. But the yetzer hara means to say is that Torah
study and mitzvos are valid only if accompanied by deep devotion and
true veneration, without which it is worthless.
The yetzer hara will cite verses from the Torah,
Mishnah, Gemara, Midrashim and the Zohar to support his argument. He
will quote the Gemara in (Sanhedrin 106b), and many other proof texts
like this. But if you examine his arguments with discernment, you will realize
that the yetzer hara is showing you his kosher hooves, as it were, attesting to
his purity and holiness, but in truth his feet are submerged in a swamp of
death.
Taken from NEFESH HACHAIM
Rav Chaim of Volozhin
Translated by Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Finkel
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