Start With What’s in Your Hands: How to Defeat the Yetzer Hara

“Pay attention to the rhythm of my clapping,” the host tells attendees at a charity event. “Every time I clap, another child dies in Africa.”

Wanting to emphasize the severe hardship in developing countries, the host clapped every few seconds.

“Don’t you have a heart?!” someone in the audience, taking things a little too seriously, burst out. “Stop clapping already!”

Have you ever held the yetzer hara in your hand?

That is what the Torah tells us in this week’s portion: “When you go out to war against your enemies, and Hashem your God gives them into your hand, and you take their captives.”

Commentators explain the deeper meaning of this verse as a reference to the battle against the yetzer hara, offering countless parables, explanations, and insights.

So let’s imagine it for a moment. We have gone out to war. According to the Torah, we can and must win. Then Hashem gives the yetzer hara into our hand.

But how exactly do you “hold” the yetzer hara?

And then the verse continues: “and you take their captives.” Why not simply say, “and you capture it”?

It All Started With a Pair of Shoelaces

“Hello, Rabbi,” said an excited voice on the other end of the line. “This is Sam. I’m in the area with my family, and I’d like to stop by, say hello, and show you something.”

Rabbi Benjamin furrowed his brow in confusion. He did not recognize the name, certainly not this Sam.

The caller tried to remind him: “You taught me before my bar mitzvah.”

In an instant, Rabbi Benjamin was transported back to two or three years after his wedding, when he had been looking for an additional source of income that would also allow him to fulfill a Jewish mission. He taught dozens of bar mitzvah boys how to put on tefillin, how to recite the blessings over Torah study, and gave some of them a basic Jewish education, knowledge they had not encountered anywhere else.

But how could he possibly remember which boy Sam was nearly two decades later?

Fifteen minutes later, there was a knock at the door. A polished young avrech, his wife, and their three children stood at the entrance. Rabbi Benjamin’s embarrassment quickly turned into curiosity. After exchanging a few identifying details, he remembered him.

Then he was stunned.

“How did you go from a child raised in an almost Reform home to an avrech who spends most of his day immersed in Torah study?”

“It’s all because of the shoelaces,” Sam, now Rabbi Shmuel, explained with a smile.

To Rabbi Benjamin’s surprise, he continued: “Before teaching me how to put on tefillin, you explained that every action in a Jew’s life has meaning. As an example, you mentioned tying shoelaces. First, you put on the right shoe, then the left shoe. You tie the left shoe, and then the right one.

“I liked that, even though I did not understand its meaning at all. From that day on, I put on my shoes according to halacha.

“I stopped putting on tefillin the day after my bar mitzvah,” Rabbi Shmuel continued, “but I never stopped tying my shoes that way. Years passed. My parents moved several times, across several countries, and one day I realized that I was still following the practice of tying my shoes according to halacha, without even understanding its meaning. I called the local rabbi and began attending Jewish classes.

“Later, I entered yeshiva and became a baal teshuvah. Today, we came to visit the area, and I wanted to tell you that it was all because of the shoelaces.”

The Battle Begins With What Is in Your Hands

In the book Emet L’Yaakov, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Shapira of Blędów makes a remarkable observation. When the Torah tells us that if we go out to war, simply taking that first step, Hashem will place the yetzer hara into our hands, it also tells us where to begin: “in your hand.”

Healthy people, even those whose parents did not raise them to eat with their hands, use their hands when they eat. They hold a fork and knife, lift a cup to drink, and sometimes eat foods directly with their hands, even if they have been blessed with exceptionally polished British manners.

Eating, explains the Rabbi of Blędów, involves many details that seem insignificant. They may not appear connected at all to serving Hashem. But if we try to take hold of those details, improve them, and approach them in a more Jewish way, according to halacha and with greater refinement, we may discover that the entire battle begins to change.

And what if we are not big eaters?

“In your hand” is not only about food. It refers to countless small details that seem to have nothing at all to do with serving Hashem, with or without a shoelace. But those are precisely the places where we should begin.

The Yetzer Hara’s Own Strategy

That is also why the Torah says, “and you take their captives.”

When the yetzer hara tries to make its way into a person’s life, says the Chatam Sofer, it does so through tiny, almost unnoticeable steps. Why? Because it knows that this is how battles are won.

Do you want to defeat it? “Take their captives.” Capture it using that very same strategy.

Start with the small details.

Do not try to grab the moon or climb towering ladders in an attempt to transform yourself overnight. The secret lies in what is already “in your hands.”

One small practice. One seemingly insignificant improvement. One pair of shoelaces tied differently.

It may feel like clapping at the yetzer hara every few seconds. It may not seem to affect it at all. But trust the Chatam Sofer: little by little, those small actions defeat it.