Picking the Right Fight

The revered and holy mashgiach of Lakewood, Rav Nosson Wachtfogel, zt”l, zy”a, pondered an interesting contemporary phenomenon. In his sefer, Likutei Reshimos, he wonders why millions of people across the globe have a fascination with soccer. He bluntly depicts it as an activity of kicking a ball through a gate. Why, he questions, are people mesmerized to the point of obsession with such an activity? To take the mashgiach’s question a bit further, in America, boxing and wrestling are a multi-billion-dollar industry. One wonders why 21^st-century civilized man has such a fascination with watching people punch one another out.

Rav Wachtfogel’s answer provides a profound and vital understanding of the human psyche. Man, he explains, was created with an inner programming built into his very DNA to be a warrior against his yeitzer hara, his evil inclination. Every day, Hashem wants us to battle against, and successfully vanquish, our sinful and more base urges. Thus, the successful man or woman will daily combat their urges to succumb to anger, the temptations of lust and greed, the lures of sinful gossip, the inclinations to be lazy or insensitive, and the like. It is life’s premier mission to succeed at this inner battle.

Even when we are fully cognizant of this hornet’s nest brewing within us, we still need Hashem’s help to succeed. As we are taught, “Yitzro shel adam misgaber alav bechol yom, v’im ein HaKadosh Baruch Hu ozro, eino yachol lo – One’s evil inclination prevails upon him every day, and if Hashem would not assist him, he would not be able to best it.” Thus, Rav Wachtfogel continues, Hashem gave us an inner drive to be a fighter, to have that warrior spirit, so that we should succeed in the directive of the Gemara stated in the beginning of Masechtas Berachos, “L’olam yargiz adam yeitzer tov al yeitzer hara – One should always incite one’s good inclination against one’s evil inclination.”

If, however, one fails at this mission and lives his or her life on cruise control, just coasting through life without putting up a fight, then that warrior spirit needs to manifest itself in other fashions. Rav Wachtfogel looked at the myriads of people who are riveted to the competitive spirit of soccer and who identify with one team of fighters as a means to assuage the warrior spirit within. Now we understand why so many are fascinated with the barbaric nature of boxing and wrestling for these speak to the fighter within one’s heart as well.

We might add that these substitutes are relatively harmless. While, of course, one’s time can be better spent learning and performing acts of kindness, being a passionate soccer or wrestling fan is not disastrous. However, in many people the warrior spirit rears its ugly head in much more serious and nefarious ways. For example, there are those who sink their teeth into shul politics, into the nasty infighting that sometimes goes on between different factions within a kehilla, sometimes revolving around a controversial gabbai, a dislike of the rabbi, shul elections, the opening and closing of windows in the winter, or even the holy subject of not talking in shul. It is a great sadness when one transfers the spirit of the fight which Hashem gave to him to combat his yeitzer hara to the unholy occupation of bringing the ruination of machlokes to his shul. Sometimes this divinely instilled feistiness comes out in bickering and quarrels between husband and wife, brother and sister, and between child and parent.

Rav Wachtfogel, the great expert of the human soul, reveals to us that we should harness this competitive spirit within, that natural tendency toward combativeness, and use it to wage the daily battles against our yeitzer hara, which constantly tempts us to veer from the path of Torah. When we do so, not only are we succeeding at life’s great achievement, we will also free ourselves from sinking into the lethal quicksand of all kinds of machlokes.

May it be Hashem’s will that all our battles be only of the spiritual kind, and in that merit may He bless us all with good health, happiness, and everything wonderful.

Transcribed and edited by Shelley Zeitlin.