Don't Give an Inch | Rabbi Elchonon Jacobovitz

I was once visiting my dear friend, Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, in prison, when he told me something that absolutely blew my mind. He nonchalantly mentioned that in prison, he almost never knows what time it is. I said: Sholom Mordechai, why not? There's no clocks? So he tells me: Well, yeah, there's clocks, but all the clocks are on the televisions, and I decided the day I walked in here, I would never look at the TV. I said: Sholom Mordechai, are you for real? So he says: Yeah, let me tell you a story. In the 1920s, there were two Chasidishe friends who emigrated to America. They get off the boat, and Itche Mayer goes one way, Shmil goes the other way, and they lose contact with each other for 20 years. Twenty years later, Shmil, who's now Sammy, a polished businessman, barely Shomer Shabbos, he walks into a wedding and who does he see? There he is, Itche Mayer, looking like the day he got off the boat. He runs over to him. They give each other a big hug. They catch up on the news. Towards the end of the conversation, Sammy turns to Itche Mayer and says, Itche Mayer, I just gotta ask you one question. Does it really make sense to still be wearing that huge European yarmulke over here in America? So Itche Mayer looks at Sammy and he says: Shmil, you know, you're not the first one who asked me that question. In fact, the first morning that I was here, I heard that question being asked by none other than my own Yetzer Hara. And he had a point. And I was about to go and buy a new yarmulke. But then I remember thinking to myself, Itche Mayer, if you change your yarmulke now, do you think this conversation is over? Of course not. Tomorrow morning, the Yetzer Hara will be right back there, to continue the conversation, pick up right where he left off, and ask you for the next thing. So why don't you just nip it in the bud, stop the conversation right here and just say no? And that is exactly what I did. You know, there are only four times in the entire Torah that there's a Shalsheles. The first one is ויתמהמה. The second one is ויאמר. The third one, the most famous one, is וימאן. And the fourth one is וישחט. Says R’ Shaul Alter shlit”a an amazing thought. He says: You know what the Torah’s message is? If you hesitate, you start that conversation with the Yetzer Hara, he's going to be talking for the rest of your life. It's going to be an endless conversation. But וימאן, if you just lay down the law, and you say no, you'll Shecht him and that'll be all. So next time your Yetzer Hara comes for that talk, just remember this rule of thumb. Start that conversation and it's endless frustration. Don't give an inch and it's a cinch.