One Bite of Pizza | Rabbi Elazar Meisels

I want to tell you a story about a young man whom I know, named Aaron. Aaron grew up in a frum home, but, for whatever reason, attended public school. Aaron, by the time he graduated, was unsure about who he wanted to be, where he wanted to go in life. And to help himself resolve this conflict, he enlisted in the Navy. The Navy is not a place for a good Jewish boy, but Aaron didn't know if he wanted to be a good Jewish boy or not. He did his best, but the first real test came on Yom Kippur. Aaron knew he wanted to fast, he even wanted to daven with a Minyan. The only Minyan on base, if it could be called that, was a prayer service led by a reform chaplain who meant well and did his best. The fast is finally over, Aaron is famished, he's ravenously hungry. He has not eaten in over 27 hours, and in one hour he needs to resume training exercises on base all night long. Aaron said, That's when I was hit with the test. The chaplain, in an effort to make things easier for us, brought pizza onto the base for us to break our fast. It was, in his words, the best-smelling pizza I had ever seen in my entire life. And back in my barrack, I had waiting for me peanut butter and jelly. The only problem was that the pizza was not from J2, it was from Domino's and it wasn't kosher. Aaron said, At that moment, I was faced with a big decision. And I chose the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He said: That was the moment that all my internal spiritual conflicts were resolved. That was the first time I chose on my own to be an Orthodox Jew, because I want to be an Orthodox Jew, and because I want to make all of those sacrifices. Had I not made that choice, I would not be a Shomer Shabbos today. I would have taken one bite and another and I never would have turned back. And that, my friends, is a beautiful Mashal for how the Yetzer Hara operates. Every time he waits for you to get tired, hungry, exhausted, stressed out, you've got so much ahead of you, and that's when he hits you with that pleasure possibility. He says: Just take one bite. You'll feel great. You'll have a good day. Just one bite. You can do it. It'll be fun. And then you'll stop. But you won't. When we say no to the Yetzer Hara, when we reject his advance, when we say, I'm closing my eyes, I'm turning my head, I won't take that bite, that's when we make a choice, not for the moment and not for the day, but for our entire lives.