Winning the Epic Battle | Rabbi Yechiel Spero

When soldiers go to war, it's so draining. Every moment you have to be on guard. If you're on the front lines, lives will be lost. And yet, courageously and bravely, they stand on the front lines and they fight the enemy. One time, the Chovos Halevovos tells over there was a חסיד אחד, a righteous individual, who sees a group of men that are returning from war. And he looks at them and they are worn and weary. They had just fought in a battle. And because clearly they had won the battle, they had their שלל, their spoils with them. And the Chosid sees them. And he looks at them and he says: You've returned from battle. You won the small battle, and now you have the spoils, but now it's time to prepare for the epic battle. And they're thinking to themselves: We just faced our enemy. It was a difficult war, a long-fought, hard-fought battle. Now we're preparing for the epic war? What's the epic war? And the Chosid told them: Now comes the war and the battle with the Yetzer Hara. Day in, day out, and the Yetzer Hara is relentless, indefatigable. He will not stop, not at nothing will he stop to try to defeat his enemy. But imagine if, when we defeat our enemy in a small battle, we get the spoils, when you defeat the Yetzer Hara, imagine the spoils that goes to the victor. And you, every time you get in the ring and fight with the Yetzer Hara, you are victorious. It's possible that you might even give in at the end, but you fought. And when you fight, by definition, you are a victor. The Ribono shel Olam does not expect a 100% success. Otherwise, there is no battle. The rivalry is when sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. But if you fight every single day, then you are the victor. And to the victor goes the spoils and the spoils will be endless Bracha and Hatzlacha in every aspect of your life. So follow the advice of the Chovos Halevovos, and no matter what battles we fought externally, now that we're fighting the battle internally, a battle of Shemiras Einayim, to watch and guard our eyes from all temptation and desire, then if we fight that battle, we will be victorious, Im Yirtze Hashem, and the spoils will be endless.