Your Personal Fight | Rabbi Mordechai Alster

The fight with the Yetzer Hara is a personal one. Everybody has their own Nisyonos. Everybody has their own set of circumstances. Everybody has their own weaknesses. Everybody has to develop a personal plan with their fight against the Yetzer Hara. No two people are alike. Yehoshua and Kalev, both of them faced the big Nisayon with the Meraglim. Yehoshua, Moshe Rabeinu called him over and said: I'm going to change your name. He added a Yud. Until now his name was Hoshea, now his name is Yehoshua. On the other hand, Kalev, he didn't get a name change. But when they came to Eretz Yisroel, he ran to Chevron, to the מערת המכפלה, and he was מתפלל: אבות העולם, בקשו עליי רחמים. Avos, please daven for me that I don't fall into the plot of the Meraglim. Now let's ask a Kasha. Why didn't Yehoshua look at Kalev and say, If he doesn't need a name change, why do I? And why didn't Kalev look at Yehoshua and say, Well, if he's not running to the מערת המכפלה to daven, why do I have to? And the answer is they both understood that everyone's fight against the Yetzer Hara is a personal one, and no two people are the same. And what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another. And therefore Yehoshua needed a name change, and Kalev had to go down by the מערת המכפלה, and nobody looked at anybody else. Everybody understood that what’s necessary for them, they have to do. One shouldn’t look at the Goldbergs and say, Well, they allow their family to watch this-and-this show, and they do nice Shidduchim with their children. Apparently, it's not so bad. A person shouldn’t look at the Cohens and say, Well, they allow their family access to this-and-this website, and look at them, all their children are sitting and learning. The person you have to look at is yourself. You have to look at yourself and your family, and say: Is it working for me? Is it right for my family? Is my family growing because of the decisions I make? Or is my family losing because of the decisions I make? And if the answer is that it's not growing, it may work for the Cohens and it may work for the Goldbergs, but if it's not working for you, you have to change it and you have to change it immediately, regardless of anything that's going on around you, that's your personal Nisayon, and this is your personal improvement that you have to make.