TZEITZEI

How To Win The War

The Torah frames our reality in just one word at the beginning of our Parsha:"When you go out to war over your enemies, Hashem your G-d will deliver them into your hands." Over your enemies&—not against or facing your enemies.

Our Chassidic Masters explain this important detail as follows: this is the secret of all secrets: there is no comparison between us and the enemy. This is not a struggle between two equal forces where sometimes one wins and sometimes the other, but a battle between holiness and a facade, between truth and a temporary test designed to make us rise beyond ourselves. Therefore, it is promised that if we go to war with divine confidence and are worthy of miracles—we will win.

This applies both to the general war and to the personal war against the internal enemy: we get swept away and drawn by the allures and temptations of pleasure produced by the evil inclination, out of fear that we are missing out on real pleasure. But the truth is that it is a test and a springboard to reveal the inner strengths of the Jew. The evil inclination itself is a holy divine creation, meant to lead to victory in the realization of the purpose of creation. Therefore, all that is required is to close our eyes and ears, leap over it, and immediately discover how all that is a just lie.