I recently shared a vort with my chizuk partner and I wanted to share it with the community here:
I heard a vort once based on the beginning of parshas ki tezeh as follows;
the passuk says כי תצא למלחמה על אויבך ונתנו ה' אלוקיך בידך ושבית שביו, literally "when you wage ear on your enemy and Hashem your God gave him over into your hands". the baalei mussar say that your "enemy" is the Yetzer and that when we wage war on on our enemy and Hashem gives him over in our hands, (meaning that we win the battle), ... watch out! that is the time that the Yetzer starts the second skirmish, as the pasuk continues and says וראית בשביה אשת יפת תואר, it's THEN that you see - suddenly - in the POWS a beautiful woman...
WHen we have our greatest spiritual highs that is the time that the Yetzer strikes if we are not careful.

For example: how many of us had a fantastic Rosh haShanna only to finish it by crashing a day or two later?

If we have a spiritual "high" then its time to go back to the trenches and prepare for the next battle.

by the way, I'm a good preacher... but a lousy doer.

I know misery loves company, but I also know that happy people also like company. Lets keep each other company out of Joy, by sharing our successes, and not out of misery, by only sharing our losses!

gemar Chasima tova to all!

Thanks!

...and a gmar chasima tova for you too!

beautiful vort and a timely warning, we always need to stay on guard
thanks

Perfect!
Dov (of daily dose of Dov) has this as a common theme... the 12 steps outlook remove "me" from the picture. Its hisbatlus to Hashem.
takes the edge off the highs, but helps prevent low's.

I went to the beis this evening to do some learning, daven maariv, etc.
I was the last one to leave... and it felt great.
SO my Yetzer ha ra tells me while I was leaving, "Ya know, it's time for OUR chavrusa now!". There I was beginning to start my "chavrusa" when all of a sudden I get the urge to check my email first, and lo and behold, what do I find? none other that some of those wonderful chizuk emails you all send out!
"Yetzer", I said to my chavrusa, "my email box is just FULL of these chizuk mails. cluttering up my email inbox! I'm just going to read a few so that i can then delete them and 'unclutter' my inbox".
so i start reading the emails and what do you know! the yetzer slinked off into the corner... (for a couple of minutes)!

this goes well with the vort above. I got a spiritual high (learning till late, leaving the beis last) only to encounter the eshes yefas toar!

HaShem help us all to overcome this Yetzer so as to be closer to YOU!

Well, I will have to reiterate my last comments!

Yosef Hatzadik wrote on 15 Sep 2010 15:31: