Sometimes, people get under your skin! Some things they do make your blood boil. You just want them to go away. You may want to fight with them to leave you alone.
Now, imagine if we can take that emotion, that fury, that anger and turn it on ourselves! No, I am not saying to get angry at yourself. I am referring to those times when your own negative impulses come up. Do not let your evil inclination get under your skin and wear you down!
Get angry! Grab a stick! Get ready to fight!
How do we fight our negative impulses? Ask ourselves if this is what we want to be said at our eulogy. Remembering our mortality is hard. It is hitting ourselves with a stick! However, it is very important; it is what is needed to stop us (at times) from doing the wrong thing.
Tell your evil inclination: Do you know who I AM?! I am a ________ (i.e. loyal person, Jew, lover of Israel, chossid, child, parent, friend), and at my eulogy they will describe me in that way and I won’t let you pester me into doing anything contrary to the person who I want to be.
As we begin the month of Elul, we work on doing more good and less negative. Let’s beat up the evil inclination and be blessed to win the internal battles and have an amazing year.
Kushi
P.S. On the topic of mortality, on Sept 3rd we will be having a zoom meeting about estate planning.