Group None

The highest and primary aspect of using the Torah’s remedies for the sicknesses of the urge is to study, with vigor and penetrating analysis, the laws of the sin itself – its halakha in all its detail. For we see with our own eyes many sins from which a person naturally refrains, even when under duress, while the very same person will commit more severe sins. For example, the greater part – the vast majority – of our fellow Jews will not eat without first ritually washing their hands, God forbid, even when they are hungry and feeling great discomfort. Yet when it comes to the much more serious sin of evil speech,43I.e., saying words which demean another. they will casually transgress, even without much appetite for it.Now we see that the main safeguard against this sin is simply to make the habit (of refraining) second nature in the person. Thus, even if a person makes a strong effort to go in the ways of Mussar, to wear himself out guarding against speaking evil, with all his senses and ideas properly attuned to this goal, even so, as long as he has not changed his nature and his habituation so that he has no natural desire to speak evil, he will more easily violate the law of evil speech than he would eat without ritually washing his hands, God forbid. The matter is the same in all manner of transgressions; it is all according to the person, the timing, and the locale. For not all locales are the same in this respect; rather they vary in different matters. Each locale has different transgressions that are easily and naturally avoided, as it is against their nature. This is also well known: changing one’s nature results from a great deal of training and habituation. Therefore, the essential foundation and the right pillar to prepare himself to keep from sins and to do mitzvot is only a lot of learning of the halakha that relates to this sin or this mitzva, especially with close attention to the finest details,44The image is borrowed from the preparation of the incense, in which the priestly preparer would grind the ingredients into the finest powder. for such learning establishes a strong impression in the soul and renders the sin naturally distant from him.