It is written in the Talmud that a person’s yetzer harah - their self-sabotaging, negative-perspective, self-defeating parts - rise up against them EVERY DAY and try to KILL THEM. (Translation: every day your yezter will try to bring you down. Even if you had a great day yesterday. Even if you overcome it yesterday. It will try to distract you from living by your values and doing good and staying afloat.) And, the Talmud continues, if the Holy One didn’t come to a person’s aid, then the yetzer would be victorious.

So, what to do? From the house of Rabbi Yishmael they said: “If you run into that punk (literal translation) then drag it to the house of learning. If the yetzer is a stone it will melt. If it is iron it will shatter.”

In other words - and this is not just my reading, it is based in our amazing tradition - the yetzer is coming at you every day, and the way to fight it is to learn Torah every day.

I am sure that many of you learn Torah every day. Awesome. And in addition to that I am committing to writing and sharing a short piece of Torah every day in this blog-space. Something that inspires me and fortifies me gives me clarity and purpose and energy. And it will be short because life is short. And I hope it helps.

Obviously this is not meant to be annoying or to clog up your email. We all sign up to receive so many things so often because it seems wise and then we stop for whatever reason. No offense taken if this is not for you for now.