696. Your Strength to the Torah

A strong person is one who has a strong desire, and not one who has strong limbs, as in “Who is mighty? He who conquers his inclination,” as is done with the powers of strong limbs.

For example, when one wants to go somewhere, but there are people who interfere with his walking on the path he wants to go, and each one pulls him to the place he wants, if he is drawn, he does not have the strength to subdue them, and then he is pulled away from the place where he wants to go to the place that the strongest one among them wants, since he subdues all the others because he is more powerful.

It is likewise with emotional strength. Man consists of many desires, and each of the desires wants to subdue the other desires and draw the body to go to its side. Here, too, the strongest among the desires prevails. And if there is a person whose desires are all equal, and none is more powerful than the others, he can be in a state of complete rest because he has no desire that overcomes the others, so they all stand and pull the body, and the body stands in the middle and does not move an inch, not here and not there, for all are pulling equally strong.

Then he naturally stays put without any movement. Even if he has great strength, they are all equally mighty forces, so no one can submit the other. Only when one desire is strong, that force can act, and the rest of the desires annul before it.

It therefore follows that if a person wants to succeed in the Torah, he must see that the desire to engage in Torah is stronger than the rest of the desires in him, and then they will surrender to it because the strong has the power to subdue the weak. Hence, the strong desire subdues the desire for idleness, for honor, and the rest of the lusts.