The primary weapon of offence against our faith is what is called the curse of Amalek, doubt.
Now as mentioned we are not in charge of the thoughts that enter our mind – nothing could be further from the truth that we are the rational beings we think we are.
As mentioned in the last blog our minds are under two different drives – which any discerning person can easily discern and has been written about extensively from Aristotle to Freud – Jewish mysticism calls this, the war between two kings / drives, both seeking to dominate your headspace.
The first goodness and kindness inc. is from your soul, a, literally, flame of God within you, and hence your true essence (for the essence of all life is God.)
The second comes from the animal instinctive drive which has a simple pleasure drive (which I am sure you have noticed within your own sometimes schizophrenic different desires.)
Now the mind is fundamentally a rationalization machine, that as soon as we have a pleasure – causing a desire for something, say intercourse, a food while on diet, etc., drugs being perhaps the best example – will rationalize the acceptability of the act, though if you were asked about the very same thing without having a pleasure nor desire for it, you would say the exact opposite.
So the primary weapon of the Yetzer Hara’s (little devil within’s) arsenal, is to sow doubt about the very legitimacy of goodness and kindness, for no need to have a full confrontation, if the enemy is doubting his or her motives in going to war.
We see this in a global macrocosm as well.
Hitler, Arafat, employed sophisticated guile to weaken Jewish resolve.
Le us be aware that if it looks real it is, and if it seems to smack of hypocrisy (Hitler and Arabs preaching justice, morality and kindness) it is.