Your Mother is Coming!

Your Mother is Coming!

by Rebecca Klempner

At this time of year, we all need some strategies with which to fight our ultimate enemy. But where is a busy wife with little kids supposed to turn for weapons to fight this war? We manage households, raise children, encourage our husbands—and many of us work outside the home, as well. Maybe we can catch a shiur, or listen to a Torah tape.

It’s time to read your kids a bedtime story. You pull The Cat in the Hat off the shelf. Yes, that’s a good start! You can learn a thing or two about the yetzer hara from Dr. Suess’s classic.

As The Cat in the Hat begins, a brother and sister sit with nothing to do on a rainy day. Their mother is out running errands. Looking for excitement, the siblings are engaged by the Cat in a host of troublesome activities. Lesson #1: Boredom is green light for the evil inclination. Keep yourself busy with wholesome activities: doing chessed(including for your family members…housework counts!), learning Torah, and the like. You’ll have no time for the yetzer hara when he comes to visit.

As our story continues, an uninvited houseguest arrives on the children’s doorstep. This Cat suggests that he and the children can “have lots of good games that are funny.” The “fun” activities quickly escalate into big trouble for our heroes. Lesson #2: At first the yetzer hara might look appealing. He offers you a good time. Having a little fun at the expense of others, making a mess for them (literal or metaphorical), is never kosher entertainment. Just say, “No, thank you.”

It doesn’t take long for the brother and sister to realize that the Cat won’t leave even if they want him to. He declares, “I like it here. Yes, I like it a lot…I do not wish to go.” Not only that, but he’s bringing some of his “friends” along to pursue mischief, as well. Lesson #3:Once you let the yetzer hara in, it will be difficult to get him to leave. Try not to let him in the door in the first place. If you can recognize a thought in your head is inappropriate, acknowledge that it’s the evil inclination speaking and move on. Don’t believe it’s your true voice.

Back to our story: Right from the get-go, the children’s pet goldfish urges them to avoid the Cat. The Fish is a good friend, and he sees trouble ahead. Lesson #4: To force the yetzer hara out, you have to listen to the other voice in your head, that of your yetzer tov. Or you can enlist allies. That’s why it says in Pirkei Avos, when Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai asks his students, “What is the good path that a person should cling to?” Rabbi Yehoshua says, “A good friend,” while Rabbi Yose says, “A good neighbor.” A good friend or neighbor influences you towards correct behavior. Pick friends and neighbors carefully.

The event that prompts the brother to finally throw out the Cat is when the Fish warns that “Your mother is near!” Lesson #5: It’s good to do teshuvah when you see the moment of reckoning is approaching. Panic can be a good thing, if it returns you to the right path. There is an expression regarding Elul, “When the lion roars, who is not afraid?” The Yom Hadin is near, and we should be considering our actions right now.

Happily, at the end of the book, the Cat returns to clean up our mess. Lesson #6: You can harness your yetzer hara for good things. Whether you’ve eaten green eggs and ham or committed other sins of a more typical nature, take heart: amazingly, your aveiros can actually become mitzvos with teshuvah. It’s the biggest chessed that Hashem does for the Jewish people, and it’s always accessible to us.

Generals in Iraq may peruse Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to advise battle plans, but I think that while I go into battle against my most powerful enemy during these Yomim Noraim, I’ll be relying on The Cat in the Hat. How about you?