Day 28/50: True Fulfillment vs. False Fulfillment

ה֣וּא הַלֶּ֔חֶם אֲשֶׁ֨ר נָתַ֧ן ה’ לָכֶ֖ם לְאָכְלָֽה

It is the bread that Hashem has given you to eat.

The Yetzer Hara’s job and goal is to cause us damage, and to do this he was given permission to use pleasure and “sipuk” (fulfillment) as a bluff to be able to harm us. Otherwise, how could he possibly do his job? We would tell him to get lost!

But we must understand that the Yetzer Hara’s seductions are like a terrorist offering us a candy to ensnare us. We know he doesn’t mean our benefit, he means to use the candy to damage us somehow. 

Only pleasure that is tied to truth has a kiyum (lasts) because it can make a mitzvah complete; for example, eating meat on Yom Tov or the enjoyment we experience on Shabbos. But pleasure that is tied to sheker (falsehood) has no kiyum, which explains why when the pleasure is over, we don’t feel any fulfillment. And we also don’t talk about it with those who love us and want the best for us, because we know that it was just there to damage us. 

That also explains why we want it again not long afterwards, even though we just had it. After all, if it was truth, why isn’t it there anymore? Because it’s sheker and therefore we feel a void afterwards, and so we look again to fill this void with another false sipuk (fulfillment).

The greatest true pleasure is “le’hisaneg al Hashem” – to enjoy pleasure through Hashem, since He is the source of all pleasure.