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chapter thirteen

Mind
Control
It is very convenient to have control over ones
mind. Even though thoughts are abstract realities they
impact everything we do and feel, and not always the
way we want them to. They can drive a person to
great heights or cause him to descend to great depths.
Mind control is crucial for accomplishing the former
and avoiding the latter.
Mind control does mean that a person can always keep away improper thoughts, which can merely
be good ideas at the wrong time. Planning breakfast is
a good thing, but not in the middle of the Shemonah
Esrai.1 Dreaming of a vacation may be uplifting, inappropriately though on Yom Kippur. Baseless scary
thoughts are debilitating and counterproductive.
Sometimes the mind seems to have, well, a mind
The Chazon Ish made the shidduch between his sister Miriam and Rabbi
Yaakov Yisroel Kanievsky, his only regret being that he thought of it one
day during his Shemonah Esrai.
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of its own. Ideas just seem to pop into a persons head,

sometimes because of association, other times for
unknown reasons. Its as if something inside a person,
the yetzer hara more than likely, randomly dumps
undesired and irritating thoughts into a persons mind.
Fighting such thoughts can actually intensify
them, and all a person can do is sit out the unwelcome
thought and wait until it passes. The problem is that it
can later return, important time is consumed in the
meantime, and frustration can result. It can even in reduce self-esteem.
What it really results in is an incredible opportunity to develop ones mind control. Though the brain
is not a muscle, it works like one sometimes. Muscles
only become stronger and more fit because of resistance. The more resistance a muscle has to overcome,
the stronger it becomes.
Meditation, which is all about mind control, tells
a person to empty his mind of all extraneous thoughts
by focussing on a single word or idea. Anyone who has
tried this knows that it is not a skill that one develops
overnight. It can take a lot of effort and time because it
is only once a person tries to gain such mastery over
his mind that he learns just how much he lacks it.
In fact, the average person is bombarded by all
kinds of extraneous thoughts all day long. Most of the
time he doesnt notice it or even care. If it doesnt
seem to make a difference to his life he just goes with
a flow about which he may not even be aware.
Its like vision. It is not a coincidence that many
people who do a lot of reading require glasses while
those who do not think they are perfectly fine without
them. The implication would be that reading weakens
a persons eyes and requires them to wear spectacles
to see well.
In truth, reading can actually strengthen ones
eyes. It is also demands that a person focus his eyes on
small text often, which tends to reveal any weakness
their eyes may have.
Non-readers on the other hand just dont notice
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their eyes are weaker because they dont use them

enough in a way that reveals this. They can require
glasses for years, only noticing once their eyes weaken
significantly enough even for everyday use.
Likewise it is the people that spend a lot of time
concentrating who notice just how active their minds
are on a regular basis. They are the ones who are
forced to hone their mental skills and learn how to
deal with unwanted thoughts.
From a Torah perspective, there are two other
important elements to add to this discussion: the
yetzer hara and Hashgochah Pratisthe evil inclination
and Divine Providence. Regarding the yetzer hara, the
Talmud warns:
Shimon ben Levi said: Every day the yetzer hara
of a person strengthens itself to kill him . . . If The
Holy One, Blessed is He, did not help him, he
would not prevail. (Kiddushin 30b)
What? We live side-by-side with a murderer,
inside of us?
Apparently, yes.
If so, then why arent we dead yet?
For a similar reason as to why everyday bacteria
doesnt kill us. Just as there is an automatic immune
system defending our health 24/7, there is also a
spiritual immune system, called the yetzer tov, our
good inclination, defending our spiritual health
every conscious moment of the day:
Rav Alexandri on concluding his prayer used to
add the following: Master of the Universe, it is
known full well to You that our will is to perform
Your will. What prevents us? The yeast in the
dough and subjection to the foreign powers.
(Brochos 17a)
The yeast in the dough to which he refers is
the yetzer hara. In other words, Rebi Alexandri is
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saying that we are hardwired to do be good. Its just

that the yetzer hara gets in our way of being so all the
time.
The comparison between the two systems does
not end there. Just as the immune system has to be
triggered by an invading germ likewise the yetzer tov is
only triggered by the antics of the yetzer hara. Furthermore, just as we must be vigilant in maintaining our
physical health to strengthen our physical immune
system, so must we be vigilant in maintaining our
spiritual health in order to strengthen our spiritual immune system.
Another aspect of the immune system strengthening process is actually becoming exposed to bacteria, then fighting against and overcoming it. Similarly
we need the yetzer hara at this stage of history to
strengthen the yetzer tov. This is why it says:
Rebi Nachman bar Shmuel said: And behold, it
was very good (Bereishis 1:31); And behold,
refers to the yetzer tov; very good refers to the
yetzer hara, for the yetzer hara is very good.
(Bereishis Rabbah 9:7)
Very good? Didnt the Talmud just say that the
yetzer hara tries to kill its host? Yes, but only in order to
force a person to access his free will and become a
better person, something that becomes a lot more
likely with help from God:
If The Holy One, Blessed is He, did not help him,
he would not prevail. (Kiddushin 30b)
One way that Heaven helps in the battle against
the yetzer hara is through Torah itself:
The Holy One, Blessed is He, says to the Jewish
people: I created the yetzer hara, and I created
Torah as its spice. If you involve yourselves in
Torah, then you will not fall prey to it . . . and if
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you dont involve yourselves with Torah, then

you will fall prey to it. (Kiddushin 30b)
It is Torah that allows a person to understand the
yetzer hara, and how it works. It is the mitzvos that
expose the yetzer hara through its resistance, and
allow a person to develop a strategy against it. More
importantly it is Torah that teaches a person how to
channel the negative energy of the yetzer hara in a
positive direction.
Another way that God helps a person against his
yetzer hara is to spare him from those things that feed
the imagination and stimulate inappropriate or undesired thoughts. As it says:
If a person sanctifies himself a little, they will
sanctify him a lot. (Yoma 38b)
This means that if a person acknowledges the
importance of living a holy existence, and takes steps
to do so, Divine Providence will help him succeed. If a
person, however, throws caution to the wind and
allows himself to be exposed to elements of life that
promote unwanted thoughts, then Heaven may use
them to show the person the danger he has created
for himself, to teach him the foolishness of taking such
risks.
On a more technical level, thoughts work very
much like dreams:
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur usually involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of
sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are
not definitively understood, though they have
been a topic of scientific speculation. (Wikipedia)
One thing is clear: sleep is a dumping ground for
thoughts, especially those which the brain was unable
to process during waking hours. Rather than build up
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to a point of mental explosion, the brain releases them

at night in the form of dreams.
Why shouldnt this process occur during waking
hours as well, especially if a person does not sleep
enough to sufficiently dream? According to the following, it can:
Clearly, your brain doesnt work very well when
youre sleep-deprived, Feinsilver said. Even a
low level of sleep deprivation has an impact on
cognitive and emotional function, he said . . .
As little as a single night of sleep deprivation can
result in a person having a phenomenon called
microsleeps the next day, Feinsilver said. A
person begins to fall into mini-snooze sessions,
which last up to 30 seconds. Some peoples eyes
remain open during microsleeps, but the
disturbing thing about microsleeps is that during
sleep, the person is essentially blind, even if their
eyes are open, Feinsilver said. Theyre not
processing information, he said. Studies show
that during microsleeps, the brain goes into a
sleep state rapidly and uncontrollably, Dinges
said. People can force themselves awake, but
they will soon fall into another microsleep, he
said. (The Spooky Effects of Sleep Deprivation,
Sara G. Miller, Staff Writer, Live Science; October
27, 2015)
This shows that if a person does not get enough
sleep that the line between consciousness and unconsciousness can become blurred. Even with eyes open a
person can temporarily go into a state of sleep without even noticing.
If this is combined with the suppression of
desires and tendencies, which is known to impact a
persons psyche in subliminal ways, the attack of random thoughts can become quite unruly and unrecognizable at times. As simple-minded as we may think we
are, our minds are not so simple.
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There are cures. They range from the technical to

the spiritual, the following being an example of the
latter:
It has therefore been decreed before The Holy
One, Blessed is He, that anyone who daily contemplates and reads the portions [of the Torah]
regarding the Ketores will be delivered . . . from
all evil occurrences and impure thoughts . . .
(Zohar 2:218b)
In Temple times, the Ketores was the daily
Incense Offering comprised of eleven spices. In
non-Temple times, the verses that detail its composition and offering are recited as part of the daily
prayer service. This too apparently has a mystical impact on the person, including the banishing of
unwanted thoughts.
Technical solutions include getting more sleep or
learning how to meditate. Though much of the thinking we do is automatic, there is an art to using and
controlling ones mind. Like every art, the perfection of
mind control is part understanding of what is involved
and a large part practice and honing of skill.
Thinking is one of the most important daily
activities that humans perform. The Kohen Gadol when
he performed the service in the Kodash Kodashim, the
Holy of Holies in the Temple, on Yom Kippur, was not
allowed to have a single illicit thought. To have one
could result in his instant death.
Reaching such a level of mind control has a lot to
do with the emotions. It is a lot easier to control ones
thoughts when a person is emotionally involved in
what he is intellectually doing.
Very often it is our emotions that cause us to
think things at times that we know, intellectually, is
inappropriate to do. Like a child who is bored with
what his parent is doing, bored emotions go elsewhere when they are unhappy with the here-and-now.
Furthermore, a child distracted from what his
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parent is doing has no problem interrupting his parent

when he needs to, much to the parents consternation. Likewise, if a persons emotions are somewhere else, their thoughts can easily interrupt the
intellects thoughts on a whim.
This is why when a person is emotionally
engaged in what he is intellectually doing, everything
happens more smoothly. A person is one with the
task, completely focussed on what has to be done,
and it becomes a very satisfying and successful effort.
Just as it is a pleasure to watch an emotionally
engaged child do what is expected of him, it is likewise
pleasurable when a persons emotions are in synch
with his intellect. Know what has to be done, figure
out something emotionally engaging about it, and
your mind will take care of the rest.

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