There are two very famous circus entertainers. Their names were Siegfried and Roy. They performed with wild animals—lions and tigers—for many years, over 40 years. In 2003, about 20 years ago, Roy was ferociously attacked by one of the tigers in the middle of his performance. Everybody was shocked, and all the experts were wondering what went wrong: suddenly, he was attacked. For 40 years, he had been in a cage with these wild animals and nothing had happened.
The experts determined that in order to be a lion tamer, you need to crack that whip. If you see that lion or tiger move his paw a quarter of a centimeter, you have to remind them, “Don’t move.” Roy got a little too comfortable over the last few months, and that’s why he was attacked.
One of my rebbeim (rabbis) said when I was younger that when the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah prayed that the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination) Ha'arayot (forbidden sexual relations) should be eliminated, they saw the image of a lion leave the Kodesh HaKodashim. This Yetzer Hara Ha'arayot is referred to as a lion. He said, if you want to be successful keeping the Yetzer Hara Ha'arayot at bay, we have to walk around with a whip in our hands. As soon as something comes in front of us that could tempt us, we have to be able to crack that whip.
That means when we wake up in the morning and leave our house, if we approach the day and say, “Okay, let’s see what happens,” and come with a little bit of a complacent attitude, then that Yetzer Hara, which is like a lion or tiger, could attack us. But if we leave our house in the morning with that whip in our hands, and we’re driving down the street, and the Yetzer Hara Ha'arayot comes in front of us, and we crack that whip and say, “I’m not looking. I’m not going to look,” then we have a much better chance to keep the Yetzer Hara at bay.
In fact, in the first Mussar shmuess (ethical discourse) that Hashem gave to mankind, to Cain, he said, “Evil is crouching at the door.” The Yetzer Hara is waiting to pounce on us if we give him some daylight. But we have to remember Roy, who got attacked by the lion, and recognize that if we have our whip in our hand, and we approach our day and crack that whip and say, “I’m not looking. I’m not looking no matter what. Whatever Yetzer Hara comes in front of me, I’m going to crack that whip. I’m not going to give him an inch,” then we could be much more successful in dealing with the Yetzer Hara Ha'arayot.