The Gemara says there are three things, three responses to the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination). Response number one: Ya'asok baTorah: let him learn Torah. Torah is an antidote to the Yetzer Hara. Number one, because it tells you what not to do. Number two, because the very act of learning Torah sparks a light inside a person—a light that helps him see in the dark, helps him see through his desires. The very learning of Torah already inspires a person to a higher level where they're able to fight with the Yetzer Hara in a better way.
The Gemara says a second thing. What's the number two thing you do? You should read Keriat Shema. Say Shema Yisrael (Hear, O Israel). You're about to do Avon (sin). Shema Yisrael. You tried learning Torah; it didn't work. Hit the Shema button. That was easy. And if that doesn't work, the Gemara says, what's the third option? Yes, Yazkir: he should remind himself of the day of his death. Remind himself that, you know something, I'm only here for a short amount of time. This is crazy. What are you, nuts?
Imagine, as an example, that a person won one of those sweepstakes. I don't know if you remember them. Back when we were kids, they used to have sweepstakes on the backs of cereal boxes: you could win a 90-second sweepstakes at Toys R Us—grab everything you can in 90 seconds. Whatever you grab is yours. As a child, I even had a strategy. What was I going to do if I won? I couldn't just not be prepared for that. I was prepared before they started the 90 seconds. I was going to undo my belt and tie my belt buckle to the front of the cart. Then I would skip aisle one; that was a silly aisle. I would go right around the bend, skip aisle two. Aisle three—that's where all the expensive things were: Nintendo, all the games. In order to save time, I would run down the aisle like this, and all the things would fall into the cart. That's how I would spend my 90 seconds running down the expensive aisles of Toys R Us while strapped in my belt into the push—into the shopping cart. I had a plan.
Could you imagine 90 seconds? The guy says, “Go!” I'm running down the aisle, and all of a sudden I notice, “Oh, that's so interesting. Look what they opened over here in Toys R Us: Dunkin' Donuts. I'm going to go grab myself a quick Bavarian cream,” which is just the rich-people way of saying custard. Right? I'm going to get hate mail. No, they're not the same. All right. Relax, rich people.
Anyway, imagine that in the middle of my 90 seconds, I decide, you know what? It's only 30 seconds. I'm going to go grab a donut, come back, and continue my sweepstakes. Is anyone in their right mind doing that? No, are you nuts? At 90 seconds, grab everything you can. Don't get distracted by a donut. The Pasuk (verse) says, “Once you go, you're gone forever.” You're going to run out of time. So learning Torah didn't work. Shema didn't work. At that point, remind yourself of the fact that pretty soon you're not going to have any more time here. And yet, you know what, maybe this is a good distraction, but it's a distraction, and I can't waste my time on anything other than the prize.