[Avodah] Lo Sachmod

[Micha Berger]

RMYG upshlugged my teirutz of how the IE's advice of avoiding even
the desire for arayos by casting it as unreachable as the hand of the
princess with the Sifra that says we should have the attitude "Ifshi,
ma a'aseh, ve'Avi shebashayim gazar alai".

In the same post, though, he quotes me and comments:
:> What does R' Yisrael Salanter do? He makes a chiluq between kibush hayeitzer,
:> doing the right thing despite taavos otherwise, and tiqun hayeitzer, which
:> is getting the taavos in line. (And primarily a consequence of the hergel
:> set up by kibush).

> I'd like to see what R' Yisroel Salanter says in the source...

It's a recurring theme in Or Yisrael, but I don't have it at my fingertips
that I can find a long description. The following is Immanuel Etkes's
translation of a snippet from Kisvei RYS, pg 165 (taken from his "R Israel
Salanter", pg 294):

    There are two kinds of [character] transmutation: one, in which man
    turns the powers of his soul to the good, so that the power of evil
    is totally uprooted and not seen at all. To accomplish this, it is
    insufficient for man to improve his general will, to long for the
    good and to despise evil, but he must seek the means of correcting
    each individual trait of his soul. This is required in the case of
    the rational [ethically self-evident] commandments, pertaining to
    man and his fellow.... The second way involves the "transmutation"
    of his general will, to love and to heed that which comes out from
    the mouth of God in the traditional commandments [ritual or ceremonial
    law reflecting arbitrary, Divine will] known to us by revelation, and
    to seek out and reduce the power of the appetite in each detail....

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I long to accomplish a great and noble task,
micha at aishdas.org        but it is my chief duty to accomplish small
http://www.aishdas.org   tasks as if they were great and noble.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                              - Helen Keller