The Day the Yetzer Hara Retired

When Rav Elimelech and Reb Zusha wandered in self-imposed exile to repair the world and bring Jewish children back to teshuvah, they once entered an inn and found a group of elderly Jews sitting idly, drinking and playing cards. Hoping to stir their hearts, Rav Elimelech turned to his brother and said, "Zusha, say something." Reb Zusha knocked on the table to get their attention and said, "Gentlemen, you should know that the yetzer hara has quit his job and retired."

"Why did he quit?" they asked. Reb Zusha explained, "Once the yetzer hara went to Gan Eden, and there he saw the souls of all kinds of sinners and wicked people. In life they had all been part of his gang, living crooked lives. He wondered how they got there. He was told that they had done teshuvah and mended their ways, so they no longer belonged to him. Now they belonged in Gan Eden.

"'Then all my hard work is for nothing,' he complained. 'I spend all my time tricking people into sin, and they just do teshuvah and become respectable citizens of Gan Eden. That is it. I quit.' And he retired. A different angel was given his job of testing people and tempting them to sin.

"Later the former yetzer hara met the new one and asked how the job was going. 'Very well,' said the new one smugly. 'Why are you so satisfied?' asked the old one. 'If you work so hard to make people sin, and they just do teshuvah and escape to Gan Eden, what is the point?' 'It is simple,' said the new yetzer hara. 'I am smarter than you and I learned from your failures. Your mistake was going after the young. They have their whole lives ahead of them, plenty of time to do teshuvah. I go after the elderly, who have no time left. Idle old men like these.'" And as he said this, Reb Zusha pointed at the card players. "They," he concluded, "have no time left to do teshuvah, and you will not find them in Gan Eden. They will die wicked."

It is told that they took the message to heart, did teshuvah, and escaped the yetzer hara's grip as well.