Nachal novea; makor chochma -
A flowing river; the source of wisdom (Mish. 18:4)

G-d is unable to openly ask a person to seek Him out. This would then take away a person's free choice. G-d only wants us to serve Him using our faculty of free choice. This is why G-d only sends us indirect hints to draw us closer to Him. Therefore, if a person who is not doing G-d's will has it good, this could possibly be a very bad sign. It is like the father that gives 'his child whatever the child wants just to get rid of him: "Here, take this gift, just leave me alone!" Often when a parent is truly concerned, the parent punishes or deprives the child of certain privileges to show their concern.  Rashi tells us that this is why the Jews are so restricted by so many commandments (which serve as a protective shield from the evils of this world) and have so many troubles in this world, while many Gentiles and those who refuse to acknowledge G-d do not.

The Talmud tells us that when the holy sage, Rabbi Elazar the great, became ill, his students were upset.  Only Rabbi Akiva rejoiced. His teacher, Rabbi Elazar, asked Rabbi Akiva why he rejoiced at such a time. Rabbi Akiva responded: "I never saw you suffer. I thought that maybe G-d was paying you for your good deeds in this world and that you would not have a share in the hereafter. Now that I see you are suffering in this world, I am certain that you will have a share in the hereafter."

The incident at the Red Sea was not only transcribed in the Torah to tell us about the past, but this incident was written down to give us good advice about the present as well. When a Jew attempts to come closer to G-d, he is actually trying to leave the lures of this world that tempt him away from G-d. This can be compared to the Jews leaving the morally corrupt Egypt. The evil inclination is represented in our verse by Pharaoh and his army. At the time when the Jews attempted to escape from Egypt, with their goal being to better their spiritual situation, Pharaoh and his mighty army pursed the Jews. Pharaoh wanted to stop them from fulfilling their spiritual aspirations. The evil inclination does the very same thing. The evil forces throw every possible obstacle in a person's path in order to prevent him from reaching the realm of holiness. This scenario occurs to every person throughout every generation. As the Sages wrote in the Passover Haggadah: "In every generation every man is required to consider, as if he himself had left Egypt." This means to say, that just as the Jews escaped from Pharaoh's forces through crying out to G-d for help, so everyone else should do the same, when confronted and trapped by the forces of evil.

Pharaoh refused to let the Jews go when Moses first asked him to release the Jews from slavery, so they could worship G-d. After Pharaoh and Egypt were smitten, they agreed to let the Jews go. As soon as they experienced relief from a particular plague, they reneged on their promise to release the Jews. They even tried to tighten their hold on the Jews. This cycle occurred ten times until Pharaoh finally allowed the Jews to leave. Even when this occurred Pharaoh gathered all of his forces to annihilate the Jews at the Red Sea.

Every man experiences this same situation. When a person first tries to come closer to G-d, the forces of evil fight him until the man is partially able to subdue them. When this happens the forces of evil back off. When the forces of evil experience a little relief, they again try to prevent a person from escaping their grip. This situation can be found in the verse: "But when Pharaoh saw there was relief, he hardened his heart" (Exodus 8:11).

The situation at the Red Sea did not leave the Jews with any place to run. When the evil one assaults a person, the person also feels trapped, and sees no way out of his situation. When this occurs, a person should do whatever he can to serve G-d. He should continue to study the Torah and pray to G-d. He should not look at his spiritual shortcomings or failures. He should just continue to do what ever he can to serve G-d. This is the very same advice given by the verse: "And G-d said to Moses: Why cry to Me? Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward [into the sea]" (Exodus 14:15). G-d is telling all of us through this verse the following advice: When you experience attacks from the forces of evil that come at you like the waves and turbulence of the sea, you must proceed forward.  One should continue to study the Torah, pray, and do good deeds, as if nothing has happened. One should not look at these things at all. If the person remains firm in his commitment to serve G-d and continues to serve G-d, despite the assaults from the forces of evil, G-d will then split the sea for him. This means that G-d will totally destroy the forces of evil on his current spiritual level, that are harassing him. This is why Rabbi Nachman always emphasized that a person must be very stubborn when it comes to serving G-d. A person must never allow anything to distract him from his Torah study, prayers, and the performance of good deeds. He should be very stubborn and continue in serving G-d no matter how many sins he has committed, and no matter how confused his mind might be.  At the end of time all of one's sins will be eliminated, and only one's good deeds will remain. Why should a person allow committing a sin to discourage him from doing good deeds? He is only depriving himself of more eternal reward. Sins and good deeds have nothing to do with each other and are not mutually exclusive. One should never allow the committing of a sin to make one remiss of the performance of good deeds. Each moment of time contains a totally new requirement to serve G-d. If you sinned a moment ago, the present moment is totally unconnected to the past moment. The present moment has a totally new requirement to serve G-d. (Lekutai Halachot: Yorah Dayah: Hilchot Sheluach Hakan 4:5-7)
Just as the Jews were assaulted by the evil forces of Pharaoh when they left Egypt in order to come closer to G-d, so each individual experiences the same thing. When a person makes up his mind to come closer to G-d, he is suddenly attacked by the evil inclination. However, the evil inclination that confronts him now, is stronger than it was before. This happens every time a person wants to come closer to G-d. No matter what level a person is on. When he wants to come even closer to G-d, he is then attacked by the evil inclination of the next level. The evil inclination of the next spiritual level is always stronger than the one of the previous level, that he has just managed to overcome. This is why when a person has a great yearning to come closer to

G-d, and he attempts to express this feeling, by doing some action to serve G- d, he then suddenly loses his desire and yearning to serve G-d, and his enthusiasm totally disappears. This means that he now is confronting a new and stronger evil inclination of the next level. The Talmud teaches: Whoever is greater than his fellow, also has a greater evil inclination" (Talmud Sukkah 52). Therefore, whoever truly wants to come close to G-d, must always renew his resolve and efforts to always struggle against the now and stronger evil inclination of the next level.

There are many different kinds of evil inclinations that people encounter, on many different levels. The majority of the people of the world have an evil inclination which is on a very low level. This type of evil inclination is very materialistic, course, and deludes a person in to pursuing fantasies, illusions, foolish pleasures, and other material pursuits.

Then there is an evil inclination, which is more refined.  A person like this doesn't lust after the coarse and animalistic desires of the previous level. However, this is still not called the evil inclination of what the tzaddik (saint) has. The tzaddikim possess what is called a "holy angel" for their evil inclination. These tzaddikim have no real desire to do bad at all. However, their very refined evil inclination tricks them to be over zealous to do good. Many times being over zealous to do good can lead a person to cause great destruction.

An example of this is what happened to the holy King Solmon. He married many foreign Gentile women. He was a very holy man. He was a prophet, he was commanded by G-d to build the holy Temple in Jerusalem, just as the holy Messiah will do. He was the author of three very holy books, that are contained in the Bible. This indicates his extremely high level of holiness. If he would not be considered holy in the eyes of G-d, G-d would never allow him to do any of these things. For only a holy man is permitted to have prophecy, build the Temple, and have his teachings incorporated into the Bible for all to learn from. He had absolutely no desire for this world, including sexual desire. His intention, by marrying all of these women, was to bring the Messiah. He wanted to bring the entire world to the side of holiness. For the nature of all these marriages was political.  He married noble women from all around the world. This would attract foreigners from all around the world to come to the holy land, and thus be influenced by the holy atmosphere of the holy Land, People, and Temple. On the spiritual level, when two people get married their souls become merged. These women were spiritually connected to their countries of origin. Coming from royalty, these women's souls had a great influence on the spiritual environment of their respective countries. These foreign women were equally redeemed and purified by their individual acts of conversion to Judaism upon marriage to King Solomon. Therefore, when they married King Solomon, their impure souls became merged with his holy soul. In this way the evil that was associated with them became subdued by the realm of the holy. Not only did they themselves become more purified, but all the souls of the people of the countries they came from became more purified as well. All the souls of their fellow countrymen were connected to these women spiritually, because of their royal status. This situation caused these women to have a great spiritual influence on their countries.

This was the method that King Solomon used to attempt to purify the world, and thus bring the Messiah. However, his plan backfired. King Solomon was not strong enough spiritually to purify all of these women and nullify all of the evil contained in them. Instead of purifying the world, these alien women introduced their foreign ways of idol worship to the Jewish People. This led to corruption and to spiritual decay. Eventually this led to the destruction of the first Temple and exile from the Holy Land. This was what we meant when we said that a holy evil inclination could cause tremendous destruction.

Many times it happens, that when a person starts to pray or study Torah he is attacked by all kinds of strange thoughts. All of a sudden, he has a desire to worship idols. He might even come to see images of idols in his mind or he might experience fantasies which are out of his character. All these confusing thoughts are all attacks from the forces of evil. They try to prevent a person from praying or studying.  If one will simply ignore the thoughts and not be concerned with them at all, they will go away. If he attempts to fight them, the thoughts will get even worse. There is no need for concern, for this is only the attacks from the forces of evil and these thoughts are not intended by the person.

Depression and sadness strengthen the power of the evil inclination very much. When a person falls into depression he is then assaulted by many confusing thoughts from the forces of evil. Therefore, a person should try to be has happy as possible to save himself from these attacks. Joy chases away  the evil inclination and confusing thoughts.  Joy is our only weapon against the forces of evil, as the verse, “Let the joy of G-d be your stronghold” (Nechemiah 8:10).

*** The Holy Ari said that it is important to pray the morning Shemoneh Esrai exactly at sunrise (vatekin) on the Shabbat of the reading of the portion of the splitting of the sea and on the seventh day of Passover, when this event actually took place.  For the incident of the splitting of the sea took place at sunrise.  IF one does this, his soul will actually experience the incident of the splitting of the sea.