Chiseling Away the Evil Impulse Like a Stumbling Stone

For you have stumbled in your iniquity (Hosea 14:2). Rabbi Simon said: This is like a high rock standing at a crossroads, and people kept stumbling over it. The king said to them, Chip away at it little by little until the time comes when I will remove it from the world. So too the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel, My children, the evil impulse is a great stumbling block to the world; chip away at it little by little until the time comes when I will remove it from the world. This is what is written, And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Rabbi Yitzchak said: It is the way of the world that a person stumbles into a sin for which he is liable to death at the hands of Heaven, and then his ox dies, his hen is lost, his flask is broken, he stubs his finger, for a portion of the soul stands in for the whole soul. Another interpretation: One thing added to another to find the account (Ecclesiastes 7:27). Just as one mishap is added to another, the reckoning is found. And how far does the working out of the account go? Down to the very last one.