כי יצר לב האדם רע מנעוריו (נח ח: כא)

A guest once came to the home of the Chofetz Chaim zt”l and saw the Chofetz Chaim feeding his young son.  The Chofetz Chaim tried pushing the food into his son’s mouth, coaxing him by repeating his name, “Aahre’la, Aaher’la,” but his son refused to eat. The Chofetz Chaim begged but to no avail.

The Chofetz Chaim turned to his guest and said: “Why do you think my child doesn’t want to eat? Because the Yetzer Hara is convincing him not to eat, as Chazal say in the passuk כי יצר לב האדם רע מנעוריו  – from when a man is born, the Yetzer Hara is already working on him.  And how can he persuade a youngster to be bad? By telling him not to eat – so that he will be weak and unable to learn Torah and daven.”.

The guest smiled and the Chofetz Chaim got upset. “You don’t believe me? Come outside and look at that lowlife eating – he eats and doesn’t get satiated. Because that same Yetzer Hara that kept him back from eating when he was young is convincing him now to eat so that he should have more strength to torture a Yid!”.