ערובין-סז

When רבי ישראל of רוזין was freed from prison, he said: “Spending time in prison resolved a question that had troubled me for a long time: Why is the יצר הרע called מלך זקן וכסיל?  The name מלך is obviously because he rules over people.  The זקן refers to his presence going back to a person’s childhood.  But why כסיל?  If anything, he is extremely smart and cunning.  I had no answer to the question until, sitting in my cell, I sensed even there the presence of the יצר הרע and it was then that I said to him that he truly is a כסיל.  I have no choice but to sit in the darkness of this stinking jail, but why would you want to be here?” 

05/07/2020