Lech Lecha תרל”ד 3

במדרש המשל מחכם שנתן לעבדו דייתיקי ושבנו יבחר דבר א’ כו’ וז”ש לאדם שטוב לפניו כו’ ע”ש במדרש תנחומא
The Midrash Tanchuma tells a parable of a man who traveled overseas for business, and when his end was near, he gave all of his possessions to his slave, and told his slave to travel to Eretz Yisrael where his son was and allow his son to choose one single possession that his father left. The slave returned and after consulting with his Rav, the son chose one possession of his late father – the slave, and automatically inherited all that the slave owned.
פי’ שיצה”ר מושל בכל הדברים ומ”מ הכל ברשות האדם כמ”ש שניתן הבחירה לאדם ומה שבוחר בו נכבש ת”י.
The Medrash is discussing the Yetzer Hara who is compared to the slave, who controls everything. Nevertheless the person has the ability to control it, as it says that free choice is given to man, a d whatever he chooses he is in control of
כמ”ש כל שתה תחת רגליו.
As it says everything is placed under his feet
וגם מה שנותן ליצה”ר כח למשול על הכל הוא ג”כ כדי שיתקרב הכל להשי”ת ע”י שמאסף ומכניס לתת לטוב כו’
And also that the Yetzer Hara has power to rule over everything isn’t for the Yetzer hara to have more power but the opposite, in order to be able to take the very things that he has and then uplift everything to HaShem, through collecting all of those things.
כמדרש הנ”ל והוא העבד
Just as in the abovementioned Medrash. The only reason why the slave received everything was only in order to be able to give it to the son.
רק שהאדם צריך להכניעו להיות תחת רגליו כנ”ל:
However man needs to subdue the Yetzer Hara in order for it to be under his feet as above.
(The Ba’al Shem Tov says that any desire that a person subdued in fighting the yetzer hara, that very desire is what then propels him closer to HaShem.)