By Rabbi David Cohen:
When you will go out to war against your enemy.” (Devarim 21:10)
The words “against your enemy” seem to be superfluous. What war does one fight that is not “against your enemy”? Our Sages teach us that the Torah is referring to a perpetual war one wages against his personal enemy, his yetzer hara.
Rabbi Avraham Schorr notes that because every person has his own challenges and weaknesses, what is considered a “great yetzer hara” for one person may be hardly a challenge for another. Our task is to maintain our focus in fighting our personal enemy – the enemy tailor-made for us and placed within us – in order to bring us to our best. It’s especially important to keep this in mind during Elul. Each person has his own battles to fight, as such he has his unique journey to teshuvah.