Every night, in the Arvit prayer, we ask, הסר שטן מלפנינו ומאחרינו – that Hashem should remove the Satan “from before us and from behind us.” The commentaries explain that the Satan tries to hurt us in two different ways. When we consider doing a mitzvah , the Satan – meaning, our evil inclination – attempts to convince us not to. It gives us different reasons why we should “take it easy” and not bother with the mitzvah . But even after we overcome our yetzer ha’ra and perform the mitzvah , the Satan doesn’t stop – it tries to make us forfeit our reward for the mitzvah by causing us to regret it. And so we ask Hashem to protect us from the Satan both לפנינו – before we perform a mitzvah , and also מאחרינו – after we perform a mitzvah . A powerful example of מאחרינו , the Satan ’s attempts to lead us to regret our mitzvot , is found in Parashat Hayeh-Sarah. After passing the unimaginably difficult test of akedat Yitzhak , when Avraham showed that he was prepared even to sacrifice his son if this were what Hashem wante, he was immediately given another test. He returned home to find that his beloved wife, Sarah, had died. The Rabbis comment that she died when she heard about the akedah , that Avraham nearly killed Yitzhak. This was a great test for Avraham – to accept the fact that he did the right thing by complying with Hashem’s command, even though it led to such a painful personal loss. We know that Avraham passed this test from the way he spoke to the בני חת , the people in his city, Hevron, when he wanted to buy a place to bury Sarah. He bowed to them respectfully, spoke cordially, and insisted on paying full price even though the owner of the land he wanted offered it for free. Avraham did not let his situation break him. He retained his composure and spoke with dignity and respect, despite everything he was going through. Let’s contrast Avraham’s behavior with that of Efron – the owner of the property Avraham wanted to buy. Efron offered the field to Avraham for free, but, as the Rabbis point out, he really wanted Avraham’s money all the time. After Avraham insisted on paying, Efron said, ארץ ארבע מאות שקל כסף ביני ובינך, מה היא – “Between you and me, what’s land worth four hundred silver coins?” This was Efron’s not-so-subtle way of telling Avraham that this is the exorbitant price he wanted. We have here two different models of derech eretz . Efron spoke with derech eretz just for show. It was not sincere. He wanted to impress, but he really didn’t care about Avraham. But Avraham Avinu’s derech eretz was real and authentic. It stemmed from a genuine appreciation of the צלם אלוקים (divine image) within each and every person, which deserves our respect. The Talmud tells the famous story of Rabbi Akiva, who did not begin learning even how to read Hebrew until he was 40 years old. He was inspired to begin learning when he saw a natural well, and the people there told him that the well was formed by flowing water, which gradually, over many years, made a hole through the stone. Rabbi Akiva figured that if water could chisel through stone, then certainly the words of Torah could make an impact on him. This has been explained to mean that Rabbi Akiva recognized the difference between the Torah’s concept of derech eretz and the other nations’ concept of good manners. For the other nations, it’s all a show. It’s external. But what the Torah demands is that we change ourselves internally, that we truly and genuinely respect other people and treat them accordingly. Derech eretz is not a tactic, but something which must be deeply felt. It has to mold our hearts the way water can chisel through solid stone. As the descendants of Avraham Avinu, this is a goal we must all work towards. We should try, as much as possible, to cultivate real derech eretz , a real respect for other people, and act towards them the way Hashem’s special nation is expected to act.