When you do something wrong, something you later regret, how often is it because you don’t know at the time, what is the right thing to do? and how often is it that you commit the act, even though you know, down deep that it is wrong? For years, I have been fascinated by this question and the fact that most people answer as I do, that most of the time when we do the wrong thing, it is despite the fact that we know it is wrong. And yet, when there is an Enron scandal, every business school in the country adds a new course in Business Ethics as if this will fix the problem. In the Jewish world too, we put a lot of emphasis on teaching personal ethics and social ethics, medical ethics and business ethics as if, if only we knew what was right, we would all do the right thing. It is not that these classes and ethical teachings are a waste of time. There are indeed plenty of situations where we face a true dilemma and don’t know what is the right thing to do. But these teachings are clearly not the whole answer.
So why is it, that even when we know, down deep, what is the right thing to do, we sometimes do the wrong thing? Why do we eat that chocolate cake when we are trying to watch our diet? Why do we join our friends at lunch, speaking lashon hara, gossip, about someone in the community, even though we promised ourselves on Yom Kippur, that this is something we really don’t want to engage in any more?
These are hardly new problems. If we look closely at the stories in this weeks and next week’s Torah Portions, from creation to Lech Lecha, God’s call to Abraham, the opening stories in the Torah all focus on human beings giving in to the yetser hara, the inclination to evil, and God’s response. Every story in the Torah’s first 11 chapters—Adam and Hava eating from the tree, Kayin killing Hevel, the Generation of the Flood and the Generation of the Tower of Bavel—shows God disappointed in human beings and trying to cope with the human capacity for evil. In some sense, the whole Torah can be seen as God’s response to the human capacity for eveil. But let’s focus on our Torah portion and just some of what we can learn here.
The creation of the human being begins so beautifully—God creates us בצלם אלהים in God’s image—it is hard to find a more beautiful and inspiring idea. But even though in chapter one, day by day, God pronounces what God has made as "good," after creating the human being, God offers no evaluation at all. While the Torah tells us that God looked at EVERYTHING God had made and pronounce it טוב מאד, God is silent when it comes to the human being. Perhaps the silence reflects God’s own uncertainty about this particular creation, the human being.
It is at the end of parshat bereshit, after Hava and Adam have eaten from the tree, and after Cain has murdered his brother Abel, that we find this evaluation of the human being by God, in what are perhaps the saddest lines in the entire Torah. Instead of "וירא אלהים כי טוב" we read
(ה) וַיַּרְא יְדֹוָד כִּי רַבָּה רָעַת הָאָדָם בָּאָרֶץ וְכָל יֵצֶר מַחְשְׁבֹת לִבּוֹ רַק רַע כָּל הַיּוֹם:
(ו) וַיִּנָּחֶם יְדֹוָד כִּי עָשָׂה אֶת הָאָדָם בָּאָרֶץ וַיִּתְעַצֵּב אֶל לִבּוֹ:
And Adonai saw how great was the evil of the human being on earth, and how the deepest inclinations of the human heart were only for evil all the time. And Adonai regretted having made the human being on the earth… and God was deeply saddened to the very core."
So, what can we learn about the yetser hara from our Torah Portion and from the rabbinic ponderings over the centuries? Perhaps if we understand better how the yetser hara operates we may better recognize when we are being tempted by our own inclination to do wrong, and maybe we will have a better chance of following through with our desire to do the right thing.
Is it only after eating from the Tree and gaining knowledge of good and evil, that human beings have had to struggle with the yetser hara? Are there things we can do to uproot or neutralize the yetser hara, so that we return to the pure state of our initial creation?
Rav Nahman taught in the name of R. Hisda, that God created us from the start with 2 yetsers, the yetser hatov and the yetser hara—the inclination for good and the inclination for evil. He sees this hinted at in the very description of our creation. In Bereshit 2:7 וייצר ה' אלהים את האדם... וייצר –"Adonai God formed" has 2 yuds—why? One represents the yetser hatov and one represents the yetser hara. A playful midrash… but one that reflects the serious idea that God created us this way from the start. Part of what it means to be human is to face the yetser hara within ourselves. This is not something we can simply learn to rid ourselves of. In fact, the Rabbis teach the greater the person, the greater the yetser hara. There’s no escape.
In the story of Hava and Adam eating from the tree, we see the yetser hara at work from the start. Why did Hava eat from the tree? Didn’t she know from the start, that she and Adam were not supposed to eat from the Tree of Knowledge? What happened? If we look closely, we may get some answers to our original question of why we too, sometimes knowingly transgress.
The snake, understood for centuries to represent the yetser hara, tempts Hava—how? "You wont really die… it will make you wise… You’ll be like God." The snake uses rational reasoning to tempt Hava. If you think about it, isn’t this how we often experience the yetser hara ourselves? "It wont hurt to just eat a little bit… you’ve been good all day… just a little bit wont make a difference." Or "this isn’t really lashon hara… we’re just trying to understand her better." As human beings, it is our very capacity for thinking that trips us up. We can rationalize anything, and very often, if it sounds rational, we go for it—we take the bite.
The חכמים point to the workings of the yetser hara in some colorful passages. One that seems to have our text in mind is a saying from the Talmud Yerushalmi: "There is nothing that the yetser hara desires as much as that which is forbidden." The phrase "forbidden fruit" may come to mind, originating in this very story. Again, we recognize in ourselves, especially if we remember our adolescence, or perhaps still feel adolescent… the powerful allure of the forbidden. Why can’t I have it? So often, what attracts us in the forbidden fruit, is primarily the fact that it is forbidden… and part of the pleasure in eating this fruit is the momentary thrill of achieving the forbidden. The long term consequences are another story.
These long term consequences are addressed in several rabbinic texts. Another saying from the Yerushalmi: " יצר הרע ראשו מתוק וסופו מר At the beginning, the yetser hara is sweet, but its end is bitter." This too, could be a subtitle for Ber. 3… and we recognize the basic truth of this claim in our own experience. The cake looks great and it tastes great… but later we may regret our actions… we feel like we are part of the group when we speak lashon hara, and we may well have the pleasure of feeling superior to the person we are talking about… standing in judgment from a safe distance, but later, we may very well feel remorse—is it really worth it? Here we see our tendency to focus on the short term pleasure, while we ignore the long-term consequences… some of us lose patience with our kids when they seem to have trouble with this very thing-- "Didn’t yuuo think what would happen later?" we may ask them… but honestly, don’t we sometimes find the same challenge difficult?
Here’s another great text: "This is the craft of the יצר הרע. Today it says to a person "Do such and such." Tomorrow it says to him "Do such and such." Until it says to the person "Go and worship idols"--and he does. (Shabbat 105b, Niddah 13b). Here, the rabbis warn us of the dangers if we don’t have the strength to say no to the yetser hara from the start. What begins as something small—a wrongdoing that really is no big deal… over time may well lead to things we would never have considered at the start. So a student cheats on her homework thinking what is the big deal—everyone does it –it is just a homework assignment. If she doesn’t get caught, maybe she will try cheating on a quiz next time… and after that, if she still doesn’t get caught, maybe she will cheat on a test or turn in an essay that she purchased over the internet. Most people don’t start with something big… it is the little things that over time carry us to the bigger ones. If we don’t say no.
And another text: "R. Asi said: At the beginning the יצר הרע is like the thread of a cobweb and by the end it resembles a wagon rope. (Sukkah 52b, Bereishit Rabbah 22) When we first experience the yetser hara, it is not so strong… we could push it aside like we push aside a spider web. But if we don’t say no, the strength of the yetser hara itself grows, and over time we will find ourselves more and more entangled, ensnared… it will be harder and harder to stand up to the yetser hara and say no. Is this one that rings true? The message here is we should be humble and say no to the yetser hara when we can! Anyone who has struggled with an addiction will attest to the truth of this passage… and there are many kinds of addictions, big and small.
As I have learned from my teacher and friend, Sylvia Boorstein, everything we do, every act, contributes to a habit, one habit or another. We can see this as burdensome… or we can see this as a great opportunity. We can turn around today and start to develop a new habit. Every act, every step will help and make us stronger in our resolve. Every choice either contributes to the yetser hara or the yetser hatov.
While we can never hope to fully defeat the yester hara and move beyond the experience of temptation, we should remember the yetser hara is not all bad. The rabbis teach us that without the yetser hara, no one would have children or build houses. They see the yetser hara as the source of our creativity, our energy and our passion. But we need to be mindful. We need to channel it in good ways, and we need to be ever mindful of the temptations to do wrong… that is part of what it means to be human.
How can we learn to live with the yetser hara? One of my students said it best. We need to have the humility she said, to realize that we too are susceptible to temptation. We need to have the humility to realize the yetser hara is stronger than we think, and be on guard, as our tradition teaches. If we recognize our own ability to rationalize and diminish the importance of a single act when we are tempted to indulge ourselves… we will do better. If we learn to pay better attention and notice when we are being tempted to do something we know is wrong, we will do better. But taking the yetser hara seriously does not always mean fighting it head on. Sometimes the wisest choice is simply to remove ourselves from the temptation. I don’t have to keep chocolate cake on the counter, I can keep it out of sight, or not have it in the house at all. When people start with lashon hara, I can find the opportunity to walk away…I can sit with different friends… when I am losing patience I can give a warning… Humility in the face of the yetser hara may open up new choices we had not considered before.
With deeper understanding and appreciation of how the yetser hara operates and with a commitment to try and be mindful of when and how the yetser hara tends to trip us up, we will hopefully notice with increasing frequency when we face the challenge… and we will be able to pause, consider, and hopefully, make better choices.
And then when we ourselves hear the ultimate question as we do from time to time—the question God posed to Adam and Hava after they ate from the Tree— "אייכה –where are you?" we will then be able to answer with a full heart: "הנני " --"here I am."
Shabbat shalom!