Tag: yetzer hara

Yakov and the שר של עשו wrestle and fight for hours on end, the whole night is spent. The man whose face is on Hashem’s כסא הכבוד and the מלאך that represents עשו and אדום in שמים. Many מפרשים explain that this was the יצר הרע, that in שמים, אדום is represented by none other than the שטן himself. And consequently, this fight is a representation of the timeless battle between good and evil in the world. This battle that we all deal with every minute of every day was fought on a macro level that night. I think if we explore this story in detail and in conjunction with a few other things חז”ל say, we will find a fascinating and revolutionary way of viewing the יצר הרע that lives inside of us and that we struggle with every day.

The גמרא in כתובות דף עז: says that the מלאך המות was an acquaintance of ר’ חנינא בר פפא and רש”י comments אוהבו ורגיל אצלו תמיד. That these two were good friends with a loving relationship and that the יצר הרע would visit him constantly. The question falls on both parties. Firstly, if we had to imagine who the יצר הרע would be friends with we would guess a רשע who commits all types of sins, or at least someone who struggles and usually fails. Why would he be friends with a holy אמורא? Also, why would ר’ חנינא בר פפא consider himself friends with the יצר הרע? We daven every day for Hashem to save us from the יצר הרע!

Rashi in our פרשה quotes the גמרא in חולין that says, when the שר של עשו told Yakov שלחני כי עלה השחר, let me go for the sun has come up, he was saying that you need to let me go so that I can sing my שירה to Hashem and I haven’t ever sang before from the day I was created until now. שירה is described as the highest form of praise and one that is given to Hashem upon completion of a mission. When each מלאך finished their mission, they sing שירה to Hashem and then get another mission. If this is the יצר הרע why has he never had a chance to say שירה yet? There have been tons and tons of עבירות done since the beginning of time. קין killed הבל, the דור המבול, מגדל בבל, סדום and עמורה. The שטן has been having a field day until Avraham came around, and even then, most of the world was opposed to Avraham and was worshipping idols daily. If I had to guess he’s fulfilled his mission of evil every day. Yet it seems like he’s saying that his mission was only fulfilled when Yakov bested him that night.

Most of us would imagine the שטן as an evil being, maybe he’s red or has some horns, probably a cackling laugh. And even if we don’t run to the Christian images of the שטן, we definitely see him as something evil and ugly. The problem with this is that he lives inside each one of us, and that makes us evil and ugly on some level. And then the guilt comes, and we feel no good since we have evil inside of us and we can’t seem to get away from it. But, I think all of what we showed above gives us a new view. The יצר הרע was sent into this world as an extension of Hashem, which is exactly what a מלאך is. He is the מלאך המות, the angel of death. Death was introduced to the world when אדם and חוה ate from the עץ הדעת. They created a scenario where they were distanced from Hashem and they would need to die in order to be reunited with their Creators. So, the mission of the מלאך המות is really to bring us close to Hashem again. And his purpose is not only at the end of a person’s life, the גמרא in סנהדרין says that the שטן, מלאך המות, and יצר הרע are one and the same. Each day this מלאך challenges us from inside our heads to get close to Hashem. Day by day to bridge the gap and close the chasm that was opened at the beginning of time.

His mission as a מלאך is to be defeated by us and his true purpose, like everything else in this world, is to bring us closer to Hashem. That long night spent wrestling with Yakov was the first time that he was defeated so thoroughly that he was able to come before his Creator and say, “I did it!” He had helped a human exercise their spiritual muscles and challenge him to stand up to one test and after another and find Hashem in all the challenges. The יצר הרע is like a trainer for our spirituality, pushing us to our limits and then testing us further to show us that we are capable of more than we can ever knew. He gives us נסיון after נסיון and allows us to raise ourselves up as banners to the world that Hashem exists in every situation and at any level that a Jew is on.

Obviously, this can be very difficult, and he doesn’t go easy on us. But if you’ve ever seen a real trainer of a fighter, or a professional athlete, they can seem like the meanest and nastiest people in the world, but the truth is, that they are only looking to advance their student. We are all students of the יצר הרע and we are meant to engage with him in a training that gives us the opportunity to do Hashem’s will. And more importantly, we are Godly. Inside and out, front and back. There is no part of us that is evil. There is the part that is evidently Godly, and the part where we must uncover the Godliness.

As the winter gets longer and the world around us dies, let’s all hold on to our נשמה and be prepared to train with the יצר הרע and help bring the world closer to Hashem.

The world gets completely wiped out and obliterated. The ground itself was uprooted and destroyed. Then slowly the world gets recreated. First the rain stops coming from the sky and the sun (light) is visible, then we have the mountaintops (ground) appear. Next, we have two separate species of bird make their exit into the new world, only to reveal that vegetation has also become present on the earth again.  And finally, animal and man stepped out of the Ark and into their new lives.

And as soon as Noach leaves the תבה, he brings קרבנות to Hashem. Hashem smells these offerings and says to His Heart (כביכול) I shall not curse the ground because of man, for the inclinations (יצר) of the heart of man is evil from his youth (מנעריו), and I shall not strike living beings as I have done.

Chazal point out that the word מנעריו is spelled without a “vav” between the ע and the ר which allows it to be read as a form of the verb נער which means to stir or to move. And חז”ל say that this is teaching us that as soon as a baby starts shaking and stirring to leave its mother’s womb, in comes the יצר הרע, which is why we are called רע מנעריו (as a side point I think a reason for this may be that Chava’s curse was that she will have labor pains and the baby moving causes contractions and pain, so the same יצר הרע that she absorbed into her body by eating from the tree gets transferred to her children by means of her curse).

If this is the case, it would all seem like a lost cause. We all know the מדרש from קהלת that we only get our יצר טוב at age 13 (or 12 for a girl) so how do we possibly have a chance of effectively fighting the יצר הרע who has been soaking into our bodies for over 13 years by the time we even get introduced to our יצר טוב? The מדרש has two other discussions, one before and one after what we quoted above, and I think that gives us the context necessary to answer our question and learn how we can fight the יצר הרע.

The מדרש opens by saying that רשעים are under the control of their heart and צדיקים are in control of their hearts, for example: ויאמר עשו בלבו and ויאמר המן בלבו which is contrasted with וחנה מדברת על לבה and ויאמר דוד אל לבו, and specifically here, ויאמר יה-וה אל לבו. I think the simplest translation of the words is that המן and עשו were “inside” of their hearts בלבו, meaning their desires and wants surrounded them, and they only existed within the context of their wants. As opposed to Dovid and Chana who had a sense of self, even outside of their desires. Then the מדרש relays what we quoted above that we all get our יצר הרע when our mothers begin having contractions and we are trying to get out of the womb. And as a postscript we have a conversation between R’ Yehuda Hanasi and Marcus Aurelius. Marcus asks Rebbe, when does a person get his נשמה, and Rebbe says after a person leaves the womb, but Marcus says that’s impossible, the body wouldn’t survive without a soul, and Rebbe says you’re right, he rescinds his original opinion and quotes a Pasuk in איוב to prove the point that Hashem gives us our נשמה from the moment it has been decided that we will be created.

The מדרש is giving us the context necessary for us to fight the יצר הרע even though he has been a part of us for much longer than the יצר טוב, and that is two things, 1- our head-to-heart relationship, and 2- our נשמה. Let’s explain:

The first and most basic point is that our נשמה precedes even the יצר הרע, and every day we say נשמה שנתת לי טהורה היא. We need to believe that at our very core, from the moment our conception was conceptualized by Hashem we already have a natural state of purity, and things always gravitate towards their natural state.

The second plan that the מדרש gives us is to keep our head above our heart and not be defined by our desires. At the moment when a desire comes, we need to focus our energy in our head and not let the desire take control of us and define us. And when we do this enough we start to control our desires the way we can control any other limb in our body.

The אור החיים הקדוש has a piece on this Pasuk that I think supports what we’re saying. He quotes the גמרא that says that although when an ox gores we generally say that the owner is responsible for the damages but an ox that was used in a matador stadium that gores someone even after the ox no longer works in the stadium, the owner does not have to pay any damages. The reason given is because this ox was taught to gore, and the language in the Torah is כי יגח שור, when an ox gores, but the word יגח connotes a happenstance and not a trained action. He says that one can say that people have been trained to do evil by their יצר הרע when there was no force to stop him, and that we should not be “responsible to pay” for our actions. But he says that this excuse won’t work. Because this is the fundamental difference between people and animals. People can view a scenario and make a rational choice and break out of any and all molds that they may have holding them back from doing the right thing.

And if you look inside at the section of text that says the words רע מנעריו, the whole piece is discussing the difference between people and animals and how people have dominion over the animals, I’ll show a few:

• Hashem tells Noach that if the animals don’t want to leave, he should forcibly remove them.
• Noach uses his brain power to logically conclude that Hashem told him to bring 7 pairs of all kosher animals in order that he be able to bring קרבנות with them, thereby understanding that animals can have a higher purpose.
• Hashem tells Noach that unlike Adam who only had the power to eat vegetation and not kill an animal to eat it, Noach does have the power and ability to kill an animal for consumption.
• Immediately afterwards we get a bunch of Pesukim regarding murder, suicide, and capital punishment.

I think the common thread through all these פסוקים is that humans have a cognitive power above the animals and that gives us certain power but also certain responsibilities. In the פשט of the Pasuk the cognitive responsibility is to realize that we were only given permission to kill animals but that human life is still considered sacred and not to be tampered with. But the מדרש is uncovering a layer underneath that shows up that this responsibility comes with the knowledge that our pure נשמה predates our evil inclination. And, that this responsibility is the way for us to live outside of our desires and to be able to direct our hearts and wants the way that Dovid and Chana did.

Isn’t it interesting that after the world is rebuilt and Hashem had said the words כי יצר לב האדם רע מנעריו the next place that mankind errs is in a place called שנער where they too followed the stirring force of the יצר הרע inside of them.

May we all be strong enough to use our cognition to power our brain over our hearts and desires and be able to say that we speak to our heart, and not that our heart’s desires dictate our lives.