Noach – How can we control our yetzer hara

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.