Yetzer Hara

Yetzer Hara

Chazal taught that a person acquires the yetzer ha-tov before birth, while he is still in his mother's womb. It is then that the yetzer ha-tov teaches the infant the entire Torah. But the yetzer hara drives it away at the moment of birth. When a child reaches the age of responsibility for the mitzvot, the yetzer ha-tov returns to him. The yetzer hara operates through “ta'avah”—(through animal passion and desire). Kabbalah calls it the source of evil rooted in every person's soul. In any event, it is something so powerful and stubborn that it is difficult to live with and difficult to free oneself from. “The leech has two daughters; ‘Give, give,’ they cry.” (Zohar, “Mishlei” 30) The Sages and the Yetzer Hara “And they cried out to the L-rd, their G-d, with a loud voice…” What were they crying out? Rabbi Yohanan said: “They cried out: ‘O, this destroyer! He destroyed our Temple, burned the Sanctuary, killed all the righteous, sent Israel into exile, and to this day he dances among us! You, G-d, gave him to us so that we could receive a reward for resisting him. We want neither him nor the reward!’ Then a message fell from Heaven: ‘Truth’ (אמת). They declared a fast for three days and three nights, and he was handed over to them. He sprang out of the Holy of Holies like a fiery young lion. The prophet said to Israel: “This is the desire for idolatry, for it is written: ‘This is the wickedness itself.’ (Zechariah 5:8) When they seized him, a hair fell from his head, and he raised his voice; his voice thundered for four hundred parasangs. They asked: —What shall we do? Heaven forbid that Heaven should have mercy on him! The prophet said to them: —Throw him into a leaden vessel and cover it with a leaden lid, for lead muffles the voice. As it is written: “And he said: ‘This is the wickedness itself,’ and he threw it down into the vessel and cast the leaden weight over its opening.” (Zechariah 5:8) They said: —Since a time of mercy has arrived, let us pray to be delivered from the desire for sexual immorality. They prayed, and the desire for sexual immorality was handed over to them. The prophet said to them: —Be careful: if you kill it [the desire], the world will cease to exist! They bound it for [the same period as the fast,] three days, and went looking for fresh eggs, but could not find any throughout the Land of Israel. They cried out: —What are we to do now? If we kill it, the world will cease to exist! Let us pray for half a measure of mercy (to preserve desire but destroy sexual immorality).  —Heaven does not grant half-measures! They blinded it and set it free. And they succeeded: men were no longer tempted by their close relatives.” (Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 69b)   The Yetzer Hara and Rabbi Ishmael Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha, the Kohen Gadol, served in the Temple in Jerusalem for eighty years. One day, he told his disciples, who were seated around him, that he had struggled with and overcome the yetzer hara for many years, had grown old, and no longer feared its power over him. The yetzer hara heard these words, ascended to the throne of the Almighty, blessed is He, and asked: —This man has declared that he does not fear me. May I test him? The Blessed One replied: —Go, on the condition that you do not harm him and that My faithful servant remains alive. The yetzer hara rejoiced and set to work. Rabbi Ishmael was accustomed to resting for a couple of hours after lunch to gather strength for studying at night. As usual, he ate a little, read a little, looked over his notes for the lesson he was preparing for the evening, lay down on his couch by the window, and fell asleep. Rabbi Ishmael dreamed that he had entered a wondrous garden filled with fragrant fruits and was descending along a path toward the bank of a broad river. The water was clear and transparent; living waters sparkled as they struck the white stones and rolled from one to another. On the opposite bank was a garden like Gan Eden, the Garden of Paradise. He saw a young woman descending along the path toward the water in a light, transparent dress that concealed none of the charms of her beautiful young body. She was far away, but the fragrance emanating from her reached the opposite bank and drove him mad. She stopped by the water, waved her arms, and called to him: “Come to me; I have come for you!” Rabbi Ishmael did not notice how his feet had entered the water. He gazed at her and could not tear himself away, and he moved forward step by step, struggling against the current. Her body beckoned to him; her eyes drove him mad. He entered the stream up to his waist, barely able to keep his footing among the stones. He had no strength left, yet he continued on, slowly and persistently, into the depths. He did not notice that the relentless current was about to knock him down, carry him away, and dash him against the pale stones. It was difficult to move, and he could no longer stand; his feet slipped on the slick riverbed, the waves struck his face, and they were about to swallow him. He struggled to take one more step, but began to choke, enveloped in spray. The water was stronger than his aged legs; he lost his footing and waved his arms. Eliyahu HaNavi saw that Rabbi Ishmael would perish in another moment. He ascended to the Almighty, blessed is He, and said: —Master of the Universe, Rabbi Ishmael is a Kohen, and I too am a Kohen. You know how many souls he has brought to You through his holiness. Will You now hand his soul over to the angel of death? Allow me to save him! —Go and save him, He replied. In an instant, Eliyahu HaNavi assumed the form of a raven and perched by the window where Rabbi Ishmael was sleeping. He struck the glass with his beak so forcefully that shards flew onto Rabbi Ishmael's head. Fortunately, his head was covered by a woolen shawl. Rabbi Ishmael immediately awoke, trembling and shaken, and said: One cannot trust oneself until the day of one's death. I thought that over the many years my soul had grown strong and that I was now so old that the yetzer hara no longer ruled over me. Yet, Master of the Universe, our Merciful One, I see that whoever follows the yetzer cannot justify himself before You. (Rabbi Adam Davidov, “The Letters of Our Life”) In the Gemara (Berakhot 61a), Rav says: “The yetzer hara is like a fly that sits between the two openings of the heart, while King Solomon says: ‘Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment ferment and stink.’ (Kohelet 10:1) The book “Aleinu Leshabe'ach” by Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein and Rabbi Moshe Zoren states that a fly possesses exceptionally keen vision, comparable to the yetzer hara, which tries to lead us astray through our eyes. Anatomically, a fly has two compound eyes, each consisting of separate tiny eyes—facets, with 3,000–6,000 facets per eye.