Jewish Insights Into The Causes Of Human Evil – OpEd
Religious thinkers throughout the ages have tried to understand why people do evil. Some have taught that all humans are basically selfish egoists who rebel against the restraints of law and order. Others have taught that evil is due to ignorance of, or being unenlightened about, the true nature of reality. Some have taught that the urges of the animal body (greed, sex, envy, rage, etc.) always strive to overcome the moral lessons learned by the mind, while others have taught that evil originates from a source outside human beings such as the devil or the demonic realms of reality.
Jewish thinkers (like Muslim thinkers) reject the concept of original sin and/or a devil, who in opposition to the One God, makes humans sin. Human beings are created in the image of God and are co-regents with God in governing the world. Sin exists because God gave humans free will to choose between good and evil. The classic statement of this teaching comes from the Torah (Deuteronomy chapter 31): “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil (15)…I call heaven and earth as witnesses that I have set before you today life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live. (19)”
But in order to have a real choice, evil has to seem more attractive than good (at least in the short run) and humans have to have some impulses and urges that if uncontrolled lead them to act in evil ways. Thus, the Rabbis in the post Biblical era of the Talmud (first to sixth century) began to speak about human psychology in terms of a Yetzer (an impulse or urge to do evil things) often called a Yetzer haRa (an evil urge as opposed to a Yetzer haTov a good urge).
Although this terminology sounds dualistic, we shall see that the two Yetzer concept was not a dualistic system. Indeed, the Jewish commitment to monotheism led almost all Jewish thinkers to view negative aspects of life as instrumental for positive achievement. Thus, when the Torah states that on the sixth day of creation God saw that it was very good (Genesis 1:31), the Rabbis offer over a dozen different interpretations of what was very good and many of their interpretations are dual opposites where one is good and the other seems bad but really makes it possible for us to be very good. So very good refers to the challenge of conflicting possibilities that enables us to exercise our free will to overcome the negative and live a holy life.
Rabbi Huna said very good refers to happiness and suffering. Rabbi Simeon ben Abba said it refers to God’s bounty and to God’s punishment. (i.e. moral acts have consequences in this world) Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish says it refers to a kingdom of heaven and a kingdom of earth. (i.e. a spiritual realm and a material realm) Rabbi Ze’ira said it refers to Paradise and Gehinom. (i.e. moral acts also have consequences in the world to come)
Rabbi Samuel ben Rabbi Isaac says it alludes to the angel of life and the angel of death. (i.e. human awareness of the blessing of life and the inevitability of death) And most relevant to our topic Rabbi Samuel said, “good refers to the inclination toward good and very good refers to the inclination toward evil. Can the inclination toward evil be good? Yes! If not for the inclination toward evil no man would build a house, marry, or beget children as it says, ‘excelling in work is due to a man’s rivalry with his neighbor.’ ” The rest of this essay explains this startling statement.
The Yetzer haRa is usually mistranslated as the evil impulse. But the word ra also means wild as in hayah ra’ah a wild animal. Thus Yetzer haRa refers to natural wild or uncontrolled impulses or inclinations. The opponent or alternative to wild or uncontrolled impulses are tamed or domesticated impulses. In other words savage and wild impulses versus civilized and self-controlled impulses. Wild impulses can be tamed or civilized through study of Torah (to sensitize your conscience) and the self-discipline of repeatedly doing good and holy things- Mitsvot (to strengthen your willpower). When so controlled the Yetzer haRa becomes a Yetzer haTov.
Since it takes years of education and self-discipline to learn to live a good and holy life, the Yetzer haTov (the tamed impulse) isn’t there at birth, even though the soul is pure at birth. As the Torah teaches in the Book of Genesis: “The devisings of man’s mind are evil from his youth” (8:21). Bereshit Rabbah 34:12 comments, “From the moment he awakes to go forth from his mother’s womb, the Yetzer ha-Ra (untamed/wild impulse) is in him” and the sages say, “The Yetzer haRa is 13 years older than the Yetzer haTov. It begins growing with the fetus in the mother’s womb and comes out with him. (Avot of Rabbi Nathan).
The reference to 13 years is related to the age when children are considered to be responsible in a legal sense for their own actions. It takes this long to train children to consciously control their wild urges and to consciously direct them to moral and holy purposes.
While impulses like anger, jealousy, greed, selfishness, stubbornness, rivalry, status, attention and thrill seeking, can be found in most young children, Mitsvot and Torah study can tame those urges. “The Holy One did create the Yetzer haRa, but He also created Torah as an antidote.”(Talmud Baba Batra 16a). Other natural impulses like approval seeking, conflict avoidance, caution, friendship, group loyalty, patience, sharing, sympathy, trust and peacemaking(1) can be strengthened and consciously directed to moral goals by doing Mitsvot and Torah study.
But without Torah and Mitsvot to control them even they can contribute to evil deeds. For example, loyalty and friendship can lead one to cover up the misdeeds of another person. And patience and conflict avoidance can delay one from reacting against injustice and oppression.
Feelings and personality traits that are wild are natural and therefore not intrinsically evil. They can, and should be tamed and directed to worthwhile endeavors. This is what Rabbi Samuel bar Nachman meant when he said that the Torah terms the Yetzer haRa “very good” (Genesis 1:31). “For scripture teaches us that were it not for the Yetzer HaRa a man would not build a house (status seeking), or take a wife (lust), or engage in commerce (greed). All such activities come from man’s rivalry (competitiveness) with others.” (Genesis Rabbah 9:7 and Kohelet Rabbah 3:11 #3)
Thus, correctly directed by the Yetzer haTov all impulses from the wild side can serve God. Indeed, when passions are governed correctly they provide the energy for constructive accomplishment. This is why a repentant sinner stands at a height that even a pious saint cannot reach.
In the east, the goal of most religious teachers was not to curb human lusts and passions, or to redirect them into something positive. Instead eastern religious teachers sought to extinguish natural passions and emotions entirely, and leave them behind permanently. Jewish teachers did not believe this was possible or desirable. It is not desirable because “if we slay the untamed impulse the entire civilized world will be destroyed (by asceticism and celibacy). So they shaded its eyes (weakened it by harnessing it) and let it go” (Talmud Yoma 69b). It is not possible or desirable to eliminate natural feelings in this world even though they often lead to bad behavior because the Yetzer haRa will only be absent in the non-natural world to come (Genesis Rabbah 48:11).
Indeed, Rabbi Judah taught, “This world is based on three things: rivalry, lust and mercy.” (Avot of Rabbi Nathan) Rabbi Judah’s statement clearly refers to the emotional forces that motivate so much of human activity both positively and negatively. Our goal should be to harness our natural wild impulses and our natural empathetic impulses and direct them to the service of our fellow creatures and the God who made us. Even great sages like Abbaye find themselves struggling to control their natural impulses, and as he learned “the greater the man, the greater his natural impulses.” (Sukah 52b)
The challenge of taming our Yetzer is also a continual one. The sages say, “A person’s yetzer grows daily.” (Sukkah 52b) and that’s one important reason to engage in daily ritual and ethical Mitsvot as well as daily Torah study. But if the study of Torah and doing Mitsvot are necessary to enable people to civilize their Yetzer, how do non-Jews who do not do either of these become righteous? If the question was asked in the past it was not answered directly.
There is one anonymous Rabbinic teaching that declares that both the wild impulse and the empathetic impulse are rooted in the human gut (i.e. natural or biological). One Yetzer in each kidney. This implies that every human also has a natural Yetzer haTov and that each religion can strengthen this natural-biological good impulse with explicit guidelines. (Berachot 61a). There was also a 13th century kabbalist mystic, Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob ha-Kohen, who explained why God destroyed the worlds created prior to this one.
At first God thought, “If I create a world without any Yetzer haRa there will be no amazement if the creatures are as good as angels, but if I put a strong Yetzer haRa into them they might be unable to overcome it. Still, I might find among them a couple of righteous people like David (who had a very strong Yetzer haRa– ‘The greater the man the greater the Yetzer’.) so God created worlds (where people had a very strong Yetzer) and then destroyed them not finding any righteous people in them.
Then God said, “I created it (the Yetzer) to powerful, so there is no good in them; I will now create human beings with an additional Yetzer, the Yetzer haTov.” Since Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob Ha-Cohen doesn’t mention that these other worlds received Torah he must have thought that pre-humans should have been able to achieve goodness by their natural impulses to co-operate alone. They couldn’t; but with the natural Yetzer haTov humans now have, both Jews and non-Jews should be adequately nourished by their own religion’s moral teaching. This may be why our sages declared that there were righteous people in every nation and thus say that the righteous of all nations have a place in the world to come.
The views of the untamed impulse referred to above are big picture philosophical views. When preaching or counseling our sages simplified things into good versus evil; Torah study and Mitsvot verses sin and transgression. “People should always arouse their civilized impulses over their savage impulses.” (Talmud Brachot 5b) After all the philosophy talk is done, people must still make moral choices. As the Zohar states, ” God created the Yetzer haRa only in order to test humans.” (1:106) Thus many references to the Yetzer HaRa are sermonic black and white views. The Talmud says simply, “Happy is he who is man enough to control his Yetzer haRa.” (Avodah Zara 19a)
The Rabbis did not want to say much that was positive about untamed natural impulses that could lead people to do good outside the realm of Torah and Mitsvot (Jewish Civilization) or even the seven commandments of Noah’s descendants (Gentile Civilization). They said still less about the possibility that the Yetzer haTov might under some circumstances be counterproductive. There is a story told about Rabbi Hiyya bar Ashi who continually worried about his sexual impulses. His wife, after years of sexual neglect, disguised herself and flirted with Rabbi Hiyya.
He came home and told her he was depressed because he had flirted with a woman. She told him it was no big deal because she was the woman. He replied that even if nothing occurred and no one was hurt, his sin was in his desires and intention. Hiyya should have learned from this experience that sexual neglect of his wife was his sin. Instead, the Talmud relates, Rabbi Hiyya blamed himself and started fasting. He fasted so much that he died from his fasting. (Kiddushin 81b)
The story teaches us that Rabbi Hiyya was an idealistic perfectionist and it killed him. In the late 18th and 19th centuries a few Hasidic Rabbis argued that overly strict Halakic (legal) control could interfere with natural spiritual emotions (in prayer for example) and excessive Kabbalistic (mystical) practices (multiple days of fasting or rolling naked in the snow) could depress or even extinguish the feeling of joy that Hasidism deemed necessary for true worship of God.
It is easy to see how the natural impulse Yetzer to be loyal and faithful, or to identify with or idealize a leader can lead to both good or bad deeds depending on who or what you are faithful to. One of the most important teachings about the Yetzer haRa for the various fanatics of our day is that of a Hassidic Rabbi, Michal who said: When the Yetzer haRa (or Satan) tries to tempt people to sin, it tempts them to become super righteous.”
And Rabbi Yaakov Yitzhak Horowitz, the Seer of Lublin taught: The Yetzer haRa sometimes appears as a penitent and saint, teaching piety, repentance and self-denial. This is still against God’s will…the Evil Urge will tell one to practice self-denial. If you think about it you will discover that the main motivation is merely to make a show of piety.” Thus, while the Yetzer ha Ra often can produce good, it is also possible for the emotionally good Yetzer haTov, if uncontrolled, to sometimes produce evil. Religious extremists are a sad example of how too much good becomes bad.
The two Yetzer concept has the advantage of being dynamic and non-dualistic. It doesn’t pit humans against nature, the body against the soul, or the saved against the unsaved. The two Yetzer concept should help us see the complexity of human feelings and thoughts, and help us develop ways of taming our wild impulses and urges. Recent advances in evolutionary psychology, genetics and brain studies provide evidence that some people are born with bodies that strongly predispose them to anti-social behavior.
Even here however family and society can moderate or exacerbate the Yetzer haRa. Other people who grow up in terrible family and community circumstances manage to overcome them in ways we do not fully understand. The great variety of human experiences and of religious moral teachings should teach us that no one simple or universal cause is the origin of all human evil.
References:
(1) For recent studies of primates and the origins of moral virtues in humans see: The Origins of Virtue by Matt Riley, Penguin Books 1996 and Good Natured by Frances de Waal, Harvard University Press 1996. For a Yetzer haRa view see: Demonic Males by Richard Wrangell and Dale Peterson, Houghton Mifflin 1996
