Yetzer harah

In Judaism, the 'yetzer harah' is the inclination or impulse to evil, popularly identified with the lusts of the flesh. The term yetzer refers to the inclination toward either good or evil in Judaism. Yetzer ha-tov is the inclination toward good and Yetzer ha-rah is the inclination towards evil.

According to Judaism, human beings are neither wholly good nor wholly evil but but a tendency in both directions, which is innate and endowed by God. Thus, the yetzer harah is not the product of the Human Fall, as in Christian teaching, but is part of the creation as God intended. While it does lead to sin, it is also essential, for without it, there would be no ambition, economic progress, or even procreation.

Rise of the Idea

While the expression yetzer is used both in Deut. 31:21 and in Isa. 26:3 for the disposition or mind, the term "heart" or "evil heart" usually takes its place in Biblical theology as the seat and power of temptation and sin in man. Thus, the "wicked heart" referred to in Ezra 4:18 is analogous to the So, too, the "wicked heart" referred to in Ezra iv. 18 is analogous to the Yeẓer ha-Ra' in being offset by the Law and in not having power to overcome the Law.

The first definitive passage in which the term occurs is in the Hebrew text of Eccliasticus (Sirach) 15:14. written in the second century B.C.E.: "God created man from the beginning... and gave him into the hand of his yetzer." And in 6:22 of this text man is compared to the fruit of a tree, while his thoughts are according to his yetzer.

This idea seems to have been taken up as well by the Apostle Paul(Rom. 7:7-24). However, the contrast between the flesh and the spirit emphasized by Paul exists nowhere in mainstream Jewish theology.

Rabbinical views

Rabbinical tradition deduced that there are in man two contrary impulses in man: the good and the evil (Ber. 61a). The good impulse is known as the yetzer ha-tov. Both impulses are part of God's creation, rather than result of the Human Fall as understood in Christianity.

In rabbinical tradition, Cain defended himself before God for having slain Abel by arguing that God had implanted in him the yetzer harah (Tan., Bereshit, 25 [ed. Buber, p. 10]). It was in reference to this evil impulse that God warned Cain that "sin lies couching at the door but you must master it (Ber. 61a).

In a certain way, however, even the yetzer harah, like all things which God made, is good. Without it a man would never marry, beget, build a house, or engage in trade (Gen. R. ix. 9). When man is enjoined to love God "with all thy heart," this means that both the good impulse and the evil impulse must be directed in accordance with God's Law (Sifre, Deut. 32).

The yetzer harah is thus a natural inclination. Indeed, the yetzer ha-tov only comes with reflection, usually at the age of bar mitzvah or confirmation, because it is said to be 13 years younger than the yetzer harah, which is inborn (Eccl. R. ix. 14). The yetzer ha-tov delivers the citadel of the body from the yetzer harah by means of temperance and good works (Ned. 32b).

According to the rabbis, yetzer harah has seven different epithets in the Bible: evil (Gen. 8:21), uncircumcised (Deut. 10:16), unclean (Psalm 51:12), the enemy (Prov. 25: 21), stumbling-block (Isa. 57:14), stone (Ezek. 36:26), and hidden (Joel 2:20).

The yetzer harah is no less strong in the righteous person than in the sinner. Indeed, it is said that "the greater the man the greater his yetzer harah."

Despite the rabbinical opinion that the yetzer harah is in a certain sense both necessary and good, it is held by some of the rabbis to be among the four things which God regretted to have created (Suk. 52a, b). It is sometimes identified with Satan or with the angel of death (B. B. 16a). The Torah is the great antidote against the yetzer harah (Suk. 52b; Ḳid. 30b; Ab. R. N. 16). If not tempered by obedience to the Law and other good works, the yetzer harah grows with a man. At first it is a mere traveler. Then it becomes a guest, and at last it is the man himself (Suk. 52b).

Characteristics

"Yetzer harah" does not refer exclusively to the body. However, it undoubtedly leads to sensual sins with great power. Thus both Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Meir, great sages of the second century CE, were saved from its influence only by heavenly intercession (Ḳid. 81a). It was to avoid the temptations of the yetzer harah that women were ordered to take separate seats in the galleries of synagogues (Suk. 51b). Revenge and avarice are also mentioned as the outcome of the yetzer harah (Sifre, Deut. 33), and anger is another of its manifestations. It is with reference to anger that the person is called mighty who overcomes his yetzer harah (Ab. iv. 2).

Vanity is still another form in which the Yeẓer ha-Ra' displays itself. When the yetzer harah sees a conceited man it says: "He is mine" (Gen. R. xxii. 13). The yetzer harah belongs only to this world, and does not exist in angels or other higher beings (Lev. R. xxvi). It is for this reason that there is no eating or drinking, procreation or barter, envy or hatred, in the world to come (Ber. 17a; comp. Mark 7:25).

Psalm 81:9—"You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not bow down to an alien god"—is interpreted as referring to the yetzer harah, to whose influence one should not yield (Shab. 105b).

The yetzer harah comes to humans at birth, and not before (Sanh. 91b). All the sportive deviltry of young children is attributed to the yetzer harah (Eccl. R. iv. 13). The yetzer harah was not due to man, but to God as the Creator of all. However, man is responsible for yielding to its influence, since he is able to put it to a good use. The "left hand," which is weak, should reject it, while the right hand, which is strong, may draw it near (Soṭah 47a; Sanh. 107b).

The yetzer harah was the source of virtually all of Israel's sins and sufferings: "Woe, woe, is the yetzer harah. He destroyed the sanctuary, killed the righteous, drove the Israelites out of their land, and still dances among us. Why was he given unto us? Only that we may receive reward for conquering him." (Yoma 69b). The Israelites eventually succeeded in getting rid of the yetzer of idolatry and the grosser forms of unchastity, but it was still necessary to preserve the yetzer harah lest the world should come to an end. Under the Second Temple the yetzer harah thus continued to exist because it was needed in the world.

It has been conjectured by Taylor that the clause in the Lord's Prayer, "Deliver us from evil," is probably "Deliver us from the evil Yeẓer" ("Sayings of the Jewish Fathers," pp. 128-130, 186-192).

Personification

There is a tendency in rabbinical tradition to give personality and separate activity to the yetzer harah, as in the case of the angel of death and of Satan, with each of whom it is sometimes identified (B. B. 16a). According to Rabbi Jonathan, the yetzer, like Satan, misleads man in this world and testifies against him in the world to come (Suk. 52b). On some occasions it is made exactly parallel to sin. Thus, the parable told by the prophet Nathan to King David (2 Sam. 12:4ff) is interpreted as applying to both sin and to the yetzer. Similarly, Rabbi Akiba interprets Isa. 5:18—Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes"—as applying to sin, while Rab Ashi applies it to the yetzer (Suk. 52a). Man's evil yetzer overpowers him every day (Ḳid. 30b). At first it tricks him, but then it dwells in him (Hos. 4:12, 5:4). So too Ps. 34:2, "sin speaks to the wicked," is applied to the yetzer (Ab. R. N. 32). In the same passage all men are divided into three classes: the righteous, under the rule of the tetzer ha-tov the wicked, under the rule of the yetzer harah, and a midway class, ruled now by one, now by the other. According to others, there are only two classes: the righteous with the good yetzer; and the wicked, who submit to the evil yetzer (Eccl. R. iv. 15, 16). The first part of Ecclesiastes 11:9—"Let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see"—is said to relate to the joy of youth derived from the yetzer harah. The second part—"but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment"—indicates that God will bring all transgressors under judgment to the yetzer ha-tov (Shab. 63a).

The Law as the Antidote

Just as iron can be made into all sorts of vessels if cast into the fire, so one can make the yetzer harah useful training it to follow the words of the Law. In Proverbs 25:21 we learn that "if thine enemy be hungry give him bread to eat." The rabbis interpreted this as meaning "when the yetzer harah prompts a person, he should give it the "bread" of the Law (Pesiḳ. 80b). Both of the yetzers are to be utilized, just as when a man has two oxen, one meant for plowing and the other not, he puts the yoke upon both on both of them.

The promise of Gen. 4:7—If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."— is applied to the yetzer harah (Ḳid. 30b). There is a contrast of strength between the two tendencies. Thus, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor" (Ps. 41:2) is applied to him who makes the relatively poor and weak yetzer ha-tov rule over the yetzer harah (Lev. R. xxxiv.). Though the latter is seemingly so powerful, resistance easily overcomes it. If a man finds that the yetzer harah is too strong for him, he should go to a place where he is not known, and not profane the name of heaven openly (Ḥag. 16a).

The Law is like a plaster to the wound made by the yetzer harah; if the plaster is taken away, an evil ulcer will come forth (Ḳid. 30b). The Law will wear away the yetzer harah as water wears away stone (Suk. 52b). Both the Law (Ex. 24:12), and the yetzer harah (Ex. 34:26) are called a "stone." Thus the one stone must guard the other stone (Cant. R. vi. 11). The stone of Genesis 29:3 is also compared to the yetzer: as the stone is rolled away from the mouth of the well, so the yetzer harah departs when men go into the synagogue to drink of the Law (Gen. R. lxx. 8). Thus, the Jewish night prayer said in connection with the Shema includes the clause "let not the yetzer harah rule in me" (Ber. 60b).

In the end God will finally destroy the yetzer harah, as is promised in Ezek. 36:26: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." It is because the yetzer harah anticipates this final punishment that it brings man to destruction (Ab. R. N. 16). Meanwhile, like a stone, it gradually crumbles away until it no longer forms a stumbling-block, if one follows the Law conscientiously.

Comparison with Christian views

The doctrine of the yetzer harah has both similarities and differences from the Christian view of the way evil works in humankind. Certainly, Jesus was aware of the evil tendency within the human heart. Thus, in the Lord's Prayer he taught his disciples to pray: "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil." Later, outside the Garden of Gethsemane, he instructed them: "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation." (Matthew 26:41)

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus adopted the rabbinical attitude that his disciples must carefully follow the Law in order to perfect themselves: "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law," he instructs them, "you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Mt. 5:20) He goes on to command them not only to keep the Ten Commandments and other rules, but to go beyond them.

Saint Paul seems to be speaking of the yetzer harah

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