Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 149
“The Lord created the evil inclination in man and He created the Torah to temper it”.”The life of man was compared with “a lonely settlement which was kept in disorder by invading bands. What did the king do? He appointed a commander to protect it.” The Torah is a safeguard, the Torah is an antidote.”(God in Search of Man pg.375)
Rabbi Heschel is quoting from the midrash, Leviticus Rabbah 35,5. We are in a state of being today, as we have always been, where this wisdom can make us worthy of being saved, I believe. Unlike some spiritual disciplines, this midrash speaks of the evil inclination as being something that God created in us humans, not an outside force, rather an inner inclination. It also teaches us that Torah/Bible is the tempering agent for our inner evil inclination. From this, we can learn that the evil inclination is not something to abandon, kill, eradicate, etc, it is, with the “safeguard” of Torah, a power we can use for the good, for the holy.
At issue, of course, is Rabbi Heschel’s belief that “we itemize the Bible and tear it to pieces instead of immersing ourselves in the thoughts of the Bible” and “there is a complete decline of the Bible in American education.”(Interview with Carl Stern). Immersing ourselves in the wisdom of the Midrash above that Rabbi Heschel is quoting causes us to reassess our actions, our study of Torah/Bible, and, more importantly, our living the thoughts and teachings of the Torah/Bible. Immersing ourselves in Torah/Bible as “a safeguard” and “an antidote” to our evil inclinations will change the ways we live with one another, it can change our drive for power at any and all costs, it will change the ways we treat one another, it can change our ideas of freedom for all, justice for all, etc.
We are experiencing a time when the evil inclination without “the Torah as a safeguard, the Torah as an antidote.” We are experiencing our way of living as “a lonely settlement” which is being “kept in disorder by invading bands”. These “invading bands” are the people who have jettisoned the thoughts, the ways, the teachings of Torah/Bible which will protect them and the rest of us. When people in power call for protests of justice, when they seek to turn justice into a political football, when they seek to use justice as a weapon against their enemies, as a weapon to save themselves from being held responsible for their own bad acts, we are experiencing the absence of Torah/Bible teachings, the absence of “a safeguard”, the absence of “an antidote” and we are in danger of the evil inclination running rampant.
“The Lord created the evil inclination in man” is not an excuse to allow ourselves to “follow the majority to do evil” as we learn in Deuteronomy, rather it is the reason to live the principles, the thoughts of the Torah/Bible. It is a reason to hear and heed the voices of the Prophets of Israel who spoke truth to power, who remind all of us what God desires, what the Torah/Bible is teaching us. Yet, we continue to bastardize the thoughts and teachings of the Torah/Bible to suit our evil inclinations rather than use Torah/Bible to temper them. We are not using Torah/Bible as “an antidote” nor as “a safeguard”, we are using them as an excuse and a defense! When the current ruling government in Israel wants to make the Justice subservient to their whims, when they want to take more territory, treat the minority as sub-humans taking away basic rights, freedoms, dignity which they are entitled to as children of God, we are witnessing the evil inclination run rampant. Doing so in the name of Judaism, doing so wearing the mantle of orthodoxy, is a flagrant sin, an ‘aveyros’. We, the people have to stand up to stop their evil inclination from invading our state of being.
In recovery, we declare:”Came to believe a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity”. When we finally realized how unchecked our evil inclination was, when we finally realized how we were acting as “invading bands”, we surrendered to the truth of our situation. We realized we could not overcome our evil inclination ourselves and we needed help. We turn to “a Power greater than ourselves” for that help. However one defines this Power, we acknowledge we need it for our sanity and continue to need it for our growing into being more human each. Day.
Without the “The Torah is a safeguard, the Torah is an antidote” my life would be in more shambles than it was when I surrendered to this truth. The lives of the people around me would be in shambles also. Yet, with Torah to temper my evil inclination, I have been blessed to help many others surrender to the truth and use Torah/Bible to make their lives better. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark