Yetzer Hara: the Evil Inclination in Judaism

People speak of the “evil inclination” as an inner tempter, sometimes as a demon, often as a mere synonym for sin. Judaism is at once more precise and more surprising: the yetzer hara is a force that G-d created, that the Sages judged “very good” in a certain sense, and that is not to be eradicated but governed. This article answers from the Torah, the Mishna, the Talmud, Maimonides, the Shulchan Aruch and the Chasidic tradition, distinguishing what is halacha (the law that is practiced), aggada and mussar (the moral reading), and Kabbalah or Chasidut (the mystical reading).

In short: the Hebrew word yetzer comes from the root “to form”; it first designates what one plans and what one is formed toward. The rabbinic tradition speaks of two inclinations in man, the yetzer tov (the good inclination) and the yetzer hara (the evil inclination). The latter is not a being external to man, even if the Talmud sometimes gives it the traits of a tempter; it is the sum of the drives (desire, appetite, pride, anger) which, left to themselves, lead to wrongdoing, but without which no one would build a house, marry, have children or work (Bereshit Rabba 9:7). Judaism teaches neither original sin nor fatalism: man has free will, and the Torah is the “spice” given to act upon this inclination (Kiddushin 30b; Rambam, Hilchot Teshuva 5:1-4). The practical advice, for its part, varies: fight it, keep it busy with Torah, divert it, channel it; and for Chasidut, confront it in one’s own heart.

1. The word and its uses in the Bible

The verb yatzar means “to shape, to form”: it is the potter’s verb, and it is the word used for the creation of man: “Hashem G-d formed (vayyitzer) man from the dust of the ground” (Bereshit [Genesis] 2:7):

“Hashem G-d formed man from the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and man became a living being.”

(Bereshit 2:7) — וַיִּיצֶר ה׳ אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאָדָם עָפָר מִן־הָאֲדָמָה וַיִּפַּח בְּאַפָּיו נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים וַיְהִי הָאָדָם לְנֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה

From this root, the yetzer is “what has been formed” in the human being: his constitution, then his designs. The Psalm says: “For He knows how we are formed (yitzrenu), He remembers that we are dust” (Tehilim [Psalms] 103:14). The prophet Yeshayahu speaks of a “yetzer samuch,” a steadfast mind, which G-d keeps in peace (Yeshayahu [Isaiah] 26:3); and David tells his son Shlomo that G-d “searches all hearts and understands every design (yetzer) of thoughts” (Divrei HaYamim [Chronicles] I 28:9). In these uses, the word has nothing bad in itself: it designates design, thought, temperament.

The negative sense appears in the story of the Flood, and it is precise: “Hashem saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every inclination (yetzer) of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all day” (Bereshit 6:5). After the Flood, G-d observes: “For the inclination (yetzer) of man’s heart is evil from his youth (min ne’urav)” (Bereshit 8:21):

“… for the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”

(Bereshit 8:21) — כִּי יֵצֶר לֵב הָאָדָם רַע מִנְּעֻרָיו

Note: “from his youth,” not “from his birth.” The verse speaks neither of inherited guilt nor of original sin; it describes a slope in man from his childhood. And it is G-d Himself who observes it, without making it a reason to destroy again.

Another verse, earlier in the narrative, sets out the central tension. To Cain, jealous of his brother, G-d says:

“If you do well, will you not be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at the door; it desires you, but you can rule over it.”

(Bereshit 4:7) — הֲלוֹא אִם־תֵּיטִיב שְׂאֵת וְאִם לֹא תֵיטִיב לַפֶּתַח חַטָּאת רֹבֵץ וְאֵלֶיךָ תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ וְאַתָּה תִּמְשׇׁל־בּוֹ

The Talmud, as we shall see, reads in this verse the model of man’s relationship to his inclination. A last verse serves as the foundation of the doctrine of the two inclinations: “You shall love Hashem your G-d with all your heart (bechol levavecha)” (Devarim [Deuteronomy] 6:5), which the Mishna interprets as “with both your inclinations” (Mishna Berakhot 9:5, see below).

2. Two inclinations: the reading of the Sages

The “vayyitzer” with two yods

The Talmud notes that the word “vayyitzer” (“He formed”) is written in Bereshit 2:7 with two letters yod. Rav Nachman bar Rav Chisda deduces from this:

“Rav Nachman bar Rav Chisda expounded: what does ‘vayyitzer’ written with two yods mean? The Holy One, blessed be He, created two inclinations: a good inclination and an evil inclination.”

(Berakhot 61a) — דרש רב נחמן בר רב חסדא: מאי דכתיב ״וייצר ה׳ אלהים את האדם״ בשני יודין? — שני יצרים ברא הקדוש ברוך הוא, אחד יצר טוב ואחד יצר רע

The Gemara immediately objects: the animal, for which the word “vayyitzer” is not written thus, would then have no inclination? Yet we see it bite, kick and destroy. The answer is that of Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi: “Woe to me because of my Creator (yotzri), woe to me because of my inclination (yitzri)!” (Berakhot 61a). A complementary midrash explains why man does not die of fright at the sight of the knife, whereas the animal, if it had two inclinations, would die of fear (Bereshit Rabba 14:4). The same Talmudic text adds Rav’s image: the evil inclination is like a fly, resting between the two openings of the heart (Berakhot 61a).

“With all your heart”: with both your inclinations

The Mishna draws a practical consequence from this doctrine regarding the verse of the Shema:

“‘With all your heart’: with both your inclinations, the good inclination and the evil inclination.”

(Mishna Berakhot 9:5) — בכל לבבך, בשני יצריך, ביצר טוב וביצר רע

To love G-d with all one’s heart is therefore not to love G-d with only the “good” part of oneself. It is to love Him also with the energy, desire and ambition that are the stuff of the evil inclination, and to put them in His service. This idea is central in Rav Benizri’s thought, as we shall see.

Three states: the righteous, the wicked, the intermediate

The Talmud reports the teaching of Rabbi Yose HaGelili on how the two inclinations share the governance of the person:

“Rabbi Yose HaGelili said: the righteous are judged by the good inclination, the wicked by the evil inclination, the intermediate by both.”

(Berakhot 61b) — צדיקים יצר טוב שופטן, שנאמר: ״ולבי חלל בקרבי״. רשעים יצר רע שופטן, שנאמר: ״נאם פשע לרשע בקרב לבי אין פחד אלהים לנגד עיניו״. בינונים — זה וזה שופטן

The word “intermediate” (beinoni) will come back with the Tanya.

3. A necessary enemy: “very good”

A surprising reading of the creation

The creation narrative concludes each day with “and G-d saw that it was good,” and on the sixth day with “behold, it was very good” (Bereshit 1:31). A famous midrash draws from this:

“‘Behold, it was very good’: this is the good inclination. ‘And behold, it was very good’: this is the evil inclination. But is the evil inclination ‘very good’? Without the evil inclination, no one would have built a house, married, had children, or engaged in trade.”

(Bereshit Rabba 9:7) — הנה טוב מאד, זה יצר טוב. והנה טוב מאד, זה יצר רע. וכי יצר הרע טוב מאד, אתמהא. אלא שאלולי יצר הרע לא בנה אדם בית, ולא נשא אשה, ולא הוליד, ולא נשא ונתן

The midrash cites Kohelet 4:4: all labor and all success come from a man’s jealousy of his neighbor. It is a conception of human psychology: the desire to succeed, to possess, to found, to stand out is part of the building of the world. The evil inclination is the force of life, which becomes evil when exercised without rules.

The Talmud and the slaying of the inclination to idolatry

A story in tractate Yoma shows both the possibility and the limit of a total victory. At the time of the return from Babylon (Ezra and Nechemya), the people cried out to G-d (Nechemya 9:4), and the Talmud imagines their words: “Woe! It is he who destroyed the Sanctuary, burned the Temple, killed all the righteous and exiled Israel from its land, and he still dances among us! Did You give him to us only so that we might receive a reward? We want neither him nor his reward!” A note fell from heaven on which was written “Truth.” After three days and three nights of fasting, the inclination to idolatry was delivered to them: it came out of the Holy of Holies “like a lion cub of fire.” They overcame it (Yoma 69b; Zechariah 5:8). Then they also asked to be delivered from the inclination toward wrongdoing in the area of forbidden relations. The prophet warned them: “See, if you kill it, the world is destroyed.” They imprisoned it for three days, and throughout the land of Israel not a fresh egg could be found:

“They imprisoned it for three days, and they looked for a fresh egg laid that day throughout the land of Israel, and found none.”

(Yoma 69b) — חבשוהו תלתא יומי, ובעו ביעתא בת יומא בכל ארץ ישראל ולא אשתכח

Then they put out its eyes and let it go: the result is that one is no longer inflamed by close relatives (Yoma 69b). This story, reported by the tradition as aggada, says something precise: desire is at once the source of wrongdoing and the source of life, and suppressing one suppresses the other.

Even “Satan” and “angel of death”

The Talmud sometimes identifies the evil inclination with the Satan, the accuser, and with the angel of death:

“Resh Lakish said: he is the Satan, he is the evil inclination, he is the angel of death.”

(Bava Batra 16a) — הוא שטן, הוא יצר הרע, הוא מלאך המות

A baraita cites on the same theme: he descends and misleads, ascends and provokes anger, receives permission and takes the soul (Bava Batra 16a). This image is that of the rabbinic tradition, which hesitates between the interpretation of an external actor and that of an internal force; we return to this in chapter 8.

4. Its faces: how it operates

Talmudic literature observes its workings with great psychological finesse.

It grows with the person. Rav Assi says: “The evil inclination, at the beginning, is like a thin thread; in the end, it is like the ropes of a wagon,” according to the verse in Isaiah: “Woe to those who draw sin with cords of vanity, and iniquity as with wagon ropes” (Sukka 52a, citing Yeshayahu 5:18):

“Rav Assi said: the evil inclination, at the beginning, resembles a thread, and in the end it resembles the ropes of a wagon.”

(Sukka 52a) — יצר הרע בתחילה דומה לחוט של בוכיא, ולבסוף דומה כעבותות העגלה

A neighboring saying, reported at Sukka 52a, adds a paradox: “Whoever is greater than his neighbor, his inclination is greater than he.” The Rambam reads in it that the higher a man is, the greater his desire (Sukka 52a; Rambam, Shemoneh Perakim, ch. 6).

It renews itself every day. Rav Yitzchak says: “A person’s inclination renews itself in him every day”; and Rabbi Shimon ben Levi: “A person’s inclination grows stronger in him every day and seeks to put him to death, and if the Holy One, blessed be He, did not help him, he could not overcome it” (Kiddushin 30b; parallel in Sukka 52a-b):

“A person’s inclination grows stronger against him every day and seeks to kill him… and if the Holy One, blessed be He, did not help him, he could not overcome it.”

(Kiddushin 30b, with the supporting verse cited) — יצרו של אדם מתגבר עליו בכל יום ומבקש המיתו, שנאמר: ״צופה רשע לצדיק ומבקש להמיתו״, ואלמלא הקדוש ברוך הוא עוזרו אין יכול לו

It advances by degrees. The Talmud, regarding one who tears his clothes or breaks his utensils in anger, describes “the craft of the evil inclination”:

“Such is the craft of the evil inclination: today it tells him: do this, tomorrow it tells him: do that, until it tells him: serve idols, and he goes and serves.”

(Shabbat 105b, in the name of Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri) — שכך אומנותו של יצר הרע: היום אומר לו עשה כך, ולמחר אומר לו עשה כך, עד שאומר לו עבוד עבודה זרה והולך ועובד

It bears seven names. Rabbi Avira, or Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, teaches that the evil inclination has seven names, each based on a verse:

“The evil inclination has seven names. The Holy One, blessed be He, called it ‘evil’…”

(Sukka 52a) — שבעה שמות יש לו ליצר הרע. הקדוש ברוך הוא קראו ״רע

G-d calls it “evil” (Bereshit 8:21); Moshe calls it “uncircumcised” (orla), for it is said: “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart” (Devarim 10:16); David calls it “impure,” for he says: “Create in me a pure heart” (Tehilim 51:12); Shlomo calls it “enemy” (Mishlei [Proverbs] 25:21); Yeshayahu calls it “stumbling block” (Yeshayahu 57:14); Yechezkel calls it “stone,” for he says: “I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh” (Yechezkel [Ezekiel] 36:26); Yoel calls it “the hidden one” (tzefoni, Yoel [Joel] 2:20), because it hides in the heart of man (Sukka 52a).

It is born before the good one. The Midrash on Kohelet (Kohelet Rabba 4:13) and the Avot of Rabbi Natan explain that the evil inclination is present from birth, whereas the good one joins man only from the age of thirteen:

“For thirteen years the evil inclination is greater than the good: from his mother’s womb it grows and comes with him.”

(Avot of Rabbi Natan 16) — שלש עשרה שנה גדול יצר הרע מיצר טוב ממעי אמו של אדם היה גדל ובא עמו

Thirteen is also the age at which one becomes bound by the commandments (Pirkei Avot 5:21; see bar mitzva).

5. How to fight it: what the Sages advise

The Torah as “spice” and as remedy

The best-known passage is that of Kiddushin 30b. It starts from Bereshit 4:7 and puts it in G-d’s mouth:

“My children, I created the evil inclination and I created the Torah as its spice (tavlin).”

(Kiddushin 30b) — בני, בראתי יצר הרע ובראתי לו תורה תבלין

The parable that precedes it tells of a father who strikes his son and puts a bandage on the wound: as long as the bandage stays on, the son may eat and drink whatever he likes; if he removes it, the wound becomes infected. Likewise, as long as one studies Torah, one is not handed over to the inclination; otherwise “sin crouches at the door” (Kiddushin 30b). The Babylonian Talmud repeats the idea in Bava Batra 16a: “The Holy One, blessed be He, created the evil inclination, He created Torah as its spice.” The same page of the Talmud gives concrete advice, in the name of the school of Rabbi Yishmael:

“My son, if this scoundrel meets you, drag him to the house of study. If he is a stone, he will melt; if he is iron, he will shatter.”

(Kiddushin 30b) — בני אם פגע בך מנוול זה – משכהו לבית המדרש. אם אבן הוא – נימוח, ואם ברזל הוא – מתפוצץ

Four steps to confront it

Rabbi Levi bar Chama, in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, sets out a program:

“Let a person always incite his good inclination against his evil inclination; if he overcomes it, good; if not, let him study Torah; if not, let him recite the Shema; if not, let him remember the day of death.”

(Berakhot 5a, with the supporting verses cited) — לעולם ירגיז אדם יצר טוב על יצר הרע, שנאמר: ״רגזו ואל תחטאו״ אם נצחו — מוטב, ואם לאו — יעסוק בתורה, שנאמר: ״אמרו בלבבכם״. אם נצחו — מוטב, ואם לאו — יקרא קריאת שמע, שנאמר: ״על משכבכם״. אם נצחו — מוטב, ואם לאו — יזכור לו יום המיתה

Each step rests on a word of the same verse (Tehilim 4:5): “Tremble and do not sin; speak in your heart, upon your bed, and be still.” It is a course in four moments: the will, study, the declaration of faith, the memory of finitude.

What does “being strong” mean?

The Mishna of Ben Zoma poses the question: “Who is strong? One who masters his inclination, as it is said: ‘One who is slow to anger is better than a mighty man, and one who rules his spirit than one who conquers a city'” (Pirkei Avot 4:1; Mishlei 16:32):

“Who is strong? One who masters his inclination.”

(Pirkei Avot 4:1) — איזהו גבור, הכובש את יצרו

Ben Azzai, in the following mishna, completes it: “Run to a light mitzva as to a grave one, and flee from wrongdoing, for one mitzva draws another mitzva and one transgression draws another transgression; the reward of a mitzva is a mitzva, and the reward of a transgression is a transgression” (Pirkei Avot 4:2). And Yehuda ben Tema: “Be strong as a leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a deer and brave as a lion to do the will of your Father in heaven” (Pirkei Avot 5:20). It is this saying that opens the Shulchan Aruch, at the first law of the morning prayer: “One should strengthen oneself like a lion to rise in the morning to the service of one’s Creator” (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 1:1). The first law of Rabbi Yosef Karo’s code thus illustrates the struggle against inertia.

Even the greatest say so

The Talmud preserves a prayer of Rabbi Alexandri, said at the end of his own prayer:

“Master of the worlds, it is clear and known before You that our will is to do Your will, and what prevents us? The leaven in the dough and the subjugation to the kingdoms.”

(Berakhot 17a) — רבון העולמים, גלוי וידוע לפניך שרצוננו לעשות רצונך, ומי מעכב? — שאור שבעיסה ושעבוד מלכיות

The “leaven in the dough” (se’or sheba’isa) is the image of the inclination: an internal force that swells and deforms. The prayer asks G-d to deliver us from it so that we may return to His will “with a whole heart.”

An old study hall with empty benches, tall bookshelves and light falling from a window, in black and white

6. Maimonides’ view: freedom and struggle

Free will

The Rambam devotes chapter 5 of Hilchot Teshuva to man’s freedom, and makes it “a fundamental principle, a pillar of the Torah and the mitzvot”:

“Freedom is given to every person: if he wishes to incline himself toward the good path and be righteous, he has the ability; and if he wishes to incline himself toward the evil path and be wicked, he has the ability.”

(Rambam, Hilchot Teshuva 5:1) — רשות לכל אדם נתונה. אם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך טובה ולהיות צדיק הרשות בידו. ואם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך רעה ולהיות רשע הרשות בידו

He rejects the idea that G-d decrees at birth whether a man will be righteous or wicked; every man can be like Moshe or like Yeravam. If the Torah commands, it is because man can obey; otherwise, “what place would the whole Torah have? And by what judgment would the wicked be punished and the righteous rewarded?” (Rambam, Hilchot Teshuva 5:2-4). This conception excludes all determinism: the inclination inclines, it does not compel (Bereshit 4:7: “you can rule over it”). The Rambam also specifies that teshuva concerns bad dispositions (anger, hatred, jealousy, the pursuit of money and honors) as much as acts (Hilchot Teshuva 7:3).

To desire or not to desire: the debate of chapter 6 of the Eight Chapters

In the introduction to Pirkei Avot, the Rambam compares the “hero” who masters himself to one who feels no temptation. The philosophers, he says, hold the latter to be superior; the Sages seem to say the opposite: “Whoever is greater than his neighbor, his inclination is greater than he” (Sukka 52a), and “according to the effort is the reward” (Pirkei Avot 5:23). Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel goes further: “Let a person not say: I have no desire to eat meat with milk, or to wear shaatnez, but rather: I desire it, and what can I do, my Father in heaven has decreed it”:

“Let a person not say: I have no desire to eat meat with milk… but rather: I desire it, and what can I do, my Father in heaven has decreed upon me.”

(quoted by Rambam, Shemoneh Perakim, ch. 6) — לא יואמר אדם אי אפשי לאכול בשר בחלב; אי אפשי ללבוש שעטנז; אי אפשי לבוא על הערוה, אלא: אפשי, ומה אעשה אבי בשמיים גזר עלי

The Rambam resolves the contradiction: for the prohibitions that reason condemns (murder, theft, lying, contempt for parents), the superior man does not even have the desire; for the “revealed” prohibitions (shaatnez, meat and milk, forbidden unions), on the contrary, he must desire, and abstain only because the Torah has decided so (Shemoneh Perakim, ch. 6). The inclination is therefore not, according to him, a defect to be suppressed everywhere: it is sometimes the proof of true obedience.

7. In the future: the slaying of the inclination

The Sages imagine an end to the struggle. Rabbi Yehuda teaches that in the future G-d will bring the evil inclination and slay it before the righteous and before the wicked:

“In the future, the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring the evil inclination and slay it before the righteous and before the wicked. To the righteous it will appear as a high mountain, to the wicked as a hair. These weep and those weep. The righteous weep and say: how could we have overcome such a high mountain! The wicked weep and say: how could we not have overcome this hair!”

(Sukka 52a) — לעתיד לבא, מביאו הקדוש ברוך הוא ליצר הרע, ושוחטו בפני הצדיקים ובפני הרשעים. צדיקים נדמה להם כהר גבוה, ורשעים נדמה להם כחוט השערה. הללו בוכין והללו בוכין. צדיקים בוכין ואומרים: היאך יכולנו לכבוש הר גבוה כזה! ורשעים בוכין ואומרים: היאך לא יכולנו לכבוש את חוט השערה הזה

And G-d Himself, adds the Talmud, is astonished along with them (Sukka 52a, citing Zechariah 8:6). One and the same thing is seen in two ways: the size of the inclination depends on the one looking at it.

Note a nuance: Rav Benizri considers that the inclination will not disappear in the World to Come but will change level (see below). The text of the Talmud, for its part, speaks of slaying.

8. External tempter or internal force? History and debates

Scholars have shown that the image of the inclination has changed. The Book of Ben Sira (written in Hebrew in the early second century before the common era) says of G-d: “He created man from the beginning, and left him in the hands of his inclination” (Ben Sira 15:14, according to the preserved Hebrew text):

“G-d created man from the beginning; He placed him in the hands of the one who plunders him, and He delivered him into the hand of his inclination.”

(Ben Sira 15:14) — אלהים מבראשית ברא אדם, וישיתהו ביד חותפו, ויתנהו ביד יצרו

The context stresses free choice: “If you wish, you will keep the commandment… Before you are fire and water, stretch out your hand to whatever you wish” (Ben Sira 15:15-16). In later rabbinic literature, says the historian Ishay Rosen-Zvi, it takes on a different charge: his thesis is that in the school of Rabbi Yishmael, the yetzer hara originally represented external spiritual or demonic forces, which gradually became internalized until they became an aspect of human psychology (Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Demonic Desires: Yetzer Hara and the Problem of Evil in Late Antiquity, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). This thesis sheds light on why the Talmud mixes images of external combat (Satan, lion cub of fire) and inner struggle (the leaven in the dough). On the place of the yetzer in the thought of the Sages, one may also read Ephraim E. Urbach, The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs, Magnes Press, Jerusalem, 1975.

A point of comparison is often invoked: Judaism does not teach the doctrine of original sin. The Rambam puts it in terms of free will (Hilchot Teshuva 5:1-4); Kohelet simply notes that “there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” (Kohelet 7:20); and we have seen that Bereshit 8:21 speaks of “youth.”

9. Kabbalah and Chasidut: two souls, one struggle

Chabad Chasidut, in the Tanya of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, formulates the struggle in terms of souls. The first chapter cites Rabbi Chaim Vital (Sha’ar HaKedusha):

“Every Jew, righteous or wicked, possesses two souls… one soul from the side of the shell (klipa) and the other side (sitra achra).”

(Tanya, Likutei Amarim 1) — לכל איש ישראל, אחד צדיק ואחד רשע, יש שתי נשמות, דכתיב: ״ונשמות אני עשיתי״, שהן שתי נפשות –נפש אחת מצד הקליפה וסטרא אחרא

The Tanya continues: this soul, clothed in the blood of man to give life to the body, is called the “animal soul” (nefesh habehamit), and it is from it that bad dispositions come: anger, pride, thirst for pleasures, mockery. It is distinct from the divine soul, which animates thought, speech and action of the Torah. The Tanya defines the beinoni (the intermediate), a central figure of its thought: not a mediocre man, but one in whom “evil never prevails to the point of clothing itself in the body to make it sin”:

“The intermediate is one in whom evil never prevails to the point of conquering the ‘small city’ (the body), clothing itself in it and making it sin.”

(Tanya, Likutei Amarim 12) — והבינוני, הוא שלעולם אין הרע גובר כל כך לכבוש את העיר קטנה להתלבש בגוף להחטיאו

In other words, the intermediate does not cease to have an inclination; he remains master of it in thought, speech and action. The Tanya here takes up the saying of Rabbi Yose HaGelili: “The intermediate are judged by both,” but specifies that this does not mean “both rule”: the evil inclination is like a judge who gives his opinion, without the decision necessarily being his (Tanya, Likutei Amarim 13):

“The intermediate: both judge them.”

(Tanya, Likutei Amarim 13, citing Berakhot 61b) — בינונים זה וזה שופטן

This is a reading specific to Chabad Chasidut. Mussar (ethical) literature develops the subject differently: the Ramchal, in Mesillat Yesharim, sees the world as a field of trials: “All the affairs of the world, for good as for ill, are trials for man” (Mesillat Yesharim 1):

“… for all the affairs of the world, whether for good or for ill, are trials for man.”

(Mesillat Yesharim, ch. 1) — כי כל עניני העולם בין לטוב בין לרע הנה הם נסיונות לאדם

Poverty and wealth, peace and suffering are battlefields: the struggle is everywhere, and “if he is valiant and wins the war on all sides, he will be the perfect man” (Mesillat Yesharim 1).

10. What Rav Raphaël Benizri teaches

Rav Benizri returns to the yetzer hara in several lectures on Pirkei Avot, the parasha and the festivals. Here are the main ideas, based on the published lectures.

A traveling companion, not an enemy. In his lecture on Pirkei Avot 3, the Rav says that the evil inclination “is in reality a traveling companion and becomes evil only when it has been disconnected from the good inclination,” the service of G-d being done with both (“bishnei yetzarecha”). He compares it to the incense of the Temple, one of whose components was fragrant but impure and whose intensity came from that element: one does not exclude it, one seeks to integrate and contain it. On the necessity of this inclination, he also says that “what we call the evil inclination is also creative”: it is what provides society with the forces needed to move forward. Wrongdoing begins “when one stops there and goes beyond the line of one’s own needs” (lecture on Ben Azzai, Pirkei Avot 4; see also his lecture “The mitzva according to Ben Azzai”). The image of one who flees is Yosef before Potiphar’s wife.

The evil inclination is indecision. In his lecture on Chayei Sara (the death of Sara, part 2), the Rav asserts that the evil inclination is not appetite but indecision: “it is commonly translated as a vulgar drive, but in reality it is what keeps you in the predicament of several possibilities, several paths, without your having yet chosen any.” One remains in a trial period, tasting a little of each branch; life is fragmented, “like those calendar pages torn off one after another,” whereas a life should be harmonious, concentrated.

The Satan, “pure reason.” Regarding the trial of Avraham (Vayera), the Rav describes the Satan as pure reason: he borrows the language of Elokim, and it is “the evil inclination, but the word has a misleading moral connotation, for it is a tendency of the mind, linked to the nature of things.” His objection is “an accountant’s objection”: did Avraham offer you anything in return?

Loving G-d “with both your inclinations.” In his lecture on the first murder (Bereshit), the Rav draws together Cain’s wrongdoing and the verse of the Shema: leaving the presence of Hashem means going beyond one’s wrongdoing and not forgetting it; this is what “loving Hashem with all one’s heart” means, “that is, with both one’s inclinations: that of the will which commands reason and that of the will which commands desire.”

Amalek within us. In his Purim lectures, the Rav reads Amalek, today, not as an entity but as an inner presence: it is the yetzer hara that breaks our impulses and that is never definitively reduced. Purim teaches us to go beyond the label of good and evil as two external camps, and to recognize that “our evil inclination itself has a place in the economy of the world.”

In the World to Come. Asked about the future times when, it is said, there will be no more evil inclination, the Rav answers that the inclination does not disappear in the World to Come: “it will be of a higher level, because the higher one climbs, the graver the fall would be,” and it is by fighting it “that one fulfills the lech lecha” (lecture Bereshit Rabba 39, part 1).

These lectures are available on the site: Pirkei Avot 3; Pirkei Avot 4: Ben Azzai and the mitzva; The mitzva according to Ben Azzai; Chayei Sara: the death of Sara, part 2; Vayera: the promises to Avraham, part 2; Bereshit: the first murder in history; Purim: the festival born in exile; Purim: the war against Amalek; Bereshit Rabba 39, part 1.

11. Common misconceptions about the yetzer hara

“The yetzer hara is the devil.” Judaism knows no principle of evil independent of G-d. The Talmud sometimes identifies the inclination with the Satan (Bava Batra 16a), but the Satan himself is a servant of G-d (Iyov [Job] 1:6-12; Bava Batra 16a). The evil inclination is created by G-d (Kiddushin 30b).

“The yetzer hara is sex.” The Sages see in it desire more broadly: to possess, to stand out, to enjoy, to impose oneself (Bereshit Rabba 9:7; Sukka 52a). The story of Yoma 69b does treat sexual desire as a separate “inclination,” but it does not reduce it to that alone.

“It must be destroyed.” The Talmud shows, in the story of Yoma 69b, that total destruction makes life itself disappear. The goal is to master it (Pirkei Avot 4:1) and to direct it (Mishna Berakhot 9:5).

“Man is born evil.” The Torah says “from his youth” and not “from his birth” (Bereshit 8:21); the Rambam teaches that every man can become righteous or wicked (Hilchot Teshuva 5:2).

“One who has evil desires is a bad Jew.” The Talmud says almost the opposite: the great one has a greater inclination (Sukka 52a), and for prohibitions that come from the Torah alone, one must desire and abstain anyway (Rambam, Shemoneh Perakim, ch. 6).

Frequently asked questions about the yetzer hara

What does “yetzer hara” mean?

It is the “evil inclination,” or more literally the “evil formation”: the sum of the drives that, without rules, lead to wrongdoing. The word comes from the root “to shape” (Bereshit 2:7; 6:5; 8:21).

Was the evil inclination created by G-d?

Yes. The Talmud puts in His mouth: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as its spice” (Kiddushin 30b). The same page recalls that G-d Himself calls it “evil” (Bereshit 8:21; Sukka 52a).

Can a righteous person have an evil inclination?

Everyone has one. The Talmud says that the righteous are judged by the good inclination, the wicked by the evil one, the intermediate by both (Berakhot 61b); the Tanya specifies that even the intermediate is not without one (Likutei Amarim 12). And the greatest has a greater inclination (Sukka 52a).

What should one do in practice when it appears?

The Talmud gives a program: incite the good inclination against it, study Torah, recite the Shema, think of the day of death (Berakhot 5a). Each step is a way of diverting attention or giving it a framework; in practice, seek the advice of a rabbi or a mussar teacher.

Why would G-d have created something that makes us sin?

Because, according to the midrash, without it no one would build or found a family (Bereshit Rabba 9:7), and because freedom presupposes choice. The Rambam makes it a principle of the Torah: without the possibility of wrongdoing, there would be neither commandment nor reward (Hilchot Teshuva 5:1-4).

What Is the Yetzer Hara, the Evil Inclination?