Checks and Balances – Bo
The hot topic in Israel at the moment is the “battle” raging over the extent of jurisdiction of the judicial system in the proper running of the country and, in the absence of a formal “constitution”, the ideal balance between the legislative and the judicial bodies of power. In my humble opinion, the left-wing dominated media is attempting to “engineer consciousness” and divert public attention from the real issue – that they lost the last democratic elections. Despite that, I believe it is pertinent to use this opportunity to discuss the concept of “checks and balances” on an intellectual level, specifically because it is one of the focuses of this week’s parsha.
In parshat Bo we read about the last three plagues - locusts, darkness and slaying of the firstborn. By all accounts the final plague, מכת בכורות (the Mefarshim discuss why this specific plague is called מכת בכורות and not simply בכורות, like the other nine), was different to the preceding plagues, in that it was performed exclusively by HKB”H Himself, with no other parties involved, unlike in the previous plagues where Moshe and Aharon featured. It was the climax that heralded the inception of Am Yisrael and our Exodus from Egypt.
The atmosphere that typifies the events that took place just before and after מכת בכורות is one of extreme haste חיפזון and nothing reflects this better than two commandments – the מצוות לא תעשה to refrain from eating chametz and the מצוות עשה to eat matzot (they are two distinct mitzvot).
In a previous shiur (Breishit) I describe at length how these two specific mitzvot were atonement for the sin of the עץ הדעת.
Chazal compare chametz to the yetzer harah –
רבון העולמים גלוי וידוע לפניך שרצוננו לעשות רצונך ומי מעכב שאור שבעיסה ושעבוד מלכיות (ברכות יז, א).
The “modus operandi” of the yetzer harah within us is similar to that of the behavior of chametz in dough (on a conceptual and even on a chemical level). As an expert baker, an authority on chametz, I perhaps have a “deeper” insight to the function and workings of the yetzer harah than the layman who is unfamiliar with the hidden processes that take place in dough.
In this shiur I would like to explore the fundamental question –“Why did HKB”H create the yetzer harah in the first place?” and, in attempting to answer it, learn an important principle in our avodat Hashem and also better understand the concept of checks and balances mentioned above. The source of the principles described here are from sefer Meir Panim.
There is a machloket in Breishit Rabba (3, 8) between R’ Chanina and R’ Yochanan regarding which day the angels were created (incidentally the same barei plugta who debate what shape the Lechem Hapanim was, and the two sugyot are connected). R’ Chanina says on the 5th day and R’ Yochanan says on the 2nd day. While all the other angels were created with six wings, there was one angel who was (initially) more elevated than the rest, created with twelve wings. This angel has different names, samech mem alef lamed (we are forbidden to directly write or say his name out loud), often abbreviated as ס"מ. A second name for this angel is מלאך המוות and a third, yetzer harah!
The Gemara (Sanhedrin 38b) describes the prelude to the creation of Adam Harishon on the sixth day, that HKB”H first consulted with the angels whether it was a good idea to create man or not. A first group of angels said that it was not a good idea and quoted Tehilim (8, 5) מה אנוש כי תזכרנו ובן אדם כי תפקדנו. Hashem did not like their response and “stretched out His little finger” and burned them with fire, similarly with a second group of angels. When HKB”H then asked a third group of angels they responded “What good did it do that the prior groups responded as they did, the entire world is Yours, whatever You want to do in Your world, do.” Perhaps the leader (although I have not seen any source for this, but it is logical since he was the most elevated) of this third group of angels was the above angel with 12 wings, the yetzer harah.
HKB”H went ahead and created Adam Harishon, despite advice to the contrary from the first two groups of angels and at the end of Creation, on the sixth day the Torah says –
וַיַּרְא אֱ-לֹקִים אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְהִנֵּה טוֹב מְאֹד וַיְהִי עֶרֶב וַיְהִי בֹקֶר יוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי (בראשית א, לא).
Hashem looked back on everything He had created and it was טוֹב מְאֹד. On the preceding days (except for the 2nd day when גיהנום, and according to R’ Yochanan the angels, were created) it says וַיַּרְא אֱ-לֹקִים כִּי טוֹב, HKB”H found it to be “good”. In retrospect, the entire Creation, was not just “good”, it was “very good”, all aspects of it.
To us mere mortals, it may appear that there were some things that were “not so good”, for example the creation of מלאך המוות, גיהנום, the moon complaining and being diminished, the tree disobeying HKB”H’s commandment and manifesting in a way that the fruit and the branches do not taste the same. To us these things may appear as “imperfections”, glitches if you will, in HKB”H’s Creation, but no! When the Torah gives a summation of the entire Creation (including all these seeming “imperfections”) it clearly states that HKB”H considered everything to be not only “good”, but “very good”. In other words – exactly as HKB”H had intended the Creation to be – His plan from the beginning.
By logical deduction we therefore understand that the existence of the yetzer harah was not only something that was part of the original plan of Creation but a very good thing, an essential thing, without which the world has no purpose, no reason to exist.
To us this may appear counter intuitive and a contradiction in terms. How can something we consider to be “evil” (this angel is called the יצר הרע, the “evil” inclination) be not only good, but “very good”? To understand this we need to understand the function of the yetzer harah and the concept of free choice.
Although man was created בצלם א-לקים, resembling the angels, there is one fundamental difference between us humans and angels. Angels do not have free choice, humans do! It is a very "poor choice" of words to call angels “robots” (they have an extremely elevated awareness of HKB”H, higher than we could ever possibly imagine), but in a sense they resemble robots. When HKB”H commands them to do something, they obey without question, like robots. There is no mechanism within them that allows even the possibility to question. Humans, on the other hand, have free choice. This means that when HKB”H commands us to do something, we have within us the mechanism to question, to choose “Should I do this or not?”
Why did HKB”H create two distinct creations, angels and humans with this basic difference? If HKB”H wanted us to be angels, He would have created us as angels. The fact that HKB”H created us with free choice is because that is how He wanted to create us (ברוך א-לוקינו שבראנו לכבודו) and the fact that He created us like that is the purpose of Creation - that we would be free to choose.
The answer is that the angels do not get any שכר. HKB”H sends them on “missions”, which they perfectly “execute”, but since they have no choice in the matter they are not rewarded. As a mashal - when you heat food in the microwave, the microwave is a kind of a “robot”, it is programmed to perform a specific task, it doesn’t have a choice in the matter. If something goes wrong and the microwave “blows a fuse” we curse it, however if it does what it is programmed to do and 30 seconds later goes “ping” and the food is warm, we don’t reward the microwave, we don’t say “nice microwave”, “good job”, “well done”. Lehavdil elef havdalot, when HKB”H commands an angel to do something and the angel does it (angels don’t blow fuses), HKB”H does not reward them either.
On the other hand, when HKB”H commands us humans to do something and we choose to do it of our own free will, we are rewarded for that.
The purpose of the yetzer harah is to ensure free will. Unless free will is absolute, there can be no שכר for our actions. There has to be a balance of power between the urge to obey HKB”H’s command and the urge to disobey it. The pull in either direction needs to be equally strong.
On a purely intellectual level the concept of sin seems unfeasible. Why would someone blatantly disobey HKB”H’s commandments and knowingly cause themselves harm? (not only do we lose out getting שכר by not performing the commandment, we are also punished – we lose both ways).
Humans were created on the 6th day, after all the other creations and not before – because we humans are a conglomeration of all the creations that preceded us. In humans there is a part of heaven, a part of earth, a part of water, a part of light, a part of dark, a part of angel, a part of grass, a part of tree, a part of bird, a part of lion, a part of fish, a part of mosquito, etc. Man is an embodiment of the entire Creation.
On the one hand this is part of our accountability. We cannot, after 120 years, when we are called upon to give a דין וחשבון, claim that we did not do something because we lacked the capability to do so. We have within us all required elements and wherewithal to obey HKB”H’s commandments.
On the other hand, and scientists have confirmed this, 99% of our makeup, our DNA, is identical to that of a lion, a baboon, a fly! Our biological makeup therefore leans 99% vs. 1% to us behaving like a monkey, a donkey! Our pull to behave like an animal, both on the level of our DNA and on the chemical, hormonal level, is overwhelmingly strong. The only thing preventing us from doing so is that 1%, that צלם א-לוקים, that makes us pause for a second and deliberate “Should I do this or not?”
Every millisecond of our lives we make choices. “Do I do what HKB”H, the Master of the universe, told me to do?” or “Do I follow my base instinct, my biology?” The pull to sin has to be overwhelmingly strong to counterbalance the pull of HKB”H’s commandment. The yetzer harah’s job is to ensure that this free choice is absolute and therefore uses every means at his disposal to ensure equal pull in the direction to sin. If we humans can overcome the sometimes seemingly insurmountable pull of the yetzer harah, HKB”H rewards us for that and this reward is eternal, part of our “retirement package” in Olam Habah.
That is the philosophical premise for the purpose of our world. On a more mundane, practical level, our struggle with the yetzer harah most often boils down to an addiction, either on a chemical level or on a psychological level, or both. If we allow ourselves to, we can become addicted to all kinds of chemical reactions, behavioral patterns and/or emotions.
We tend to think of addiction as something related to drugs or alcohol, however there are other kinds of addictions that are less “obvious”, addictions to sugar, to anger, to pride, to power, to feeling sorry for ourselves, to technology, to leisure, to beliefs, amongst others.
How do you know if you have an addiction to something? If you find it extremely difficult to live without it! Start making a list and you will be surprised how many “addictions” you really have, to morning coffee, to checking Whatsapp every ten minutes, to having electricity, to that kiss from your spouse, etc.
Not all addictions are “evil”. Addiction as a concept is not something inherently negative. If you become addicted to something positive, like davening three times a day with a minyan, that is an “addiction” you want to keep! So the trick is recognizing which addictions are in the service of HKB”H and which are in the service of the yetzer harah. You obviously want to make an effort to increase the former. HKB”H wants us to harness the 99%, our biology, in service of Him, הֱוֵי עַז כַּנָּמֵר וְקַל כַּנֶּשֶׁר וְרָץ כַּצְּבִי וְגִבּוֹר כָּאֲרִי לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹן אָבִיךָ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם.
The mechanics of an addiction are identical either way. They begin with a conscious choice and they follow with a repeated behavioral pattern. If repeated often enough, they become difficult, sometimes impossible to live without. This is both good and bad news, because if you get used to positive addictions you get lots of שכר, however, if you get used to negative ones (usually those that belong to the 99% of our DNA and not the 1%), they are extremely difficult to break free of.
In Egypt, Am Yisrael were at the lowest 49th level of טומאה, they were irretrievably trapped in their addictions to the negative and were not capable of casting them off on their own. If not for HKB”H redeeming them, not because of their (lack of) merit, but because of the merit of the Avot, we would have been a forgotten blip in the pages of history.
However, this did not happen, because Am Yisrael are different to the rest of the nations. We were the reason the world was created - for the תורה that is called ראשית and for Am Yisrael that are called ראשית. We were the reason that HKB”H burned the first two groups of angels and went on to create humans after all. It is not because Am Yisrael do not sin, we have repeatedly and continue to (רחמנא ליצלן), but because we, as a nation, consistently try to transcend, even if we do not always succeed.
Before HKB”H gave the Torah to Am Yisrael, He first offered it to the other nations, so they would never be able to claim that it was not offered to them. However, they each rejected it in turn. Yishmael asked “What is written in it?” HKB”H replied לא תגנוב. “Sorry, but it is part of our makeup that we steal, we cannot accept!” Edom asked “What is written in it?” HKB”H replied לא תרצח. “Sorry, but it is part of our makeup, על חרבך תחיה, we cannot accept!” And so on with each nation in turn.
Every nation, except for Am Yisrael, went with the 99%. “This is our biology, this is our DNA, there is no way we can transcend it. Instead, we will accept that this is the way we are and not try to fight it.” They let themselves go. They let down their resistance and became lax, like dough that is not kneaded. Into the empty space stepped the yetzer harah and took over.
The only nation that was different was Am Yisrael. They went (and have always gone) with the 1%. They did not ask “What is written in the Torah?” It was irrelevant, because if the Torah was given to them by HKB”H, it must be stupendous! נעשה ונשמע. This was also DNA, the 1% part of our DNA that Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov turned into an “addiction” - into positive behavioral patterns that we, their descendants inherited from them. To strive to make the right choices, to fight and try our best to transcend the yetzer harah’s pull, to not let down our guard, to remain constantly active in this struggle, בחיפזון, and not allow ourselves to become lax, like chametz dough.
Throughout history, HKB”H has preserved the checks and balances required for free choice.
When Am Yisrael returned to Eretz Yisrael from exile in Bavel with Ezra Hasofer, they tried to analyze what it was that caused the destruction of the first Beit Mikdash. The conclusion they reached was that it was because of עבודה זרה. In a well-intentioned effort to “cure” that malady in Am Yisrael, they performed a ceremony to abolish the yetzer harah for idol worship. Chazal say that it is impossible for us to comprehend today the overwhelming pull that עבודה זרה had on Am Yisrael back then. The Gemara (יומא סט ,ב) details the ceremony performed to abolish the yetzer harah for idol worship and it was indeed abolished.
However by doing this, they did not prevent the destruction of Bayit Sheini, because the yetzer harah caused Am Yisrael to sin with a different sin – שנאת חינם. When the yetzer harah existed for idol worship, the counterbalance for that also existed – נבואה. The prophets were the counterweight to the yetzer harah for עבודה זרה – checks and balances. When the one was abolished, so was its counterbalancing force – נבואה was also lost from Am Yisrael.
From this we see that it is theoretically possible to “abolish” the yetzer harah for specific things. So why do we not daven to HKB”H like Ezra Hasofer and perform similar ceremonies to abolish the yetzer harah for everything else? Because if we did, there would no longer be free choice and there would no longer be שכר. HKB”H wants us to consciously make the right choice of our own free will, in a totally balanced situation, with equal pull either way.
If the final Geulah, the yetzer harah will be “abolished”, not by ceremonies like that of Ezra Hasofer, but because Am Yisrael will choose HKB”H out of free will and that will make the yetzer harah redundant.
Until that happens, we are currently in the final throes of the preamble to the Geulah. The pull towards to Geulah is growing and to counterbalance that, the power of the yetzer harah is also growing and succeeding in overpowering sometimes even those we regard the strongest amongst us. It is a symptom that the Geulah is extremely close.
The important thing is to not despair. That is the strongest weapon the yetzer harah has in his arsenal, causing us to despair. Yes we fall sometimes, but what makes us special is that we don’t lower the bar and accept it. We pick ourselves up and keep trying, again and again, to transcend it. We keep raising the bar, not lowering it. That is Am Yisrael, that is the reason for Creation.
It is in this that Reform Judaism is mistaken. Reform definitely has a place and a role to play in preserving Am Yisrael. They could be an essential component in the last line of defense against total assimilation. In order to save those in galut that are so far gone, they need to lower the bar to attract them back to Yiddishkeit. Unless they lower the bar on that end, they will have no common ground of communication with the lost souls on the verge of oblivion. Their mistake isn’t lowering the bar on that end. Their mistake is not raising the bar on the other end. Once they have attracted the lost souls and brought them “back into the fold” they should be continually raising the bar. Instead, they are continually lowering the bar on both ends and as such, are no different from the other nations who refused to accept the Torah. The aim should be toward continual uplifting, transcending the 99%, the biology - not lowering the Torah to fit the DNA. Reform Judaism is “Judaism for beginners”, not the final goal. They should be “bumping up” their established communities to the next level and then to the next level, and so on, all the while keeping the entry level open to save other, new souls on the verge of extinction.
Unfortunately today a large portion of Am Yisrael is like we were in Egypt over 3000 years ago, at the 49th level of טומאה. We are desperately in need of some Divine intervention, like we were back then. In Egypt HKB”H didn’t demand that all of Am Yisrael overnight become yeshiva bochurim in Brisk. HKB”H simply asked for an opening “the size of a needle” –
אָמַר הַקָּבּ"ה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, בָּנַי, פִּתְחוּ לִי פֶּתַח אֶחָד שֶׁל תְּשׁוּבָה כְּחֻדָּהּ שֶׁל מַחַט, וַאֲנִי פּוֹתֵחַ לָכֶם פְּתָחִים שֶׁיִּהְיוּ עֲגָלוֹת וּקְרוֹנִיּוֹת נִכְנָסוֹת בּו (שיר השירים רבה ה, ב).
Although running the State of Israel according to halacha would be a good thing and we will eventually get there, right now, like the Brisk mashal above, it is not yet on the cards. HKB”H is simply asking Am Yisrael for a small opening - willingness and openness to get closer to Him. In the absence of a “constitution” the secular judicial system in Israel has gone to the goyim in search of morality and adopted the British system of law, the Turkish system, the American system, the European system. We already have a “constitution” that is eons older than all the above, the Torah, which all the other nations plagiarized and perverted. We need to reconnect to our authentic “constitution” of morality.
It is not a good idea for any side to have a monopoly over the other, not the judicial system, nor the legislative system. They need to balance each other and keep each other in check. However they both need to draw from a common well and that well is HKB”H and the Torah. This is what needs to be fixed, that all of Am Yisrael draws from the same well. We are not the 51st state of the USA, nor the 28th country in the EU and we should not be looking to them for salvation. We made this mistake before in history when rival factions in Am Yisrael turned to Roman general Titus to arbitrate their dispute. (Meir Panim, pg 53). Titus couldn’t have cared less about Am Yisrael and exploited our moment of weakness to sack Yerushalayim. If we think the USA or the EU are going to help further our interests, we are mistaken – they will exploit our divisiveness to further their interests. We need to return to our grassroots and understand who we really are. Yes, we are children of HKB”H, just like all the other nations, but it doesn’t end there. We are also children of Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Yosef, Moshe, Aharon and David. That is who we are. This is the map we need to chart our course. This is the commonality that unites us, not some plagiarized, man-made, liberalist, progressive “morality” of the goyim.
This is the way the State of Israel is going naturally (or if you want to call it for what it really is – by Divine intervention). Just look at the results of the last election and the trend in the Jewish vote in the last 20 years. It is typified by a returning and reconnecting to our grassroots. Those who have unfortunately succumbed to the despair sown by the yetzer harah are voicing the final “death throes” of the yetzer harah in the face of the impending Geulah and are making lots of noise, but in the end HKB”H will prevail. We should have pity on them and stretch out a hand of love towards them, not a hand of hate. It is only through love we have any chance of influencing them, if at all. The “train” of the Geulah is speeding ahead full throttle. The trick is to be on it and not in its way.
