Musar על בראשית 4:17

And, in truth, this is a great error. For if so, why did the Torah command this [(abstention from lashon hara)] by a negative commandment? Is it not known that "the Holy One Blessed be He does not deal despotically with His creatures"? The Torah, then, should have included this only in the class of middoth [desirable character traits], like other holy middoth, that are addressed only to unique individuals, [and not as a mitzvah]. But certainly the Creator of man put it in the power of each and every Jew that if he only puts his eyes and his heart to his ways he can avoid this [(speaking lashon hara)]. As we find in Sifrei, Parshath Ha'azinu (Devarim 32:4): "He is a G-d of trust, without wrong." That is, He did not create men to be reshaim, but to be tzaddikim. (For if not so, there is wrong, G-d forbid, in the ordinance of the Blessed One in the punishment that He metes out to them afterwards.) And thus is it written (Koheleth 7:29): "G-d made man just and they sought out many [devious] accountings." And thus is it stated in Tanchuma, Parshath Bereshith 7: "G-d made man just" — The Holy One Blessed be He, who is called "tzaddik and yashar [just]," created man in His image only to be tzaddik and yashar, as He is. And if you ask: "Why, then, did He create an evil inclination, of which it is written (Bereshith 8:21): 'For the inclination of a man's heart is evil from his youth'? You say: 'It is evil. Who can make it good?' The Holy One Blessed be He answers: "You made it evil. You were a child and did not sin. You grew up and you sinned. [That is, a man draws it (the yetzer) upon himself by his acts and by his affairs. For the Holy One Blessed be He gave man the power to withstand it and to make it his servant in many areas for the ultimate end, as it is written (Bereshith 4:17): "And you shall overcome it." And it is written (Mishlei 29:21): "One who indulges his servant from youth, etc." The words lend themselves to much elaboration.] And how many things there are in this world tougher than the yetzer hara and more bitter than it, yet you 'sweeten' them. There is nothing more bitter than lupine, yet you exert yourself to soak it and to season it in water seven times until it is sweet, and so with mustard and caper. Now, if the bitter things which I have created, you season to your needs, the yetzer hara, which is given into your hands, how much more so!"