Pemikiran Yahudi Mazmur 103:14: Derashot HaRan

But this parshah presents three formidable problems. First, its being stated: "What does the L-rd your G-d ask of you? — only to fear…" It would seem that fear of the L-rd is the highest level one can achieve. This being the case, there is no doubt that man's nature does not incline towards it, but, to the contrary, is extremely antagonistic towards it. And this is borne out, first, by Scripture itself; second, by the words of the Scribes; and third, by common experience. Scripture states (Bereshith 8:21): "For the inclination of a man's heart is evil from his youth," and David said (Psalms 103:14): "For He knows our inclination; He remembers that we are dust." And our sages have stated (Bereshith Rabbah 34:14): "Shamed is the dough whose baker testifies about it that it is evil, as it is written: 'For the inclination of a man's heart is evil from his youth.'" And they said further (Kiddushin 30b): "A man's evil inclination regenerates itself against him each day, as it is written (Bereshith 6:5): 'Only evil all the day,' and it desires to kill him, as it is written (Psalms 37:32): 'The evil one looks to the righteous one and desires to kill him,'" and (Berachoth 17a): "R. Alexandri, at the conclusion of his prayers, would say: 'L-rd of the Universe, it is absolutely clear to You that I want to do Your will. What deters me? The "yeast in the dough" and the yoke of the kingdom. May it be Your will, O L-rd our G-d and G-d of our fathers, that You humble them before us and behind us so that we can return to do Your will with a full heart.'" It is apparent from this that the evil inclination is a deterrent even to those whose desire and will is to honor their Creator. The words of Scripture and of the sages, then, make it clear that the nature of man is not predisposed to this sublime state but is highly antagonistic to it. And common experience confirms this. It is axiomatic that what is inherent in the nature of a thing will manifest itself in the majority of instances, and that its non-appearance will constitute the minority instance and the exception to the rule. So that, for example, it being the nature of summer to be warm, we expect most summers to be so, and if it transpires that a certain summer is not warm, we attribute this to the minority factor and to chance. Similarly, it being the nature of a man to love his children and his relatives, most men will do so, and if it happens that a certain man does not, we regard this as a minority phenomenon or as chance. This being the case, if man's nature were inclined and oriented to the attainment of this exalted state, it would follow that most men would have attained it, for all men choose good and aspire to it. Common experience shows us that men do all in their power to attain high station, though such eminence be only deceptively good. How much more so would we expect most men to have attained this true, eternal eminence if their nature were inclined to this attainment! And since those who do attain it in its full perfection as delineated here — that is, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, and to serve Him with all one's heart and soul — since those who do thus attain it are so few as to lead one to surmise that only one in a thousand ever reach it, we would be justified in concluding that it is not at all easy for a man to achieve but very difficult indeed. If so, how can Moses say "What does the L-rd Your G-d ask of you?" In view of the difficulty of its attainment this would be tantamount to saying that He asks of you only that you be like Abraham or like Moses our teacher, may peace be upon him! Our sages addressed themselves to this question, asking (Berachoth 33b): "Is fear of the L-rd a small thing!" and answering: "Yes, to Moses it is a small thing. The situation is analogous to a man's being asked for a large vessel. If he has it, it seems to him as if he is being asked for a small vessel; whereas if he is asked for a small vessel and he does not have it, it seems to him as if he is being asked for a large vessel."