Pemikiran Yahudi Mazmur 7:15: Akeidat Yitzchak & Guide for the Perplexed

If nature is full of obstacles to man's development towards physical and spiritual perfection, G'd has gone out of His way to provide Israel with safeguards against the pitfalls encountered in nature. At the beginning of human history, G'd testifies that the heart of man is evil from youth. (Genesis 8,21) Our Rabbis comment "how wretched is the dough of which the baker says it is bad." (Bereshit Rabbah 34) Solomon describes the nature of evil as comparable to a woman who is a harlot. We have explained in the last chapter that none of this reflects on the Creator, His abilities, His knowledge etc., but that this condition is so because of the nature of the universe G'd has created. The reason that G'd revealed the fact that nature has inherent shortcomings, is to warn man not to take his existence for granted, but to be on guard against his yetzer hara, his evil urge. Refinement of man,- the objective of creation,- is only possible if man starts out unrefined. Once warned, he who fails to heed the warning becomes a wicked person. He will suffer death of the soul, which is worse than death of the body. Death of the body is after all a fate common to all living creatures regardless of their moral standing. Death of the soul, however, is the result of free choice. In Kohelet 7,26, Solomon views this yetzer hara (described as an evil woman spinning her snares) as worse than death. He evidently refers to the death of the soul, brought about through the machinations of this evil urge. The enticement is the fact that the evil urge always presents itself in the garb of a seductive, alluring partner. The successful activities of this yetzer hara are facilitated by five factors. 1) Since earth is a constituent part of man, it is natural that earthiness excercises a strong pull on man, so much so, that even people of the calibre of Moses, David and Solomon could not always resist this pull. 2) There is usually an imbalance between the various elements contained in the raw material man is made of. This imbalance frequently prompts man to follow the urgings of these urgings. 3) Lack of supervision and corrective measures during a man's youth, is apt to lead him astray and make him give way to desires inspired by these urgings that have gone unchecked. 4) External circumstances, i.e. depravity observed, being carried out successfully, apparently unpunished. 5) Acquiring the wrong set of moral and ethical values due to exposure to fraudulent philosophical teachings. The antidote to the above mentioned five impediments to proper conduct, may be seen in the five answers given by the students of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai to the latter, in response to his famous challenge in Avot chapter 2. These five students were, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanus of the infallible memory; Rabbi Joshua ben Chanayah of whom it was said "happy the mother who bore him;" Rabbi Shimon ben Nataniel the truly G'd fearing person. Then there was Rabbi Yossi the priest, described as "the pious one," and Rabbi Eleazar ben Arach, described as the bubbling well. These five outstanding disciples of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, each gave their respective recipe of how to achieve one's spiritual goals in this life. The order in which their teacher Rabbi Yochanan lists the names of these students indicates the order of effectiveness of these various virtues in counteracting the activities of the yetzer hara. Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanus not only possessed total recall, but he advocated ayin tovah, the benevolent eye, (obviously a virtue he practiced personally), a Divine quality. "He" bestows blessings on all His creatures, as we read in the Bible on numerous occasions. The opposite is "the evil eye," which can cause damage even to the most saintly persons. When G'd gave Moses the second set of tablets containing the ten commandments, He commanded Moses to make sure no one would be around to give an "evil eye," when the latter ascended the mountain. (Exodus 34,3) Such an instruction had not been issued the first time around. The essential damage caused by this evil eye is due to the character deficiency of the viewer who infects everything he sees with his own disease. Therefore, such people, especially when full of hatred, reinforce the damage that their look can cause. Rabbi Eliezer therefore concluded that the benevolent eye was the panacea for all that is wrong in the world, and suggested that a person pray to G'd to help him acquire this character trait of the ayin tovah, the positive attitude to all that he sees around him. Rabbi Joshua ben Chananyah, though not of the same high standard as Rabbi Eliezer, who was a saintly person, almost superhuman, nevertheless was made of the kind of raw material that is the envy of all mothers. He was possessed of balanced attributes, positive powers, that enable one to achieve one's perfection. His slogan "select," or "be" a good companion, friend, matches this characteristic. It ensures continuity and intensification of one's good traits. The third disciple, Rabbi Shimon ben Nataniel, though not naturally as well endowed as his colleagues, nevertheless had trained himself to become a G'd fearing individual, had acquired the tools to counter the yetzer hara successfully. His prescription for a successful path in life, matches his own experience, when he tells us that a person needs to consider the consequences of all his actions. Whenever one is in the grip of temptation by the yetzer hara, one should consider the ultimate and inevitable result of succumbing. His dictum is similar to the statement "consider the wages of sin, compared to the loss incurred by committing a transgression." The opposite, of course, is he who borrows without making repayment, since borrowing from G'd is essentially no different than borrowing from man. Rabbi Yossi, who is termed a chassid, devout, pious individual, concentrated on his relations with his fellow man, always acting in a manner that transcended the requirements of justice. Therefore, his recipe for a successful life is to attach oneself to good neighbours, to fellow human beings that cherish such ideals, and thereby reinforce one's own beliefs and standards. Rabbi Eleazar ben Arach supplies a fifth venue designed to confront the yetzer hara successfully. Instead of passively absorbing foreign ideas, he is a "bubbling well," he dynamically and actively espouses Torah viewpoints, nullifies evil influences. His specific recipe, namely to cultivate a good heart, leads to one's being sincere in one's conduct vis a vis G'd. Conversely, of course, an evil heart, insincerity, would spoil everything. In the opinion quoted in Avot at first, Rabbi Yochanan is reported as preferring a quality that comes with birth, i.e. the attribute of total recall possessed by Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanus. Later, according to Abba Shaul, he changed his mind and concluded that a "good heart," i.e. an acquired trait, was the superior one. Man is made in such a way that his spirit can conquer his flesh. A combination of brain and good character is an unbeatable combination, and can overcome all difficulties. The five types of impurities discussed in our Parshah parallel to some extent the five impediments to human perfection discussed previously. 1) Menstrual flow, or flux, involuntary seminal discharge at regular intervals by the woman, is due to the nature of the raw material woman or man respectively are made of. 2) Various skin exzemas in their four categories. 3) Skin defects of the head, be they in normally hairy areas or normally bald areas. 4) Spots developing on one's clothing. 5) Spots developing in one's house. These impurities, tum-ot, appear in four gradations. A) Niddah and keree, a natural occurrence, not a disease, the result of the raw material man and woman respectively are made of. (Niddah, i.e. menstrual flow; keree, i.e. ejaculated male semen) B) Zav and Zavah, discharges by men and women respectively from the same source, but due to abnormalities in their respective systems, i.e. a disease. This is due to some imbalance in the physical composition of the body, usually temporarily. C) All kinds of Tzora-at, skin exzemas of the body, also due to errors of "nature." D) Tzora-at of the clothing or house,- completely unnatural, in fact, defying anything and everything we know about nature. Parallel to this, man's food intake can be viewed as comprising four patterns. 1) Food intake for the purpose of maintaining vital bodily functions. 2) Excessive food intake, which may result in a natural imbalance of the body's forces, akin to Zav and Zavah. 3) Intake of unwholesome food; this may cause skin diseases. 4) Intake as food of things which are not fit for human consumption in any state. Intake of such unnatural vegetable matter or animal tissue, may cause greater disturbances, far beyond the mere body of the person who has absorbed them, infecting his environment, i.e. clothing and home. It is natural for man to want luxuries once he has satisfied his vital requirements. Having tasted a variety of the latter, he is apt to begin experimenting with new kinds of physical gratifications, often harmful to him.

IT is well known that the verb yalad means “to bear,” “they have born (ve-yaledu) him children” (Deut. 21:15). The word was next used in a figurative sense with reference to various objects in nature, meaning, “to create,” e.g. “before the mountains were created” (yulladu) (Ps. 90:2); also, “to produce,” in reference to that which the earth causes to come forth as if by birth, e.g., “He will cause her to bear (holidah) and bring forth” (Isa. 4:10). The verb further denotes, “to bring forth,” said of changes in the process of time, as though they were things which were born, e.g., “for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (yeled) (Prov. 27:1). Another figurative use of the word is its application to the formation of thoughts and ideas, or of opinions resulting from them: comp. “and brought forth (ve-yalad) falsehood” (Ps. 7:14); also, “and they please themselves in the children (yalde) of strangers” (Isa. 2:6), i.e., “they delight in the opinions of strangers.” Jonathan the son of Uzziel paraphrases this passage, “they walk in the customs of other nations.”