Questions and the Yetzer Hara


By Dani’el Rendelman
www.emetministries.com

Here are two questions for you to consider:

1) What do you believe is the main difference between the righteous and the wicked?

2) Is the righteous person’s biggest struggle: the world, the adversary, or the sinful nature?

Now consider these answers:

“What is the difference between the righteous and the wicked? The wicked are under control of their heart while the righteous have their heart under their control,” says the Talmud. While the Messiah said, “that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man,” Mark 7:20-23.

Inside each man, righteous or unrighteous, a war is raging between the yetzer hara and the yetzer tov.

The yetzer hara is the evil inclination or impulse that drives man from the holiness of Yahweh. The yetzer tov is the good impulse inside each man that calls humankind towards the holiness of Yahweh. Like the struggle between Dr. Jekly and Mr. Hide we can become two different people, dependent upon which nature we allow to flourish in our lives. The largest spiritual battle for a Bible believer is not against the world nor is it against a fallen adversary. This struggle is similar to the comic angel and devil characters on the opposite shoulders of a person. The greatest conflict is found inside of each person and in the view of each of our mirrors. Though the Psalmist says in131:9, “You shall have no strange gods within thee,” many people host the strange god called self by allowing the yetzer hara to control their lives.

Though the majority of the world gives in regularly to this sinful nature, the Almighty Yahweh has called His chosen people to be “kadosh,” that is holy or set apart. To be set apart or different from the world, a person must conquer the yetzer hara. Let’s answer a few more questions to help win this war with the yetzer hara.

Question #1: What is the yetzer hara?

To answer this first inquiry let’s turn to sefer B'resheet (Book of Genesis) on how man was originally created with both inclinations. “Yahweh Elohim formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being,” B’resheet 2:7. The Rabbis teach that the spelling for the Hebrew word “formed” here in Hebrew shows that man was originally created with both a good and an evil impulse.

Man was made in the image of Yahweh, with the yester tov or good desire. The yetzer tov is the part of man that is part of Yahweh. The yetzer tov is the part of Himself that Yahweh breathed into man, “there is…one Elohim and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all,” says sefer Ephesians 4:5 see also B’resheet 2:7, 5:1 and Yochanan 1:4. Though Yahweh declared all things “tov” or good, man was also made with the yetzer hara. “Yahweh saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time,” B’resheet 6:5. The evil desire affected humankind’s decision to sin in the Gan Eden, which led to the separation of man and Elohim.

The sages teach that the evil impulse is born with the individual but the good impulse only manifests itself after the age of thirteen. The good impulse or yetzer tov is clearly expressed as a moral consciousness. “The evil impulse is thirteen years older than the good. It exists from the time of a person’s emergence from his mother’s womb; it grows with him and accompanies him through life. It begins to desecrate the Shabbat, to kill and act immorally, but there is nothing within man to prevent it,” says the Talmud. The yetzer hara has many synonyms like the heart, the flesh, the old nature, passions, habits, desires, various drives, and inclinations. It leads a person against Yahweh’s rulings and instructions and is most difficult to control. “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you,” sefer Ya’akov 4:1.

Many writers like Plato, Plutarch, and Philo attributed all literal wars to bodily desires and most Rabbis condemn people who are ruled by their passions. In fact the Sages teach that the yetzer hara can dominate all 248 members of the body, leading a person to transgress Yahweh’s Torah. One Rabbi wrote, “I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin (or the yetzer hara), seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death,” Romans 7:10-11. Truly the character of a person is determined by which impulse is dominant in a person’s life.

Question #2: How does the yetzer hara affect man?

To put is plainly, the yetzer hara will lead man to break Yahweh’s commands and abandon His instructions. “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire (or yetzer hara), he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death,” Ya’akov 1:14-16. When the yetzer hara controls a person the end result is pride, glorification of self, nervousness, and habitual sinning. What begins as a thought produces a spoken word, which produces an action, which produces a habit, which produces a lifestyle, which determines a person’s character and reputation. “An evil inclination,” says Rabbi Kimchi, “is at the beginning like a fine hair-string, but at the finishing like a thick rope.”

Just think of the reaction of a spoiled child being told “no” when he wants expensive toy from the store and you have a great example of the yetzer hara. “My way, at my time, on my demand,” the yetzer hara declares. “Those who live according to the sinful nature (or yetzer hara) have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to Elohim. It does not submit to Yahweh’s Torah, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature (yetzer hara) cannot please Yahweh,” Romans 8:5-7. Mark 7:20-23 teaches that giving in habitually to the yetzer hara renders a man unclean and Romans 1:24 says, “this is why Yahweh has given them up to the vileness of their heart’s lusts, to the shameful misuse of each other’s bodies. They have exchanged the truth of Yahweh for falsehood.”

The yetzer hara separates man from the creator, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of Elohim: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,” 1 Corinthians 2:14. Giving in to the yetzer hara produces the fruit of the flesh, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the Malchut Shamayim (kingdom of Elohim,) Galatians 5:19-21.

Question #3: Can a person overcome the yetzer hara?

Here’s some good news, through the power of Messiah we can overcome the yetzer hara! Psalm 119:91 says, “all things are your servants” so the yetzer hara can certainly be controlled. “Who is a mighty man? He that subdues his evil impulse, as it is said: “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit is better than him that taketh a city,” teaches the Talmud.

The Sages have taught that repentence and learning the Torah were the only present cures for the yetzer hara until the time of the Messiah. The Talmud says that in the age to come Yahweh will bring out the yetzer hara and slaughter it before the just and before the wicked. At this time “to the one he would appear like a great mountain, to the other like a small thread. Both would weep-the righteous for joy, that they had been able to subdue such a great mountain; the wicked for sorrow, they had not been able to even break so small a thread,” said the Talmud.

Well, the age has come and Yahshua HaMoshiach has done just as the Talmud declared! “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the execution stake,” Colossians 2:15. Yahshua, our example, is the only person ever to live who never gave in to the yetzer hara. “If anyone wants to come after me let him say ‘no’ to himself (yetzer hara) and take up his execution stake and keep following me,” Sefer Mark 8:34.

Question #4: How does a person overcome the yetzer hara?

To overcome the yetzer hara takes a choice by the believer to follow the Messiah in a lifestyle of Torah observance and total dependence upon Yahweh the Father. “My children I have created the evil impulse, and I have created the Torah as an antidote to it. If you occupy yourselves with the Torah you will not be delivered to the power of the yetzer hara,” says the Talmud.

In the Dead Sea Scrolls overcoming the yetzer hara or conquering the flesh has been compared to physical and spiritual circumcision. The Scrolls quote sefer Devarim 10:16 and 30:6 as proof. “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer,” and “Yahweh Eloheynu will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.” Remember that circumcision is simply the cutting away of the flesh. So to circumcise the heart is to cut away the fleshly desires of the heart.

Winning the war over sinful nature of man is not done in a day; it is a daily battle to walk in the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Yahshua HaMoshiach have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit,” Galatians 5:23-25. Following the Messiah empowers the yetzer tov to conquer and defeat the yetzer hara.

When a person walks in the footsteps of Yahshua the true gospel message of the Messiah is carried out. “The Malchut shamayim (kingdom of Elohim) is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel,” Mark 1:15. The kingdom of heaven is established when the life of heaven, the life of Messiah, is lived here on earth.

One of the most powerful verses in the scriptures dealing with this subject is 1 Yochanan 4:4. “You, dear children, are from Yahweh and have overcome, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” What inclination is most prevalent in the world? The yetzer hara, of course. Now consider my paraphrase of this verse, “You can overcome because greater is Messiah’s presence in you than is the yetzer hara in the world.” By living the Torah through the Spirit’s empowerment you can defeat the temptations of the world and exercise your divine victory and dominion over the defeated adversary.

This battle is also a personal one. You simply cannot defeat the yetzer hara for someone else and no one can do it for you. You can only improve yourself. And perhaps that’s the best place to begin. As one pop singer once put it:

“I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself,

And then Make A Change”