Yetzer Ha-Ra

Evil inclination or impulse, popularly identified with the lusts of the flesh. The idea is derived from Genesis 8:21: “the imagination of the heart of man is evil from his youth.” Yet from the use of the two “yods” in Genesis 2:7, the Rabbis deduced that there are in man two Yeẓarim: the good (Yeẓer Ṭob) and the evil (Ber. 61a). Cain defended himself before God for having slain Abel by arguing that God had implanted in him the Yeẓer ha-Ra'(Tan., Bereshit, 25 [ed. Buber, p. 10]). “It lies at the door of the heart like a fly” (Ber. 61a; comp. Beelzebub). Yet in a way the Yeẓer ha-Ra’, like all things which God made (Genesis 1:31), is good. Without it, for example, a man would never marry, beget, build a house, or trade (Gen. R. 9:9). Therefore, man is enjoined to love God with both the Yeẓarim implied in “with all thy heart” of the Shema’ (Sifre, Deuteronomy 32 [ed. Friedmann, p. 73a]). It would appear that the Yeẓer Ṭob comes with reflection, and at the age of bar miẓwah or confirmation, because it is said to be thirteen years younger than the Yeẓer ha-Ra’, which is an inborn impulse (Eccl. R. 9:14). The Yeẓer Ṭob delivers the citadel of the body from the Yeẓer ha-Ra’ by means of temperance and good works (Ned. 32b). The “little city” of Ecclesiastes 9:14, 15 is interpreted by the Targum and Eccl. R. (ad loc.) as the kingdom of the heart, and the “great king” who comes against it as the Yeẓer ha-Ra’.

According to the Rabbis, the Yeẓer ha-Ra’ has seven different epithets in the Bible: evil (Genesis 8:21); uncircumcised (Deuteronomy 10:16); unclean (Psalms 51:12); the enemy (Proverbs 25:21); stumbling-block (Isaiah 57:14); stone (Ezekiel 36:26); and hidden (Joel 2:20).

The greater the man the greater his Yeẓer ha-Ra’; and it is among the four things which God regretted to have created (Suk. 52a, b). It is identified with Satan and with the angel of death (B. B. 16a; comp. Maimonides, “Moreh,” 2:12, 3:22). Against the Yeẓer ha-Ra’ the Torah is the great antidote (Suk. 52b; Ḳid. 30b; Ab. R. N. 16). The Yeẓer ha-Ra’ grows with a man, as is deduced from the parable in 2 Samuel 12:4. At first it is a mere traveler; then it becomes a guest; and at last it is the man himself (Suk. 52b). Yet the heart of man contains both the Yeẓer ha-Ra’ and the Yeẓer Ṭob, as is deduced by Midrash Tehillim from Psalms 9.

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Author: Jewish Encyclopedia

Keywords: Yetzer Ha-Ra

Source: Isidore Singer (editor), The Jewish Encyclopedia (12 Volumes), (1906).

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