Embracing the Evil Inclination

During this month-long preparation for the High Holy Days, we take time to reflect on our lives over the past year and consider the changes we wish to make. It is so easy for us to lose our sense of priorities, or to engage in behaviors that undermine what we truly want for ourselves or those we love. Yet the answers are not always obvious in assessing those things that work in our favor and those that don’t.

Our tradition teaches that, within each person, there is the good inclination (yeitzer haTov) and the evil inclination (yeitzer haRa). At first glance, one would think that our goal would be to eliminate the evil inclination. But this is not the case. We are told instead that we must harness it. There is another teaching saying that without the evil inclination, no baby would be born, no bridge would be built, and no great work of art would be created. In other words, the evil inclination is the source of our drive to create those things that are among the great accomplishments of the human race.

Mary Thomas had a favorite line from the Gates of Prayer liturgy: “Help us to use our strength for good and not for evil.” She often used the phrase when referring to b’nei mitzvah students with excessive energy. Understanding how the same drive can help us do extraordinary things or be our downfall is important as we seek to do better next year.

When I was on sabbatical last year, part of my task was to create a chart of the entire traditional Jewish liturgy and show how it was to be chanted. A cantor from one of the seminaries was very complimentary on my efforts, saying that this was a great way for students to look up prayers quickly. When I told him that I had done it because it was a reference I would have wanted to have for myself and said that I didn’t understand why no one had done it before, he laughed and replied, “And now you know.” Yes, it was probably the single most tedious project I’ve ever done. Yet I did it because I knew it was valuable. Was it sheer tenacity? Or plain stubbornness?

Many of the characteristics that serve us well can easily cross a line and work against us. Are we being kind or are we easy prey? Are we meticulous or compulsive? Carefree or irresponsible? Determined or obstinate? Frugal or stingy? Thoughtful or solicitous? Analytical or opinionated? Discerning or judgmental? Quick-thinking or impulsive? Whether it’s a matter of degree or circumstance, any trait can be an asset or a hindrance.

Sometimes when we take the time and make the effort to examine our lives over the past year, we can dwell on issues we see as negative and fail to appreciate the positive applications of the same drive. (Self-awareness or self-reproach?) In our High Holy Day prayer books, the phrase in the Confessional liturgy for Yom Kippur, “Al cheit shechatanu…” is usually translated as “For the sin we have committed….” Yet a more accurate rendering of the Hebrew cheit is “missing the mark.” I like that phrase because it reminds me that the things I have done “wrong” may often simply reflect good intentions gone bad. Learning how to harness traits and direct them to good use is most likely to lead to the self-improvement we seek. To try to rid ourselves of these traits (if that’s even possible) may compromise some of our greatest strengths. I have rarely met people motivated by ill-will; rather, their transgressions are a result of misdirected energy.

When we embrace the “evil impulse” rather than try to banish it, we may discover that which drives us to do great things. And by remaining aware and vigilant as to how we use that drive, we can learn to “use our strength for good and not for evil.”

L’shalom,
Andrew Bernard
Cantor