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Beit Midrash
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- Chemdat Yamim
- Ein Ayah
Rav says: The yetzer hara (evil inclination) is like a fly that sits on two openings of the heart, as the pasuk says: "Flies of death will spoil the perfumer’s oil" (Kohelet 10:1). Shmuel says: It is like a grain of wheat, as the pasuk says: "At the opening, chatat lies in waiting (chatat means sin, but the gemara understands it as a play of words with chita, which is wheat )" (Bereishit 4:7).
Ein Ayah: There are two ways to look at the cause of sin.
It is possible to look at a person as naturally straight, on his own. It is true that we see most people sinning seriously even on a daily basis. However, this stems from the impact of many external factors in life, which pull people toward sin. This includes problematic friendships, sad occurrences that prevent the light of happiness, and poverty, which affects a person’s thought process. When a person has weak resolve, such external factors can cause him to sin. Therefore, the solution to how to refrain from sin is connected to removing the external catalysts.
Flies are responsible for many of man’s illnesses, including very serious ones, as they transfer many infections from other places and cause them to enter a person’s body. The resulting conditions can be things that afflict the body and sometimes things that harm the spirit.
There are two sides to a person’s heart. One part inspires him to seek wisdom and justice, and one part causes him to seek wealth and animalistic desires. The external factors can bring disturbances in different areas. Sometimes they can incite one to go too far in seeking physical pleasures and bring him to sin. Sometimes a person can come to exaggerate the concern for a high spiritual level. This can also be dangerous by, for example, causing him to fast when he is not capable of doing so or to accept levels of apparent piety which negatively affect him or others.
In any case, the root of evil is not within the person’s heart but from without. It can be fought by avoiding bad friendships and by working on making a proper living so that he can remain in a happy state of mind and thus keep him walking on the straight path. This is Rav’s approach, as expressed in the metaphor of flies, which need to be kept away.
There is an opposing philosophy, which says that if man were totally straight by nature, then various external influences would not be able to sway him from his ways. After all, one who has the right approach can take any event and transform it into an opportunity to take out something positive. Rather, there is a set element with the propensity for evil that is within the essence of the person, and this is what causes him to sin in different ways. We call this element chet and it can be represented by chita, a grain of wheat. The grain is made of two parts that are connected to each other, but there is a crevice where the two sides are connected. The inclination can wreak havoc on either side. It can focus on the physical side, and make one act in an animalistic manner, and it can focus on the spiritual side and convince him to adopt dangerous practices and bad philosophies.
According to the latter approach, holding off the dangers has to be focused on moral education of the person. One needs study of proper things and inculcation in proper actions, with the goal being that his being will separate itself from the negative elements from within his soul. Only this and not avoiding negative external factors will help him.
Rabbis in Midrash
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The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
Chukat "HOW ENTEBBE STOLE THE BICENTENNIAL
The Difference Between Historic & Eternal"
As we approach America's 250th birthday, it's worth remembering her 200th Bicentennial birthday, on Jul. 4th 1976, when Israel "stole the show" by shocking the world & miraculously saving 101 hostages in a foreign continent. As Pres. As Pres. Trump decides which countries get priority in his new Middle-East, it's worth reminding him of the difference between historic events and eternally historic ones. This obviously connects with this week's parsha, as well!
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 6 - The Parable of the King of India
The advantages of testimony over circumstantial evidence or philosophical speculation.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 5- "Proofs of G-d"
This may be the most important class of the entire book, where we finally get to the Jewish proof of the existence of G-d and truth of the Torah. We should follow His own direction where He tells us how to get to Him: through the Nation of Israel: Jewish history, Jewish prophets (and today, prophecies fulfilled), and national reward & punishment towards Am Yisrael.
Ein Aya One Humanity, One Creator, One Jerusalem
Rav Kook innovatively and beautifully explains this aggadeta where our sages say that after Jerusalem was destroyed her cinnamon fragrance is only found locked in a particular kingdom's treasury.
