We read in the Torah (Gen. 2:7):
וַיִּיצֶר֩ יְהוָ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֜ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֗ם עָפָר֙ מִן־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה וַיִּפַּ֥ח בְּאַפָּ֖יו נִשְׁמַ֣ת חַיִּ֑ים וַֽיְהִ֥י הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ חַיָּֽה׃
And YHWH Elohim formed (YETZER) man of the dust of the ground,and breathed into his nostrils the breath (NISH’MAT) of life; and man became a living soul (nefesh).
(Gen. 2:7)
In the original Hebrew of this verse, the word YETZER (ייצר) (which can also mean “freewill” or “inclination”) is spelled with two YUDs (יי) when it should be spelled with one. The Talmud observes:
R. Nahman b. R. Hisda expounded: What is meant by the text, Then the Lord God formed [va-yetzer] man? [The word va-yetzer] (Gen. 2:7) is written with two yods, to show that God created two inclinations, one good (tov) and the other evil (ra).
(b.Ber. 61a)
From this nuance of the Hebrew of this verse, we learn that there are within man, two inclinations, the Yetzer HaRa (the Evil Inclination) and the Yetzer HaTov (The Good Inclination).
(We shall learn, as this book unfolds, that not only the Rabbis, but Yeshua Ben Sirach, the author of 4th Maccabees and Philo of Alexandria all saw two inclinations emerging from Genesis 2:7. This seems to have been a universal understating of the ancients.)
The Talmud goes on to say:
It has been taught: R. Jose the Galilean says,
The righteous are swayed by their good inclination, as it says,
My heart is slain within me. (Ps. 109:22)
The wicked are swayed by their evil inclination, as it says,
Transgression speaks to the wicked,
methinks, there is no fear of God before his eyes. (Ps. 36:2(1)
Average people are swayed by both
inclinations, as it says, Because He stands at
the right hand of the needy, to save him from them
that judge his soul. (Ps. 109:31)
Raba said: People such as we are of the average.
(b.Ber. 61b)
Rabbi Jose the Galilean understood “heart” in Psalm 109:22 to refer to the Yetzer HaRa . The Targum to this Psalm says “my heart is quiet within me”. This passage is understood to mean that that King David did not give head to his Yetzer HaRa.
Rashi writes of Psalm 36:2(1):
The word of the transgression to the wicked man, in the midst of my heart, etc.: This is a transposed verse. I feel within my heart that the transgression i.e., the evil inclination says to the wicked man that the fear of God should not be before his eyes.
Rabbi Jose the Galilean sees in Psalm 109:22, that most men are swayed by both inclinations. And this book is intended as a guide to the Benoni “average” man.
It is this evil inclination that David refers to in the Psalms when he writes:
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
(Ps. 51:5)
The phrases “in iniquity” and “in sin” could also be translated “with iniquity” and “with sin” meaning that man was born with an evil inclination.
As we also read in 2Esdras:
And yet tookest thou not away from them a wicked heart, that thy law might bring forth fruit in them.
For the first Adam bearing a wicked heart transgressed, and was overcome; and so be all they that are born of him.
Thus infirmity was made permanent; and the law (also) in the heart of the people with the malignity of the root; so that the good departed away, and the evil abode still.
So the times passed away, and the years were brought to an end: then didst thou raise thee up a servant, called David:
Whom thou commandedst to build a city unto thy name, and to offer incense and oblations unto thee therein.
When this was done many years, then they that inhabited the city forsook thee,
And in all things did even as Adam and all his generations had done: for they also had a wicked heart:
(2Esdras 3:20-26)
In order to understand the struggle we face, between these two inclinations, we must first understand these three classes of men, and what it means to be a Benoni.
The Talmud points out that there are four types of men:
The righteous man who prospers, a righteous man who suffers, a wicked man who prospers, and a wicked man who suffers.
(b.Ber. 7a).
This is verified by the four destinations of man in the afterlife, as described in the Book of Enoch:
1 And thence I went to another place, and he showed me toward the west a large and high mountain of hard rock.
2 And there was in it four hollow places, deep and wide and very smooth. How smooth are the hollow places and deep and dark to look at.
3 Then Rafa’el answered, one of the set-apart angels who was with me, and said unto me: ‘These hollow places have been created for this very purpose, that the spirits of the souls of the dead should assemble therein, yea that all the souls of the children of men should assemble here.
4 And lo these are the pits for their imprisonment; they have been fashioned in this way till the day of their judgment and till the time of the end of the great judgment and till the time of the end of the great judgment, which is to be made against them.
5 ‘ There I saw the spirit of a dead man making suit, and his voice went forth to heaven crying unceasingly and making suit.
6 And I asked Rafa’el the watcher and set-apart one who was with me, and I said unto him: ‘This spirit which makes suit, whose is it, whose voice goes forth and makes suit to heaven?’
7 And he answered me saying: ‘This is the spirit which went forth from Abel, whom his brother Cain slew, and he makes his suit against him till his seed is destroyed from the face of the earth, and his seed is annihilated from among the seed of men.’
8 Then I asked regarding it, and regarding all the hollow places: ‘Why is one separated from the other?’
9 And he answered me and said unto me: ‘These three have been made that the spirits of the dead might be separated. And such a division has been made (for) the spirits of the righteous, in which there is the bright spring of water.
10 And such has been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgment has not been executed on them in their lifetime.
11 Here their spirits shall be set apart in this great pain till the great day of judgment and punishment and torment of those who curse forever and retribution for their spirits. There He shall bind them forever.
12 And [the third] was divided for the spirits who petition with information concerning their destruction when they were killed in the day of the sinners.
13 Such has been made for the spirits of men who were not righteous but sinners, who were complete in transgression, and of the transgressors they shall be companions: but their spirits shall not be slain in the day of judgment nor shall they be afflicted from thence.’
(1Enoch 22:1-13)
The righteous man who prospers is destined to the compartment “in which there is the bright spring of water”
And he answered me and said unto me: ‘These three have been made that the spirits of the dead might be separated. And such a division has been made (for) the spirits of the righteous, in which there is the bright spring of water.
(1Enoch 22:9)
The wicked men who prosper are those for whom “judgment has not been executed on them in their lifetime” , they suffer “great pain till the great day of judgment”
10 And such has been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgment has not been executed on them in their lifetime.
11 Here their spirits shall be set apart in this great pain till the great day of judgment and punishment and torment of those who curse forever and retribution for their spirits. There He shall bind them forever.
(1Enoch 22:10-11)
The righteous men who suffers make petition concerning their destruction
And [the third] was divided for the spirits petitioned with information concerning their destruction when they were killed in the day of the sinners.
(1Enoch 22:12)
And the wicked men who suffered, “their spirits shall not be slain in the day of judgment nor shall they be afflicted from thence” because they suffered for their transgression while still living.
Such has been made for the spirits of men who were not righteous but sinners, who were complete in transgression, and of the transgressors they shall be companions: but their spirits shall not be slain in the day of judgment nor shall they be afflicted from thence.’
(1Enoch 22:13)
The Tanya cites the Zohar (Zohar 2:117b) in this regard:
In Raaya Mehemna (Parshat Mishpatim) it is explained that the “righteous man who suffers” is one whose evil nature is subservient to his good nature, and so on.
(Likutei Amarim 1)
In their most absolute definitions then, a Tzadik (Righteous One) is a person who is not even influenced by the Yetzer HaRa; while a Rasha is a person who is not even influenced by the Yetzer HaTov.
Ya’akov HaTzadik (James the Just), who was the first Nasi of the Nazarene Sanhedrin, and lead the Nazarenes after the death of Messiah, only wrote one short book in the Ketuvim Netzarim. This is because, as a true Tzadik, he was not influenced by the Yetzer HaRa. By contrast Rav Shaul (Paul) was a Benoni, like ourselves, engaged in the constant struggle between the two inclinations, and having personal experience with this struggle (as seen in Romans 7:15-25), was able to write much for us about engaging in this battle within.
In the Tanya, the Rebbe Zalman concludes that within every Jew there are two souls. The Rebbe Zalman drew this concept from Isaiah:
For I will not contend forever,
neither will I be always wroth:
for the spirit that enwraps itself is from Me,
and the souls which I have made.
(Is. 57:16 HRV)
The Rebbe Zalman taught that from this verse we see that a man has a singular spirit, but plural souls and identified these as the Animal Soul (Nefesh HaBahamis נפש הבהמית ) and the Divine Soul (Nefesh Elohit נפש אלהית). He wrote in reference to our initial text (Gen. 2:7):
The second soul of a Jew is truly a part of G-d above, as it is written, “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” and “Thou didst breathe it [the soul] into me.” And it is written in the Zohar ][, “He who exhales, exhales from within him,” that is to say, from his inwardness and his innermost, for it is something of his internal and innermost vitality that man emits through exhaling with force.
(Likutei Amarim 2)
This concept of a Second Soul is also found in the Zohar as follows:
It behooves a man to labor in the study of the Torah, to strive to make progress in it daily, so as thereby to fortify his soul and his spirit: for when a man occupies himself in the study of the Torah, he becomes endowed with an additional and holy soul, as it is written: “the movement of living creatures”, that is, a soul (nefesh) derived from the holy center called “living” (hayah). Not so is it with the man who does not occupy himself with the study of the Torah: such a man has no holy soul, and the heavenly holiness does not rest upon him. But when a man earnestly studies the Torah, then the motion of his lips wins for him that “living soul” and he becomes as one of the holy angels, as it is written: “Bless the Lord, ye angels of his” (Ps. 103:20), to wit, those who occupy themselves in the study of the Torah, and who are therefore called His angels on earth. The same are alluded to in the words: “and let birds fly on the earth”. So much for his reward in this world. As regards the other world, we have been taught that the Holy One, blessed be He, will provide them with wings as of eagles, enabling them to fly across the whole universe, as it is written: “But they that wait for YHWH shall renew their strength, then shall mount up with wings as eagles” (Is. 40:31). This, then, is the interpretation of that which is written: “Let the waters swarm with the movement of living creatures”: the Torah, which is symbolized by water, possesses the virtue of implanting in her devotees a mobile soul derived from the place called “living” (hayah), as has already been said. David alluded to this when he said: “Create in me a clean heart, O Elohim”, so that I may be devoted to the Torah, and thus “renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps. 51:12).
(Zohar 1:12b)
According to the Zohar this second soul is alluded to in Psalm 51 in the phrase “and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” If we look at this verse in context we see:
11 (51:9) Hide Your face from my sins:
and blot out all my iniquities.
12 (51:10) Create me a clean heart, O Elohim:
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
13 (51:11) Cast me not away from Your presence:
and take not Your Ruach HaKodesh from me.
14 (51:12) Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation:
and let a willing spirit uphold me!
(Ps. 51:11-14(9-12) HRV)
Here we see that this second soul strives against the Yetzer HaRa (evil inclination) mentioned just a few verses earlier in 51:5 “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Ps. 51:5)