Group None

Let us pay attention and analyze the matter of sins. We will see that there are two types. One stems from unbridled lust,21“Taava” (lust, desire) is an elemental drive that seeks its own fulfillment and is oblivious to rational or moral considerations. loving what is immediately gratifying without paying heed to the outcome – even though that will be very bitter ultimately. We find its analogue in worldly matters as well. A fool, and especially one whose weak intellect renders him ill, loves to grab and eat that which is pleasant to his palate, forgetting that this will often make him sick. On this our Rabbis, of blessed memory, said: “Who is wise? One who sees what will develop” (Avot 4:1).This is also the meaning of the saying of our Rabbis, of blessed memory (Sota 3a): “A person does not sin unless a spirit of foolishness enters into him.” This is a person’s primary labor in His service, may He be blessed: to think and consider the reverence of God and the fear of His punishment by means of the Mussar books and the aggadot22Non-legal, ethical literature of the Rabbis. of our Sages, of blessed memory, to the point that he hears it with his own ears and virtually sees it with his own eyes23Isaiah 6:10. – the quantitatively and qualitatively great punishment standing before him. As our Rabbis, of blessed memory, say (Sanhedrin 7a): “At all times, a judge should see (given his likelihood to err; the same applies to every person vis-à-vis safeguarding against serious harm from grave sins) as if…hell is open below him.”24And with one misstep, he may fall in. If a person acts this way and his heart truly understands, he will repent and be healed.25See Isaiah 6:10.