Group None

This is the saying of our Rabbis, of blessed memory (Bava Batra 16a): “Job sought to exonerate the whole world from [divine] judgments. He said before Him: ‘Master of the Universe! You created the ox with split hooves; you created the donkey with whole hooves. You created the Garden of Eden [i.e., heaven]. You created Gehenna [i.e., hell]. You created righteous people. You created wicked people. Who can hold You back?’38Since there is no counterforce and no one can unmake what God has made, the righteous and the wicked are both created by God. Both act in accordance with their God-given nature – and no one is guilty or is to be punished. What did Job’s friends respond to him? ‘You undermine fear and reduce prayer before God’ (Job 15:4).39You undermine the fear of punishment which keeps people on the path of Torah. Furthermore, there is no point to prayer if all our behaviors are determined by our nature, implanted in us by God. [True,] the Holy One, blessed be He, created the evil urge but He also created the Torah as an antidote40Lit. spice or seasoning. This imagery evokes the idea that just as a spice removes the bitter taste out of food, so does the Torah remove the bitter effect of the yetzer hara (evil urge). for it….”41Human behavior is not determined. Humans have free will and God gave them the Torah to equip them to fight the evil urge and guide them to live the good life. With this, our Sages, of blessed memory, taught us that the antidote of Torah is the reverence that stems from it, as the verse says (mentioned above): “You undermine fear.” This verse captures the physical aspect [of healing the evil urge], in ways discernible by carnal eyes. The cause of healing of the spiritually ill is that a person turns his heart and soul to the reverence of the Torah. [This is done] in general, through knowing and understanding from the Torah that for every sin there is a powerful and terrible punishment, and for each mitzva there is a sublime reward. [This is done] in specific detail, which is primary, through studying the Torah of each sin and transgression individually. For pride, [he studies] the Torah of pride; for honesty in business matters, the parts of the Torah that deal with interpersonal situations and worldly matters; and so forth, to the Torah of every mitzva and every sin.42In this letter, R. Salanter shifts his understanding of the evil urge from being a generalized external evil force that takes over the person toward being an internal force (which operates deeply and differently in every person). Similarly, he refines the “cure” of sin from general Torah study, which repels the outside force, to study of the specific Torah and halakhot of the sins one is tempted to commit. This individualized study is more likely to affect the individual’s distinct inclinations toward sin. Of course, yira – increasing reverence through the direct study of the reward and punishment for each sin – is most likely to stop bad behavior.