Reflections on Yetzer Ha'ra
Perhaps one of the most significant differences between Christian orthodoxy and Jewish rabbinic teaching concerns the idea of sin. These lectures and comments on the Talmudic view of the yetzer ha’ra are offered as a way to open the discussion for those who are concerned about this difference.
Skip,
Just finished listening to the first lecture. I have a quick question.
“What was Yeshua casting out of people during His ministry?”
You may have answered this question in your later lectures. Any response would be appreciated.
Demons. Did you have another interpretation of the text?
No, I believe they were demons.
The rabbis understanding in the Talmud about Satan and the angel of death (Yetzer Ha’ra) is that it is a force within and not a being without.
How would that fit in with who Yeshua confronted in the wilderness? Do you understand that to be a confrontation with His Yetzer Ha’ra?
How about the book of Revelation? I recognize this as Apocalyptic literature, but Matthew and Luke do not fit this genre.
What are demons then? How do they fit in within the scope of the TaNaK and the rabbis understanding? Were demons a later development also?
“No, I believe they were demons. ….His Yetzer Ha’ra?”
Hi Brian,
I tend to think of “demons” as a “spiritual” metaphor for psychological desires.
For me, the Yetzer Ha’ra has a somewhat humorous connotation.
Ah, Michael. You are being much too psychological. The contemporary Greek mentality would like us to think that demons and such are simply uneducated explanations of psychic conditions. But then most psychologists haven’t been to Haiti or Africa or a few other places where evil is palpable.
“other places where evil is palpable”
Hi Skip,
Just to ramble on a moment or two before heading off to the office.
I didn’t mean that evil is not real or palpable.
On the contrary, I think evil is very real and palpable.
But evil is either a phenomenological experience or an objective fact (or so it seems to me).
In either case, it is not the language that is evil, rather it is the intention or action that is evil.
For me evil can be described in a spiritual language or a psychological language.
It is the same evil whether it is described in Hebrew or Greek 🙂
You’re right about that. The difference is that contemporary cultural thinking would prefer to label evil as psychological in order to remove guilt from the perpetrator. Then it becomes a mental disorder rather than a malevolent choice. Then it’s pills instead of punishment.
As you know, there is little if ANY discussion of demons, Satan and related matters in the Tanakh. Most of the development of these themes comes between the last of the prophets and the close of the rabbinic dominance in 72 AD. I believe that Yeshua did confront an EXTERNAL evil presence and that the Yetzer ha’ra may be of the same quality, but is not of the same essence. My personal struggle with an inclination toward self-fulfillment of desire is not the same as the being who tried to usurp God’s throne.
“EXTERNAL evil presence”
Just watched an Aussie film called Animal Kingdom, directed by David Michod.
Not unlike the white working class world of San Bernardino, where I was born.
If you want to see a good rendition of an external evil presence, watch this film.
But it is painful and difficult to watch.
Skip,
Even though there is little discussion in the Tanakh I was wondering who then the adversary is that dialogs with God in the beginning of the book of Job? I would have to believe as you said that there is still some form of external evil presence.
Look forward to hearing you speak up here in Dayton.
I’ll see you tomorrow in Dayton and we can have a discussion about this. No doubt HaSatan is a being who operates within God’s creation as an opposer to God and to God’s order. Yeshua says a lot more about him than all of the Tanakh. He’s real but not nearly as “super-powerful” as the typical view suggests.
Hi Skip,
Very interesting lecture.
Looking back, the funny thing is that these topics all seems so familiar to me.
I spent from 1970 to 1980 living on the beach in Del Mar.
At the same time, I was taking classes and teaching classes at UCSD.
Studying history, philosophy, linguistics, and literature.
At a theoretical level, the “thread” that tied most things together in my mind.
Was the so called “dialectical mode” of thinking.
I could never figure out why so many people knew so much about this stuff.
When I had never heard much about it at all until I got to college.
And I never realized until learning from you.
That the dialectical mode of thought was part of the Jewish religion 🙂
Hi Skip
As I have listened and read I have found again your teaching and explanations very clear, contextual and helpful in causing me to make a mental shift about some of the information/teaching I have inherited from my past. I found the last lecture particularly helpful….you are so right that about the Christian view re the Pharasees and Yeshua, I had never thought about it that way. As for capital punishment I have always believed this is a principle that should be instituted carte balanche for certain crimes. Many years ago I worked for Margaret Thatcher (not a popular thing to say here in the UK) when she was leader of the opposition. My job as a private secretary was to answer an unexpected avalanche of mail received after she had said ‘bring back capital punishment’. This was an eye opener indeed. People came down strongly on both sides – some even tore out pages of their bible and enclosed them with their letters! However overwhelmingly the responses were against. The result is that some of the most heinous crimes in the UK – especially in relation to children, in my view have been white washed with the ‘deminished responsibility’ label. One clearly sees that without Torah how can their be true justice?
Anyway I digress. Skip have you talked about or written anything about when our understanding of HaSatan as in the NT came about and why ‘Yeshua had a lot to say about him’?
Thanks for your reply to my many questions on the Identity Theft 2 blog. I see what you mean about adding to the text etc. Your right it seems we have a penchant for wanting to connect all the dots….. I myself have to remind myself that its OK not to know the answer. In regard to Bill Cloud’s premise re the tree – could you expound a bit more on what you said in your answer i.e. ‘the tree is there on purpose. God put it there’.
Christine
Skip,
Excellent teaching! I especially enjoyed the last lecture. There is so much to consider and many questions that it stirred and ignited in my heart.
Yetzer ha’ra or evil inclination is the desire for life, family, success, and etc….. what is the Yetzer ha’tov or good inclination? I am assuming is the desire for God and His way of being and doing in this world. Is it not a large assumption from the rabbi’s to say that the two yod’s in the Genesis creation account represents the good and evil inclination? Is there other passages to indicate this possible interpretation of the two yod’s? In the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established. Was this the general consensus of the two yod’s within the rabbinic circles?
The ha’ra is active from the beginning and the ha’tov is not active until 12 or 13 years of age. These ages are considered the beginning of the age of accountability or responsibility to YHWH’s teaching and the community he or she is a part of. They are not responsible for their actions until they can respond with intergrity to Torah. Does God’s instructions awaken the ha’tov?
Again, I have enjoyed these lectures very much and love to be challenged and hopefully transformed in my thinking and living. I may have some more comments and questions at a later date.
I think James 1:12-18 speaks well to the Yetzer Hara. It shows the descent of behavior as the inclination grows
I was glad to find and entirely enjoyed these messages. After hearing them I read the below posts. They seem a bit incongruous to the Idea of the Rabbi’s of the Yetzer Hara as the evil inclination synonomus with HaSatan not an independent personality. Yet another mystery… I entirely concur and my experience supports that ” No doubt HaSatan is a being who operates within God’s creation as an opposer to God and to God’s order. Yeshua says a lot more about him than all of the Tanakh. ”
Perhaps it is the greater threat to Ha Satan’s kingdom who gets a clearer picture of him, and in fact unmasks him for what he is. He hides and lies and steals because it serves his agenda, ignoring denying and dismissing him would as well. Yet we are free from his power for we are free to choose with each thought whom we will serve.
Perhaps Skips greatest work is to reveal the level of lies, misunderstandings and out right deception that has been foisted on the children of God by their unsuspecting gullibility to the liar, thief and accuser hiding beside the most sincere believers. It is I suspect pride in our own thoughts that cause us to create new theologies and “doctrines of demons”. For was not Moses described as “the humblest man on the earth”?. Need we add to his or Yeshua’s revelations so many ideas?