The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Babylon – Reminder

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.  Genesis 3:6  N ASB

Desirable – “Watchfulness is being mindful of oneself and one’s relation to others at every moment.  This is a necessary prerequisite to the practice of Mussar, whose goal is to become aware of the feelings, actions, and thoughts that constitute a person’s psyche.  A person begins by developing this awareness after an event, then learns to do so closer and closer to the event, and eventually during the event itself or even before.  One who develops awareness during or before an event has conquered the skill of watchfulness . . .”[1]

I need a reminder.  Far too often my emotional condition allows the yetzer ha’ra to offer temporary anesthesia.  I stop watching because desire for relief takes control.  But I’m not giving up.  “Two forward, one back” as they say. Watchfulness—a discipline that requires enormous energy and commitment at first, especially if you’re like me.  Sometimes I think I just can’t do it.  But then Paul’s words come to mind.  “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God at work in you” (Philippians 2:12).  There’s hope for me yet.  I must remember that in these circumstances the yetzer ha’ra is the voice of the reasonable, not the volitional.  Thinking about it won’t get me through.  Choosing will.

“It is our understanding of being as the ‘beginning of desire’ that precludes our reducing choice to reason.”[2]  Desire is more fundamental than reason; that man is first and foremost a volitional being rather than a rational one.  Volition means choice, and the opportunity of choice comes before the exercise of reason.  This is why reason is a tool, not a foundation.  Now we can  better understand the temptation narrative in Genesis 3.

The sin in the Garden is choosing what is desirable instead of what is honorable.  The woman determines that the fruit of the Tree is good for food, aesthetically pleasing and able to make one wise before she even touches it.  How can she know this?  She can’t.  What she decides about the fruit is not reasonable.  There is no evidence to support her claim.  She listens to her desire, not her understanding.  She chooses based on that desire even before she can confirm any of her expectations.  We learn that sin is not a rational decision.  I don’t mean that choosing to sin is a form of insanity, as Berkouwer notes.  I mean that her decision to fulfill her desire isn’t rationally based.  It’s the free exercise of the yetzer ha’ra, and the yetzer ha’ra functions without regard to rational considerations.

Rationality is no bulwark against sin.  If we’re going to deal with sin, we must deal with desire, and dealing with desire means we must confront the essential inner conflict between the non-rational yetzer ha’ra and the pre-rational yetzer ha’tov.

How do we do this?  Luzzatto proposes the solution of deliberate watchfulness.  We force ourselves to become aware of our non-rational concessions to the yetzer ha’ra.  We start with the latest occurrence of sinful behavior, after the choice was made.  We remember what happened in that situation.  We use the tool of reason to examine the circumstances.  We reflect.  We pause.  We dissect the act to determine the motivation of the yetzer ha’ra that propelled us to choose this behavior.  Then we step backwards.  Just one step.  We listen once more to the whisper of the yetzer ha’ra that offered justification for our choice.  Now we recognize its consequences, but at the moment of choosing, we were blinded by desire.  We saw the fruit and determined its character from afar, without evidence.  Once we understand why we took this step—why we listened to our desire and what motivated that last instant before we picked the fruit—we step back again.  How did we come to be in the proximity of this temptation?  What was the yetzer ha’ra suggesting before we arrived at this spot in the Garden?  What was our emotional experience at that moment?  How did we feel, not how did we think?  And from there we trace our situation back again, probing deeper, looking for the underlying feeling that allowed the yetzer ha’ra the opportunity to suggest a solution.  What threat to the existence of the yetzer ha-ra motivated its power. The serpent in the Garden was the most cunning of all the animals.  Its motivation, its true agenda, was carefully concealed.  Its arguments seemed plausible, even reasonable.  But now we have reaped the consequences.  Now we know it was a lie.  This is not the time for the consolation of forgiveness.  This is the time for repentant examination, deliberate recollection, and a zealous analysis.  This is a time to exercise the strength of the breath in His image, the yetzer ha’tov.

Counterintuitively, Adam and the woman become fully human when they exercise the choice to obey their yetzer ha’ra.  Potential is not existential until it is converted into the actual, but once it becomes actual the consequences alter existential reality.  When we choose, we become different persons.  We construct our own identity, one choice at a time.  Watchfulness is choosing to change direction, to go in the direction of God’s animating breath, one step at a time.  The second time in the Garden should not be the first time again.

Step 31: Re-examine your failure.  What was the chain of emotions behind the steps that resulted in failure?

Topical Index: watchfulness, yetzer ha’ra, rational, volitional, desire, Genesis 3:6

[1] Ira F. Stone, in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 36.

[2] Ira F. Stone, in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 88.