How to succeed: Combining rational thinking with positive emotions

Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto’s talks are known throughout the Jewish world. They combine chassidic teachings and philosophy, along with tips for a better life. We have collected pearls from his teachings that are relevant to our daily lives. This week he comments on the Torah section of Vayera.

"And the Lord said, ‘The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is very heavy.’"

The Mishnah says (Avot 5:10) one who says "What is mine is mine and what is yours is yours, has an average mindset. And some say this is the mindset of the Sodomites." The mishna brings two opinions about a person who says “What is mine belongs to me and what is yours belongs to you.” One is that this is the way an average person thinks. He wants what is his to belong to him and what belongs to another person should belong to that person. The other opinion is that this is the mindset of the Sodomites.

We have to understand what makes this a “Sodomite mindset.” Why does a person who says what is his is his and what is yours is yours is considered to have a Sodomite mindset? 

In this week's Torah section, we read that the people of Sodom were degenerate, and had cruel and corrupt habits. God destroyed the entire city in a terrifying manner because of their evil. But what’s so terrible with a person wanting what is his to remain with him, and what belongs to someone else to remain with that person? Is that such a contemptible attitude that it deserves to be termed “Sodomite?”

A great lesson lies behind this comparison. One of the great dangers in every person’s life is to see things in a emotionless, rational way. Whatever he sees in life, it has to make sense to him. If it’s acceptable to his mind, then he is content and calm and will do whatever it is. But if his mind doesn’t find it acceptable, he won’t do it and is resentful in his heart.

This is how things worked in Sodom. The people of Sodom wanted everything to make sense to their minds, and whatever didn’t, they rejected. A person who says what's mine is mine and what's yours is yours is going completely after his rational mind - which was the approach of Sodom. Those who want to follow God’s ways must not look at life solely in an intellectual way, because a person also has to view life through his emotions and not only his mind. A person who only follows the path of intellect is following the mindset of the Sodomites.

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The Gemara in Tractate Sanhedrin (109a) says that the people of Sodom used to say that they have a very good land. Sodom's land was the best in the world and it yielded the best crops. And they decided why should foreigners come to live in our city and take away our livelihood?! So they went and passed laws against the foreigners who came. They said mine is mine - this land is ours and will remain ours - and no foreigner will enter it. That attitude set them on a path of degeneration until the Gemara says that they sunk to doing the most terrible deeds and the most serious sins. As the Gemara there relates, it was all done in a cool-headed, rational way.

The Gemara says that in the city of Sodom it was permissible to ask for charity. It was a city of rich people and they did give charity. But they also enacted a law that beggars were not permitted to buy food or drink - nothing! They had a whole system of laws. Charity is good, but they would pass laws against those who ask for charity. As soon as a person does things only in a intellectual way and eliminates feeling from his life, this leads to the destruction of the world.

A person must act rationally in life, but it must be combined with emotion. Emotion must be a partner in every decision of the mind and the mind must not rule and decide alone. The Gemara in tractate Baba Metzia (30b) says that Jerusalem was destroyed because they judged according to Torah law. The Gemara then asks about this surprising statement - what law should they judge by in Jerusalem if not Torah law? The Gemara explains that in Jerusalem on the eve of the Temple’s destruction, they based their judgments only on the letter of the Torah law and didn’t go beyond the letter of the law. They were not interested in anything beyond a dry application of the law and therefore everything was destroyed.

If the person does not involve his emotions, he cannot achieve and advance in anything. Saying mine is mine and yours is yours is an attitude of Sodom, because one must not act only according to the dry intellect but must also involve one’s feelings. Only when the emotion is activated alongside the intellect, will a person be able to reach correct and true decisions.

(Published in the BaKehilah haredi weekly)

This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel