Two methods to capture a thief

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 speaks on the Torah section of Noah.

In this week's Torah section we see that the sages make an in-depth comparison between Noah and our patriarch Abraham: How would Noah have behaved if he had lived in Abraham's generation? And how would Abraham have behaved if he had lived in Noah's generation? They always compare between these two exceptional figures. Let us try to plumb the differences between Noah’s way of life and perception, and that of our patriarch Abraham. We will learn an important fundamental in how to serve God.

Our sages teach us in the tractate Avot (4:1): "Who is a hero? He who conquers his nature." When the evil inclination seeks to gain control of a person and he tries to fight it, he is faced with two ways of dealing with it. One way is to conquer the evil inclination - not to kill it or make it flee, but to gain control over it. It remains inside and becomes good. This is an act of conquest, similar to a country conquering another country and annexing it to become one of its provinces.

The Mishna teaches us that the real hero is the one who takes the evil instinct, conquers it, and uses its qualities and powers for good. When the evil inclination tries to make the person angry, instead of giving in to the anger, the person directs his fury and strength to taking determined action as God would have wanted. When the evil inclination entices a person to willingly sin, the person transfers that willingness to the observance of commandments. This is one way - to turn the evil inclination from a negative force into a positive one.

The second way to react to the evil inclination when he comes to fight the person, is by running away and avoid a direct confrontation with it. The Baal Shem Tov illustrated this with a parable: In one city there were thieves who used to break into stores and steal goods. The townspeople took two different approaches to deal with them: some hid in their shops, and when the thieves arrived, they made a big noise until the thieves fled. Others hid and waited until the thieves entered, and then captured them and brought them to prison, or forced them to work in their service in compensation for the attempted theft.

The Baal Shem Tov explains the difference between the two kind of approaches. The people who frightened the thieves away got rid of them temporarily but in a few weeks they will be back.  In contrast, those who caught the thieves, imposed servitude upon them or brought them to prison, achieved lasting peace of mind. 

It is the same with the evil inclination. If the evil inclination comes to a person and the person makes noise and drives it away, it will go away now but it will return in a week or a few more days. But if a person takes the evil inclination and conquers it and directs it in a good way, then he is in control of the evil inclination within himself and only has to maintain his guard. So, the real hero is not the one who killed his evil inclination or drove it away, but one who now utilizes it in a constructive and positive way.

This was the difference between Abraham and Noah. "Noah walked with God" - Noah served God, and when he saw that his evil inclination was mounting an attack, he would distance himself. He didn’t want to fight, so he moved to the side and sat quietly without reacting. Our Patriarch Avraham in contrast, was ready to fight it head-on. He went and fought with all his might against the evil inclination. He would gather large numbers of people around him and convince them about God’s existence. Our Patriarch Abraham's way was to take the evil inclination and conquer it. Abraham would fight his evil inclination, conquer it and hold on to it with his hands in contrast to Noah who fled from it and did not want strife and battles with it.

Abraham’s way conferred on him the status of being the first patriarch of the Jewish people. Noah's way of keeping distant from grappling with his evil inclination may be good for a person who wants to live quietly without achieving anything in life. But “Who is a hero - one who conquers his evil inclination” - this was our patriarch Abraham, who conquered his evil inclination and utilized it for sublime goals. This is the most excellent and exalted way to serve God.

However, there is another side to this:

In this week's Torah section we read: "Noah was a righteous and wholehearted man in his generations." Let us look at the deeper meaning of the description "wholehearted" in the context of Noah's generations.

The book of Kings (2 Kings 20:1) relates: "In those days Hezekiah fell deathly ill. The prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him and said, 'Thus said the Lord: “Put your house in order, for you are dying and will not live." The prophet Isaiah was informing King Hezekiah that his end was near. When Hezekiah asked the reason for the harsh decree against him, Isaiah replied that it was his punishment for not fulfilling the commandment of having children. Hezekiah explained that the reason he avoided it was because he saw with divine inspiration that a wicked son would come out of him - Manasseh, who would place an idol in God’s temple and worship idolatry.

The prophet Isaiah rebuked Hezekiah that a person can not interfere in God’s secrets. When God orders us to perform a commandment, it must be carried out without any calculations. The fact that he saw with divine inspiration that a wicked son would be born to him should not affect the fulfillment of the commandment. Precisely because he was making his own calculations, he was sentenced to die. 

Hezekiah replied that he had a tradition from his ancestor, King David, that even if a sword is placed on a person’s neck, he should not despair of mercy. He asked Isaiah to wed his daughter in the hope that this would save him from death. Isaiah agreed, and Manasseh was born, who, as predicted, placed a statue in the Temple.

From this story we learn an essential element: even when a person knows that the result of a mitzvah may be negative, such as the birth of a wicked son, he must fulfill the mitzvah because that is what God commanded. We should not seek to understand God’s secrets and make calculations about how the future will unfold. 

Although Isaiah recognized Hezekiah’s righteousness and knew that his prophecy was true, he understood that God's commandments must still be fulfilled. That's why he gave him his daughter as a wife, even though in the end Manasseh was born, who even ended up killing Isaiah. The message is clear: a person should not attempt to preempt his destiny, but should focus on fulfilling the mitzvah.

Noah’s righteousness can be understood in the same way. The title "wholehearted" was given to him because even though he knew that his generation was a generation of wicked people, and despite the fact that God commanded him to build the ark for one hundred and twenty years until the flood came and destroyed the world, he nevertheless chose to marry and have children. He did not refrain from child-bearing for fear that his children would learn from the deeds of the wicked around them. Contrary to Hezekiah's concerns, Noah begot children in a generation that was full of transgressions and sins. This is the meaning of the scripture "Noah was a wholehearted man in his generations" - his quality was to walk wholeheartedly with God by bringing children into the world even in an exceedingly corrupt generation.

This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel