Today I studied the 5th daf of berachot. Two reflections. At the very end of ד:and the very beginning of .ה, the Gemara talks about the struggle between the yetzer hatov to defeat the yezer harah. The best definition I’ve read of the yezer harah can be found in the book "Changing the World from Inside Out" by David Jaffe. “The rush of energy I felt is called, in Jewish sources, the yetzer harah, or just the yetzer. A literal translation of yetzer harah is ‘evil/bad inclination,’ although the ’evil /bad’ part is not exactly accurate because it is a morally neutral force. It is simply the drive for instant gratification. Depending how we direct this drive, it can build and create or tear down and destroy. Jewish sources are filled with wisdom about how to understand and channel this energy.” Even the evil inclination is not all bad or as Maxwell Smart used to say, “If only he used his evil for good.”
The Gemara goes on to talk about yesurin shel ahavah, afflictions that God sends out a love. Several of the rabbis who were afflicted with an illness didn’t want these afflictions at all. I’m reminded of a story of a woman who was terribly afflicted. In a very short time her husband died along with her son. She lost money she needed in the stock market. The list of afflictions just went on and on and on. A friend tried to comfort her saying that God doesn’t send more burdens that a person can bear. This woman acknowledged that God doesn’t send more burdens that person can bear, but she said, “I just wish God didn’t have such a high opinion of me.”
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