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C h a p t e r 4 Coming of Age: Amoraic Yetzer A Visitor, a Dog, a Robber: Images of the Yetzer in Palestinian Literature In Palestinian amoraic literature,1 Rabbi Ishmael’s yetzer has clearly won the day. Most sources develop the model of one evil yetzer further,2 refine it and deck it out with all manner of sinister attributes. A comparison of Sifre Deuteronomy 45, discussed above, with a homily in Genesis Rabba can exemplify both the differences and similarities between the tannaitic yetzer and the amoraic one: Therefore impress these My words upon your heart (Deut 11:18)— this tells us that the words of Torah are like an elixir of life )‫חיים‬ ‫)סם‬. This is comparable to a king who was angry with his son, struck him a violent blow, and placed a bandage on the wound. He told him: My son, as long as this bandage remains on your wound, you imay eat whatever you please and drink whatever you please, and bathe either in hot or cold water, and you will come to no harm. But if you remove it, it will immediately fester. Thus the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: I created your evil yetzer, and there is nothing more evil than it, [but] If you do right, there is uplift (Gen 4:7). Be occupied with words of Torah and it will not reign over you. But if you abandon words of Torah, then it will gain mastery over you, as it is said (ibid.): sin )‫)חטאת‬ crouches at the door, its urge is toward you— it has no business other than with you. But if you wish, you can rule over it, as it is said (ibid.): yet you can be its master; If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat . . . you will be heaping live coals [on his head]. (Prov 25:21–22; Sifre Deut 45, ed. Finkelstein, 103–4) When man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him (Prov 16:7) . . . R. Joshua b. Levi said: it refers to the evil yetzer. 66 Chapter 4 Usually if one is brought up along with another for two or three years he becomes closely attached to him, but this one grows with man from his youth until his old age and yet if he can, he strikes him down even in his seventies or his eighties. This is [the meaning of] what David said: You save the poor from one stronger than he, the poor and needy from his despoiler (‫;גוזלו‬ Ps 35:10). R. Aha said: is there a greater despoiler than it [the yetzer]? This is [the meaning of] what Solomon said: If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread. (Prov 25:21; Gen Rab. 54:1, ed. Theodor-Albeck, 575) These homilies share both the image of the yetzer as a heavy burden, accompanying humans for their entire lives, and the possibility of being saved from its curse through Torah study. Both end with reading “your enemy” in Proverbs 25:21 as referring to the yetzer. The amoraic homily, however, presents a yetzer much more developed and refined than the tannaitic one. Where the Sifre likened the yetzer to a static object, a wound, Genesis Rabba presents an active subject: a thief or trickster, “stronger” than man, patiently waiting for the right time to trap him, for as long as seventy or eighty years. Still, the fundamental similarity between the two sources—drawing on the same image of the yetzer as a demonic enemy of humanity—cannot be denied. In both cases the demonic yetzer does what it does simply because, as Athanasius (Vita Antonii 7) sharply asserts, “the demon is a lover of sin.” The yetzer drags humans to severe sins like murder and idolatry,3 but it is also responsible for more mundane passions and moods that lead to improper actions: anger, jealousy, or pride,4 as well as recklessness and neglect of Torah study.5 The sources present specific characteristics in accordance with local interpretive and thematic needs, but all share a basic image of the yetzer as an evil entity that leads humans astray from their religious duties. The basic function of the yetzer, from hatred to levity, remains one: an explanation of the difficulty to become and remain a servant of God. A long sugia in Genesis Rabba, fully dedicated to the yetzer, may exemplify both trends, that of continuing the...

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