Zohar,
Page 165b; translation and commentary by Simcha Treister
And
Jacob sent angels before him to Esau his brother, to the red fields
of the country Seir. (Gen. 32:4)
Rabbi
Yehuda opened his discourse with the verse:
For He will give command of His angels to you, to look after you wherever
you will go. (Psalms 91:11)
This
verse has been explained by the Companions to mean that at the time
when a person comes into the world the Yetzer Hara is already waiting
for him.
"Evil
Inclination" is the typical translation of "Yetzer Hara".
The root of the word "yetzer" is "to create" and
refers to how a person's animal drives try to demand "needs"
at any particular time.
The
Yetzer Hara is constantly ready to entrap a person into doing wrong
and then goes to prosecute him in the spiritual world. This is the meaning
of the verse "Sin crouches at the door, ready to pounce."
(Gen. 4:7) What is it that crouches, waiting to pounce, as soon as a
person emerges from his mother into this world? It is the Yetzer Hara.
King David also refers to the Yetzer Hara as "Chatat", as
he says, "And my sins are always before me" (Psalms 51:5).
The Yetzer Hara is constantly ready, every day, to cause a person to
do wrong in the eyes of G-d, and he doesn't leave a person from the
time he is born.
Now
the Yetzer Tov [Good Inclination] comes to a [male] person when he reaches
the age of 13 [and to girls at age 12], which is the age that a person
is able to purify himself and connect to his spiritual roots by performing
mitzvot. At that age, when a person is obligated to perform mitzvot,
the Yetzer Tov comes to assist him, and the two inclinations join up
with the person, the Yetzer Tov on his right and the Yetzer Hara on
his left.
These
two inclinations are actually angels - pure spiritual forces - and they
are charged with protecting the person from anything that could harm
him. They never leave a person. If he decides to purify himself and
return to his spiritual roots, then the Yetzer Hara submits to the Yetzer
Tov, and the inclination to do good rules over the inclination to do
bad. Both of them join together by mutual agreement to guard the person
from doing bad wherever he goes.
This
is why the verse says, "He will give command of His angels to you,
to look after you wherever you will go." The angels referred to
are the two inclinations and when a person decides to strengthen his
good inclination over his bad inclination then the bad inclination,
even against its will, says "Amen".
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permission, in writing, from Kabbala Online.
Shmuel-Simcha
Treister is a lawyer from New Zealand who made aliya to Safed with his
family in 1993 to study Zohar. He continues doing so to this day.
