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Not a complete answer, but the Gemara in Sanhedrin 64a says that Chazal davened to remove the yetzer hara for avodah zara from people because they were failing, and when Hashem agreed, the yetzer h...
Answer
#2: Post edited
by
ka00
·
2023-09-22T18:08:21Z (7 months ago)
Not a complete answer, but the Gemara in Sanhedrin 64a says that Chazal davened to remove the yetzer hara for avodah zara from people because they were failing, and when Hashem agreed, the yetzer hara for avoda zara went away, but with it went nevuah.I've heard several times a Zohar quoted that asks why didn't Chazal daven for the abolition of the yetzer hara for arayos, and answer that if it would be removed, then it wouldn't be possible to learn Torah, suggesting a relationship between the drive for arayos and Torah similar to the relationship between the drive for avodah zara and nevuah. Perhaps then, the yetzer hara for arayos could not be changed so significantly without also causing changes in the means by which Torah is learned, which perhaps was more important.To us the question makes sense "well, just make the yetzer for Torah learning separate from the yetzer hara for arayos and make the latter less strong," but that might be like saying "I'd like a universe where planets orbit other plants, but where things don't fall when you drop them" - it makes sense to us to speak about falling without orbit, but they're actually the same phenomena and you can't have one without the other, and so too perhaps the desire for arayos and Torah study on some deeper lever.
- Not a complete answer, but the Gemara in Sanhedrin 64a says that Chazal davened to remove the yetzer hara for avodah zara from people because they were failing, and when Hashem agreed, the yetzer hara for avoda zara went away, but with it went nevuah. The Gemara continues that chazal davened for the end of a yezter hara for arayos, but when it was "captured," people stopped doing anything and so they decided to only half-way incapacitate it.
- So, to us the following question makes sense: "well, just make the yetzer for things besides arayos separate from the yetzer hara for arayos and make the latter less strong," but that might be like saying "I'd like a universe where planets orbit other plants, but where things don't fall when you drop them" - it makes sense to us to speak about falling without orbit, but they're actually the same phenomena and you can't have one without the other, and so too perhaps the desire for arayos and Torah study on some deeper lever.
#1: Initial revision
by
ka00
·
2023-09-22T18:05:52Z (7 months ago)
Not a complete answer, but the Gemara in Sanhedrin 64a says that Chazal davened to remove the yetzer hara for avodah zara from people because they were failing, and when Hashem agreed, the yetzer hara for avoda zara went away, but with it went nevuah. I've heard several times a Zohar quoted that asks why didn't Chazal daven for the abolition of the yetzer hara for arayos, and answer that if it would be removed, then it wouldn't be possible to learn Torah, suggesting a relationship between the drive for arayos and Torah similar to the relationship between the drive for avodah zara and nevuah. Perhaps then, the yetzer hara for arayos could not be changed so significantly without also causing changes in the means by which Torah is learned, which perhaps was more important. To us the question makes sense "well, just make the yetzer for Torah learning separate from the yetzer hara for arayos and make the latter less strong," but that might be like saying "I'd like a universe where planets orbit other plants, but where things don't fall when you drop them" - it makes sense to us to speak about falling without orbit, but they're actually the same phenomena and you can't have one without the other, and so too perhaps the desire for arayos and Torah study on some deeper lever.