With Both Inclinations1 min read

“If a man gives his friend money or vessels to watch and they are stolen from his house, if the thief is found he shall pay double.”

One of the foundational ideas of Yiddishkeit is that avodas Hashem takes place on the battleground between the forces of the yetzer tov and the yetzer hara. We are constantly caught in the mighty struggle between our earthly nature and our heavenly essence, fighting to reveal Hashem from behind the great concealment. Chazal teach that it is possible to serve Hashem “B’shnei yitzrecha”, with both inclinations. If a Jew applies the proper effort, it is possible to utilize the energy of the yetzer hara for the purposes of the yetzer tov, channeling one’s base desires and negative emotions toward the pursuit of avodas Hashem. When this is accomplished, a hot temper becomes a passionate (but loving) argument over a Tosafos; propensity toward jealously channeled into “kinnas sofrim”, an unquenchable thirst for higher levels of serving God.

The Chassidic masters saw this idea in a verse from our parsha: “If a man gives his friend money or vessels to watch and they are stolen from his house, if the thief is found he shall pay double”: “If a man (Ish) gives his friend”: Hashem, who is called “Ish”, gives his ‘friend’ – the Jewish nation – “money (kesef)”: desires and passions (“Kisufim”), “or vessels”: the physical body, a vessel for the soul, “to watch” and guard so that they may be used for His service. “And they are stolen from his house”: Immediately following birth, the yetzer hara seizes these desires and capacities and takes control of them, stealing them from “beis Hashem”, the house of God’s service. “If the thief is found”, when we catch up with the yetzer hara and begin to triumph in our spiritual battles, “he shall pay double”, we are able to utilize these passions and channel them, ending up with a double portion of energy that we are able to channel toward avodas Hashem.