GEN196 Jewish thought perceives not only human existence, but all of creation as being characterized by polarity.  …. Each entity depends upon and derives meaning from its polar counterpart.  Without down, there cannot be up. Without evil, there could not be good.  As one medieval text put is, “God made each thing and its opposite … All things cleave to one another, the pure and the impure.  There is no purity except through impurity” (Midrash Temurah in Agadat Bereshit 1876, 49)  According to the late-nineteenth-century Hasidic master Zadok of Lublin, even a specific halakhic decision implies the validity of its opposite (1903, 9b).  The presence of such interdependent yet polar opposites also characterizes the realm of the human heart.  As the Zohar states, “Good issues from evil, and compassion issues from justice, and all are intertwined, the good inclination and the evil inclination, right and left … all depends upon one another ... otherwise, the world could not exist for even an instant” (1883, 3:79b).  In the human heart, described by the Talmudic rabbis as the source of reason and emotion, God implants both the good inclination (yetser ha-tov) and the evil inclination (yetser ha-ra) (see, e.g., Schechter 1909, 255). How a person utilizes these inclinations determines the moral quality of his or her behavior.  Not only the good inclination, but the evil inclination as well is candidly described by the talmudic rabbis as having been created by God (see, e.g. Berachot, 61a, Genesis Rabbah, chap. 14:4). In itself, the evil inclination (yetzer ha-ra) is not necessarily evil.  However, it becomes evil when it is misused.  Otherwise, paradoxically, the evil inclination is considered good.  For example, commenting on [this verse], a midrash observes that while the good inclination is good, the evil inclination can be considered very good, because without it human beings would neither build a house, nor marry, nor beget children, nor engage in commence (see Genesis Rabbah, chap. 9, sec. 7). In other words, without the basic human drives and ambitions engendered by the evil inclination the perpetuation of human civilization would become endangered (see, e.g., Rashi to Sanhedrin 107b). The stronger a person’s evil inclination, the greater the individual’s potential for greatness.  As the Talmud says, “the greater the person, the greater their evil inclination” Sukkot 52a.  The evil inclination is not only responsible for sustaining human civilization, but according to Judah Loew it is the catalyst for making manifest the divine image in which human beings are created (see, e.g. Jacobson 1987, 102-36).  Paradoxically, through sinning, Adam demonstrates that human beings are Godlike in that they are morally independent beings.  Yet, by making manifest the quality of moral volition that human beings share with God, human beings simultaneously alienate themselves from God through sin.  The human task then becomes reconciliation with God through the performance of the commandments, the cultivation of the moral virtues, and repentance. (see, e.g. Weiss 1969, 213-30, 347-50; c.f., Guide of the Perplexed, bk. 1, ch 2, 24-25).   SHER20C 151-2