DEUT204 ... the Rabbis said, “Come let us ascribe merit to our ancestors; for if they had not sinned, we should not have come into the world.” (B. Avodah Zarah 5a) Clearly, “sinned” here cannot be taken literally, for it is not a sin but rather a very good thing for married couples to fulfill the commandment to procreate. Thus the Talmud there must mean that during sexual intercourse couples are under the influence of the evil impulse. The evil impulse, then, refers simply to natural -- and especially sexual -- instincts, which are not evil in themselves but which, when unguided by the laws of the Torah, can lead people to sin. Hence the Rabbis could understandably say that the Torah’s commandment to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:5) -- where the word for “heart” is spelled unusually with two Hebrew letter bets rather than with just one-- refers to loving God “with both impulses-- the good and the evil.” (Sifrei Devarim par. 32). That is, we should serve God with both our natural instincts and with our moral consciousness. The trick, then, is not to root out our sexual and other desires altogether but rather to channel them to good purpose, as defined by the Torah. The Rabbis harbored no illusions that this is easy; indeed, rabbinic literature abounds in descriptions of how difficult it is to live a moral life. (See, for example, B. Sukkot 52a). They also prescribed a variety of methods for overcoming temptation when it occurs, including, but not limited to, engaging in study of the Torah, God's “antidote” to the evil impulse. (B. Kiddushin 30b. For other receipts, see B. Berachot 5a; B. Avodah Zarah 5b; and, most remarkably, B. Hagigah 16a). Moreover, when someone does something wrong, the Jewish tradition prescribes a specific path of teshuvah (literally: return) to the proper moral path and to the good graces of God and those he or she has wronged. (M.T. Law of Return, esp. chaps. 1 and 2). Thus, in the end, the moral life, with its choices, its responsibilities, its missteps, and its modes of repair, is an integral part of what it means to be human.
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