Parashas Shelach: The Torah's View of Temptation

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Artwork: Mother of Runes, by Terese Nielsen
(for the record, this is my mental image of Eishes Potiphar)

Parashas Shelach: The Torah's View of Temptation

The last mitzvah mentioned in this week's parashah is "lo sasuru acharei levavchem v'acharei eineichem" ("you shall not explore after your heart and after your eyes"). [1] Here is the mitzvah in its context:

And they shall be tzitzis (lit. fringes) for you, that you may see it and remember all the mitzvos of Hashem and do them, and you shall not explore after your heart and after your eyes after which you stray. So that you may remember and do all of My mitzvos, and be kedoshim (holy) to your God. I am Hashem, your God, Who has removed you from the land of Egypt to be a God to you; I am Hashem, your God. (Bamidbar 15:39-41)

The Torah she'baal Peh [2] teaches us that each phrase relates to a different category of illicit "exploration":

"after your heart" - this refers to meenus (heresy); "after your eyes" - this refers to  zenus (licentiousness).

Although my usual practice is to provide all of the basic background information for each topic that I introduce, I'm not going to do so in this case because I believe it would distract us from the question we will be focusing on. Suffice it to say, this mitzvah prohibits us from giving in to certain harmful temptations in the realm of our intellectual speculations [3] and sexual desires. [4]

Our central question arises from an inference made by Sifre: [5]

"after your heart and after your eyes": Does this tell us that the eyes follow after the heart, or that the heart follows after the eyes? - You'll argue: "Is there no blind person who does all the abominations in the world?" Indeed, this is why the Torah teaches "do not explore after your heart and after your eyes" - this tells us that the eyes follow after the heart. 

This Sifre is cryptic. What, exactly, does it mean to say that "the eyes follow after the heart"? What are the implications of the Sifre's conclusion? 

The Malbim [6] addresses these questions in his commentary on the Sifre: 

Many people are of the opinion that the heart's desire for transgression is aroused by the senses, as it is said: "The eye sees, and the heart desires" [7], and "a person only desires what his eyes have seen." [8] However, Chazal infer the opposite ... [namely,] were it not for the fact the mind was seized by the preexisting desire-fueled fantasies of the heart, he would not be affected by what his eyes saw - whether in terms of going on a bad path [of licentiousness] or following the ways of heresy to remove from himself the fear of Hashem. [If he goes on the bad path of licentiousness,] this is a sign that his fantasy-based desires have already paved the way ahead of time. Likewise, [this is a sign] that the thoughts of iniquity have already preceded him in his heart and caused him to make light of the fear of Hashem, Who sees his hidden and revealed dimensions. 

In other words, it may be true that a desire will be awakened by what the eyes see, [9] but Sifre is teaching us that the seeing of the eyes will only awaken one's desires if the path was paved ahead of time by the desire-fueled fantasies (tziyurei ha'taavah) of the heart. This, according to the Malbim, is what Chazal mean when they say that "the eyes follow after the heart." 

In order to further elucidate his meaning, the Malbim cites Ibn Ezra's [10] explanation of "lo tachmod" ("you shall not covet") and "lo tisaveh," which reflect the Sifre's view of the relationship between "the heart" and "the eyes." Here is the Ibn Ezra's commentary in his own words:

"you shall not covet": Many people are astounded by this mitzvah, [wondering] "How can a man not covet something which his heart and eyes find to be beautiful?" Now I will give you a mashal (example). Consider a peasant who is of sound mind, and who sees a beautiful princess. He will not covet her in his heart, [desiring] to sleep with her, because he knows that this is impossible. This peasant will not be like the insane, who think they can do impossible things like sprout wings and fly in the sky. Just as a man doesn't desire to sleep with his mother, even though she is beautiful, because he has been raised from youth to know that she is prohibited to him, so too, every rational person needs to know that neither a beautiful woman nor possessions will be found by him through his own wisdom and knowledge, but only as apportioned to him by Hashem ... and because of this, he will neither desire nor covet [the belongings of others]. Once he knows that his friend's wife has been prohibited to him by Hashem, she will be more out of reach to him than the princess in the heart of the peasant. 

The Malbim then goes on to explain how the Ibn Ezra's take on lo tachmod and lo tisaveh follows the view expressed by the Sifre:

On the basis of this approach the Ibn Ezra explained what Hashem commanded - "you shall not desire your friend's house," "you shall not covet your friend's wife" - [saying] that if a person diminishes the desire-fueled fantasies and doesn't bring them to mind, and similarly, if he continually remembers that Hashem commanded him and prohibited him and stands over him and sees his actions, then he will not come into the grips of any desire at all, just as the peasant will not desire the princess. 

This is what is meant by the statement that "the eyes follow after the heart": were it not for the desire-fueled fantasies that are generated in the heart, he would not be moved by the sight of his eyes. It is for this reason that "do not explore after your heart" comes first, since it first must generate the fantasies of desire and the bad middos, and only afterwards will "the eyes explore."

[Chazal] bring a proof against those who say that the heart is only aroused by fantasies after the eyes draw them in, for even a blind person will commit tremendous abominations, even though he hasn't seen [anything] with his eyes.

Here's another mashal to illustrate the Sifre's idea. A person's cravings might be awakened by the sight of a delectable slice of chocolate cake sitting on the plate in front of him, but if he is informed that the cake was accidentally baked using salt in place of sugar, or that the cake is laced with rat poison, or that it's actually a model made of wax, his desire will quickly subside - despite the fact that the appearance of the cake remained unchanged. And if he knew ahead of time that the cake was disgusting, poison, or fake, then seeing the cake wouldn't have awakened his desires in the first place.

The same is true for all of your desires: they will only be awakened by what "your eyes" see if "your heart" (i.e. your inner thoughts, values, fantasies, beliefs, etc.) has been primed to desire them. In other words, our susceptibility to temptation is fundamentally influenced by our internal thoughts - not by our perceptions of external stimuli. Therefore, in order to master our desires and resist temptation from without, we must start by cultivating our hearts from within.

Even the Sefer ha'Chinuch, [11] who continually emphasizes the impact of our actions on our inner character, nevertheless acknowledges the truth of the Sifre's interpretation, as he writes in his explanation of "lo sasuru etc.":

The root purpose of this mitzvah is evident: for by it a man will be guarded from sinning to Hashem all his days. In truth, this mitzvah is a great foundation of the religion, since evil thoughts are the "fathers" of impurities, and the [resulting] actions are their "children," and if a man will die before begetting any offspring, there will be no remembrance (i.e. trace) of children. Consequently, this prohibition [of "do not explore after your heart and after your eyes"] is a root from which all good things sprout.

The big question is: How do we change our "hearts" to regulate our desires and temptations? The Sifre only establishes the general framework, but doesn't give us any clues as to how to effect real change.

The answer can be found in the pesukim surrounding "lo sasuru etc.":

And they shall be tzitzis (lit. fringes) for you, that you may see it and remember all the mitzvos of Hashem and do them, and you shall not explore after your heart and after your eyes after which you stray. So that you may remember and do all of My mitzvos, and be kedoshim to your God. I am Hashem, your God, Who has removed you from the land of Egypt to be a God to you; I am Hashem, your God. (Bamidbar 15:39-41)

In short, the answer is: mitzvos. One of the many functions of mitzvos is to cultivate within us the quality of kedushah (i.e. rising above the influence of our animalistic tendencies in order to live b'tzelem Elokim). We acknowledge this function in every berachah (blessing) we make over mitzvos: "asher kideshanu b'mitzvosav" ("Who made us kadosh through His mitzvos").

How do the mitzvos make us kedoshim? That is a topic for another day.

[1] It should be noted that the Ralbag maintains that "lo sasuru etc." is not its own mitzvah, but is the reason for the mitzvah of tzitzis; for the purposes of this blog post, it doesn't make a difference.
[2] see Rabbeinu Moshe ben Maimon (Rambam / Maimonides), Mishneh Torah: Sefer ha'Mada, Hilchos Avodah Zarah 2:3; his citation differs from our version, which can be found in Berachos 12b
[3] for an extended treatment of this topic see my blog post entitled Parashas Shoftim: Comparative Religion
[4] see Rabbeinu Moshe ben Maimon (Rambam / Maimonides), Sefer ha'Mitzvos: Lo Taaseh #47, and Sefer ha'Chinuch at the end of Parashas Shelach
[5] Sifre: Piska 115
[6] Rav Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel, Commentary on Sefer Bamidbar 15:39
[7] Yalkut Shimoni: Yeshayahu 445
[8] I wasn't able to locate this source
[9] see Rav Baruch ha'Levi Epstein, Torah Temimah: Sefer Bamidbar 15, 136, who clarifies the scope of the Sifre: 

From the fact that "after your heart" is written first and "after your eyes" is written afterwards, it would seem that this doesn't come to exclude the heart being drawn after the eyes. Don't Chazal explicitly say: "The yetzer ha'ra (evil inclination) only dominates based on what the eyes see" (Sotah 8a)? Likewise they say: "the eye sees, and the heart desires." Rather, the matter is that each one is drawn after the other: the eyes after the heart and the heart after the eyes. And since the heart being drawn after the eyes is an obvious and perceivable matter, therefore the pasuk comes puts the heart before the eyes in order to teach us that sometimes the eyes are drawn after the heart - namely, in the case of someone who has bad thoughts which incite the yetzer ha'ra against him with bad fantasies and musings. This is [why the Sifre] brings a proof from a blind person.

[10] Rabbeinu Avraham Ibn Ezra, Commentary on Sefer Shemos 20:13
[11] Sefer ha'Chinuch, Mitzvah #387