Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Pawel <pawel AT kul.stalwol.pl>]

Dear Harold,

> HH: Well, there is mention of the jecer ha-ra:
> 
> Gen. 6:5 ¶ The LORD saw how great man's 
> wickedness on the earth had become, and that 
> every inclination of the thoughts of his heart 
> was only evil all the time.

Yes, you are right: "wekhol-jecer maxshevot libbo
raq ra'" An interesting word in this sentence is
'only' (raq). Doesn't it mean that God expected
man to have the other inclination - jecer ha-tov?

> HH: Is there a need to assume that prior to 
> Adam's sin that there was a jecer ha ra. There 
> had been no sin. Nor need one assume a jecer 
> he-tov in the sense you seem to be defining it, 
> as a strong tendency to do good that would 
> prevent one from sinning. Why can we not imagine 
> a perfect environment and a  neutral mind-set? 
> Adam and Eve delighted in all the good things, 
> including God's presence, but Eve could be 
> deceived, and Adam could follow his wife's 
> example, though he knew it was forbidden.

First of all we must define what 'ra'' is.
I strongly believe that it is simply lack
or absence of 'tov'. God, being good, cannot
be the source of evil. The conclusion is one -
the evil cannot have any real existence,
because it was never created. It is nothing 
but absence of good. Therefore the jecer ha-tov
must be the inclination of something positive.
Besides, Adam and Eve had the first 'micwah':
"peru u-revu..." (Gen. 1.28), so they must
have been given by God the iclination of
fulfilling it.

Regards -

-- 
Pawel Sajdek
<>< XPICTOC NIKA ><>