Developing Psychological Health | Parsha with the Chief: Noach

The psychological and emotional forces that shape a human being - what we call character traits - are incredibly powerful.

Left unrefined, they can undermine our relationships, our happiness and our ability to make good decisions.

But when directed properly, with awareness and intention, they can become a powerful source of growth and psychological health.

The parsha of Noach describes two societies that destroyed themselves: the generation of the Flood and the builders of the Tower of Babel. Read back to the beginning of the Torah and the pattern runs further, through the sin in the Garden of Eden and Cain's murder of Abel. Then, after the Flood, God says something that seems to contradict the "very good" of creation: the inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth.

That verse is the source of the term yetzer hara, the evil inclination. But does a person really want to do evil? Drawing on Pirkei Avot, the Rambam, the Maharal and a remarkable insight from the Radak, the Chief Rabbi looks at what this inclination really is, and why the mind we trust to keep us on track is far weaker than we like to believe.

And as the Torah moves from Noach to Avraham, we meet a man whose clarity came from a place most of us would never think to look.

Key Questions

If God saw everything He made and called it "very good," how can the Torah say the inclination of the human heart is bad from youth?

Does any human being actually want to do evil?

When we see a situation clearly and still act against our own interests, what is really making the decision?

Why would the Vilna Gaon say that refining one's character is too important to be counted among the 613 commandments?

Why does Pirkei Avot remember Avraham, the man who discovered one God, for his character rather than his intellect?