Doubtless each one of us wholeheartedly wants to completely change ourselves through genuine teshuvoh — a thorough turnover from our improper ways. We must naturally ask how to accomplish this desirable change.
To make such a change we must know certain things: First, what is demanded from us in our avodas Hashem in Olam Hazeh. Second, how the yetzer hora succeeds in gaining control over a person. After knowing this, with Hashem's assistance, we can beware of succumbing to the yetzer's traps.
Chazal (Sotah 3a) write that "a person worships avodoh zorah only when a ru'ach shtus, a spirit of insanity, enters him." [Although shtus is popularly used to mean "nonsense," it is well known that Chazal use it to mean not merely acting in an illogical way but in an insane way, just as Chazal call a deranged person a shoteh.]
The obvious question is, Why do Chazal define doing a sin as an act of insanity? Would it not have been more appropriate to call it wickedness — preferring This World over the World to Come? How does insanity fit in? Is someone a madman for giving in to his physical desires?
The answer is that even if a person is looking for Olam Hazeh he will not find it outside Torah observance. A person sins not because of his favoring This World more than the World to Come but because of some insanity that has gotten into him. He has been tempted by false illusions that the yetzer hora has shown him, without checking if they have any real basis.
Now we can better understand the first midrash in the Midrash Rabbah (The Midrash Tanchuma, Tanna Dvei Eliyahu Rabba, and other midroshim write similarly): "HaKodosh Boruch Hu looked in the Torah and created the world. The Torah says, `In the beginning Elokim created,' and "beginning" means nothing other than the Torah, as it is written, `Hashem created me as the beginning of His way, the first of His works of old' (Mishlei 7:22)."
The Creator of the World looked into the Torah and created man the way the Torah had planned him. The Midrash teaches us that the Torah is the blueprint for the world's creation. In this plan, sin can only happen because a mood of insanity has engulfed the Jew and he senselessly disregards even the benefits in Olam Hazeh that are derived from observing the Torah. Anyone who observes the Torah's mitzvos will therefore have not only Olam Habo but Olam Hazeh too. And someone who does not observe the Torah will have neither Olam Habo nor Olam Hazeh.
Bodily life is insignificant compared to eternal life. We have been created in This World only to prepare our neshomos to derive pleasure from the Shechinah in the Next World, and to bring the Creation, Hashem's kingdom, to its destined tikkun. This is as Dovid Hamelech said: "Man is like a breath, his days are like a shadow that passes away" (Tehillim 144:4). Chazal (Tanchuma, Vayechi, chap. 1) infer that a man's days "are not like the shadow of a house and not like the shadow of a tree" but "like the shadow of a bird flying in the air." Nonetheless, the Creator of the World, because of His abundant kindness, wanted those who observe the Torah to have Olam Hazeh too. Hashem therefore looked into the Torah and created man according to the Torah's program for man's immense benefit.
Actually, the Torah's main reason for creating the world was not so that someone who follows the Torah will enjoy the physical luxuries offered in This World, but rather so he can easily pass through Olam Hazeh without having to undergo the difficult test of having to choose between Olam Hazeh and Olam Habo.
A Jew should not wage war with the yetzer hora using only yiras shomayim, since the danger always exists that, chas vesholom, he will not possess enough yiras shomayim to overcome the yetzer hora. It is definitely preferable to fight the yetzer by employing one's intelligence, by reflecting on whether the sin that he is, Rachmono litzlan, about to do will give him any additional Olam Hazeh or not. A person should remember, for example, that yesterday he did the same sin and not only did it not give him any more Olam Hazeh but it moved Olam Hazeh even further from him. It was an absolute shtus — an insanity. He will then understand how pointless it is to do the sin again and thereby to lose out not only on Olam Habo but on Olam Hazeh too.
This is spelled out to us in explicit pesukim of the Torah (Parshas VaYeitze 31:14-16). When Yaakov Ovinu said to Rochel and Leah that HaKodosh Boruch Hu had told him to leave Lovon's house, they apparently should have immediately answered, "anything that Elokim tells you, we will do." We will obey since we have yiras shomayim and that is Hashem's will.
In the Torah we see that instead they first said, "Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we not accounted by him as strangers? For he has sold us and has also devoured our money." They meant, as Rashi (ibid.) explains, that it is customary for a father to provide a dowry for his daughters. Our father, they complained, not only did not give us any dowry but sold us in exchange for your work. Not only that, but he deceived you a hundred times about your salary, as the Torah writes, "And you changed my wages a hundred times" (Bereishis 31:7). He actually stole the money that belonged to his daughters and grandchildren. The Matriarchs wanted to convey to Yaakov that they knew they were not losing any Olam Hazeh by leaving such a father, and therefore the natural conclusion is "anything that Elokim tells you we will do" (v. 16).
The Torah is teaching us in this episode that a person should not use only yiras shomayim when fighting with the yetzer hora. He must first use his powers of reasoning, since, truth to tell, fulfilling Hashem's commands never causes a loss even in one's Olam Hazeh-oriented interests.
It is, of course, absurd to think that, chas vesholom, the objective of our serving Hashem is that we will also gain Olam Hazeh. The truth is that our objective is not even to inherit Olam Habo, as the Rambam rules at the end of Hilchos Teshuvoh (10:1)! Nonetheless, it is necessary to use the above concept as a "means" so that we will not sin, chas vesholom, and that what we do will be done properly as it should be.
The Rambam himself writes (Commentary to Avos 1:3) that although our goal is to gain ahavas Hashem (love of Hashem), we must also use reward and punishment as a means so that we will not sin. Ahavas Hashem alone is inadequate to save us from sin, as we see in the Yerushalmi (Sotah 25a) that the Rambam (ibid.) cites: "do because of ahavoh, do because of yirah."
Likewise in his Sefer HaMitzvos (mitzvah 4) the Rambam explains that the mitzvah of "You shall fear Hashem your Elokim" (Devorim 6:13) — yiras Hashem — refers to fear of being punished by Hashem. We must use the simple fear of being punished as a shield to prevent us from sinning. Ahavas Hashem is insufficient.
Not only is there no contradiction between the objective and the means, on the contrary, since love of Hashem alone is inadequate to prevent a person from sinning he must use the means of "reward and punishment" to encourage him to properly fulfill the mitzvos. To the same degree that a person increases his love of Hashem, his fear of sinning — the "means" of preventing him from sin — increases also.
It is the same in reference to our avodas Hashem. We should surely not serve the Creator because of love of Olam Hazeh, chas vesholom, but we should refrain from sinning and fulfill the mitzvos correctly because of the knowledge that there is never any real challenge of Olam Hazeh versus Olam Habo. We are always being tested with the question of obtaining both worlds on one side of the scale and forfeiting both worlds on the other side. Our obtaining Olam Hazeh is, however, only a means to obtain Olam Habo.
End of Part I
