Rabbi Elazar haKappar said: “Hakin’a vehata’avah vehakavod motzi’im es ha’adam min ha’olam – Envy, inordinate desire, and [the search for] glory remove a man from the world.” (Pirkei Avos 4:28, translation from Bunim’s Ethics from Sinai.)
Ta’ava, inordinate desire or lust, is one of the three things which take man out of the world.
First, what is ta’avah? Ta’avah is an overpowering desire or craving. In the Chumash, the first two places in which the word ta’avah occurs are related to a lust for food. In the story of the Garden of Eden, Eve is tempted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Her desire for the food is described as “ta’avah hi l’aynayim,” (translated as “a delight to the eyes”). (Genesis 3:6) Ta’avah is again used in relation to food in Bamidbar. Bnai Yisrael are ready to begin the march to Eretz Yisrael, when the people begin complaining about missing the foods they had in Egypt. This event leads to a plague, is a source of great anger to Moshe Rabbeinu, and is the first of a number of incidents that prevent Bnai Yisrael from going directly into Eretz Yisrael. The place where the incident occurred is called Kivros-hata’avah, because “there they buried the people who had been craving (mis’avim).” (Numbers 11:34)
How does ta’avah take man out of the world? And which world? Perhaps the simple meaning is that it takes man out of the World to Come, by leading to sins and away from doing mitzvos. In the two incidents described above, ta’avah literally took the people involved away from a holy place. It led to Adam and Eve being taken out of the Garden of Eden. It led to Bnai Yisrael not being able to enter Eretz Yisrael directly. It interferes with movement forward, and it denies us the ability to live a life of kedusha (sanctity). “Kadesh atzmecha bemutar lach – Sanctify yourself with what is permissible to you.” Rav Avodiah miBartenura lists eating first when he defines ta’avah. Eating is something we have to engage in every day, so that the temptation to eat more has to be dealt with day in and day out.
But ta’avah takes man out of this world as well. We all know that obesity predisposes one to diabetes, heart disease, and a number of other illnesses. It can literally shorten our lives here. Another interpretation offered is that ta’avah escorts you throughout your life; it is exceedingly difficult to get rid of and can be your companion until the end. It also puts one in a surreal state, in a mindset that can justify indulging and overindulging, without regard for the this-worldly or next-worldly consequences. In this mindset our good inclination is easy to subdue.
Our unquenchable desires are supposed to have a positive effect on us as well. Our longing to be close to Hashem and to attain spiritual goals is supposed to be unquenchable, and our physical cravings are unsuccessful attempts to satisfy our neshama (soul) when it is so hungry in the spiritual realm. If we can internalize this concept, it can show us how capable we are at desiring things and allow us to channel some of this desire into a spiritual realm.
So, how do we deal with ta’avah? In his commentary on Pirkei Avos, Rav Yisrael Meir Lau has an interesting discussion related to our mishna. He cites Sukkah 52b, which says that the way to deal with ta’avah is to starve it, since feeding it only stimulates further hunger. But this is not the whole picture. Chazal were keenly aware of our necessity in this world to come to terms with desires, not by rejecting them outright, but by learning to control them. The same Rabbi Elazar HaKappur, author of the mishna above, also provides a view that modulates it. In Ta’anis 11a, he explains that the reason a nazir has to bring a sin offering on completion of his period of nezirus is because he denied himself wine.
Rabbi Elazar makes a kal vachomer (inferring from a minor to a major thing): “If this man who denied himself only wine is termed sinner, how much more so is he who denies himself the enjoyment from many different things?” So, our role in this world is not to deny the physical but, rather, to direct it using our spiritual natures.
In Rav Eisemann’s beautiful shiurim on Koheles (diggingdeeperjewish.org), he brings a beautiful mashal (parable) that can be helpful here. The tzitzis represent the ideal relationship of materialism and spirituality. The material world (the world “under the sun” in Koheles) is like the beged, the rectangular garment to which tzitzis are attached. The beged represents the limitations of physicality. It is constrained and bound by strict corners. Man leading a physical life is stuck in the repetitive nature of the material world and cannot escape from his desires. The tzitzis, the fringes that attach to the edges of the garment, represent the spiritual world; they extend past the confines of the physical world and allow one to modulate the physical world and its desires with one’s spiritual nature. The gemara in Menachos tells of a man who went to visit a harlot in a faraway land. When he was about to approach her, his tzitzis hit him in the face and he turned away and left. Our neshama can give us the ability to rule over our otherwise limitless physical drives.
I spoke with Rabbi Eli Glaser about the difficulty a person has in feeling satisfied (soveya). He and his wife are certified nutrition, wellness and weight-management consultants, and head an organization called Soveya, dedicated to helping people lose weight and acquire a different perspective on eating. His approach is that we may be misreading our cravings for food. He gave an example: If someone has chest pain, it can mean he is having heartburn or a heart attack. If a person misinterprets the pain, he will seek the wrong treatment, and may suffer dire consequences. Similarly, our ta’avah for food is not synonymous with hunger or our need for food. We are misinterpreting the ta’avah as a need rather than just a want. A person has to acquire an understanding of what his body needs, and reinterpret the ta’avah so that he responds properly. Rabbi Glaser says that seviya, being satisfied, is a learned skill that can be acquired.
My seven-year-old grandson recounted a story his rebbe told him: There was a man who could not stop eating. He went to his rav, who told him to check his mezuzas. When he did so, he discovered that in the second paragraph of Shema, instead of reading “ve’achalta vesavata – you will eat and be satisfied,” it read “ve’achalta ve’achalta – you will eat and eat.” Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could curb our ta’avos so easily! But we can at least become more aware of them and of their impact in removing us from this world and the next.
Janet Sunness is medical director of the Richard E. Hoover Low Vision Rehabilitation Services at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. She gives lectures on Tanach, on Judaism and women, and on other topics in the Baltimore area. She welcomes your feedback (jsunness@gmail.com) © Janet Sunness 2014
