OU Torah Insights Project

On the sixth day of Creation, after G-d created man, the Torah records that "G-d saw everything that He made - vehinei tov meod - and behold it was very good." G-d saw the completeness, the harmony that united everything that He had created.

The Midrash interprets this verse to mean that both the yeitzer hatov, man’s good inclination, and the yeitzer hara, man’s evil inclination, are part of the complete goodness of this world.

How can this be? How can the evil inclination be included in the statement, "vehinei tov meod"? After all G-d does not foist evil upon man.

In explaining the Midrash, Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, zt"l, taught that everything G-d created was good, not evil. When man makes use of the gifts G-d set forth on the earth in their proper manner, they are good. But when we take those gifts to the extreme, when we aren’t satisfied with good and try to make them very good, they can become evil.

Man’s physical desire to eat is good and necessary; but when he goes to one extreme or the other, either gorging himself or fasting, he plays into the hands of the yeitzer hara. In all avenues of life, when we overdo or overeat or overreact, when we turn tov into tov meod, we turn ourselves over to the yeitzer hara.

Man, said Aristotle, should not feel or express great joy or great sorrow, since neither extreme is beneficial for him. In contrast to Aristotle’s golden mean, which leaves man devoid of emotion, the Rambam understood that man needs to express great joy and great mourning in their proper times. Nevertheless, man must always be in control of these emotions.

When we view emotions from the Torah’s viewpoint, explains Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, zt"l, we cannot allow our emotions to run rampant. To sanction such behavior is to sanction excessive hate and self-abuse. The Torah requires us to control our emotions, not to squelch them. In mourning, we express sadness, but when Shabbos or the holidays arrive, we are required to limit our expressions of grief. The Torah commands us to regulate feelings of love, hate and sorrow. Emotions are only noble when controlled.

The Rambam, in describing the eitz hadaas tov vara - The Tree of Knowledge that knew good and evil - explains that the knowledge the tree offered was the gamut of human emotion and drive, giving man the potential to either do the will of G-d or to go against His will.

If we use this potential wisely, we will learn when to say when, practicing moderation in all areas of life and insuring that we settle for tov and do not chase after tov meod.