Beth Shalom
Seventh-day Adventist

Written by Paul Lippi

Our Torah portion publicly read in synagogues around the world this week, is parashat noach. Parashat noach runs from Genesis 6:9 to 11:32. Parashat noach tells of the flood by which God destroyed his creation. The conditions which precipitated the precipitation are described a few verses before the start of our parasha back in Genesis 6:5, 6.

“HaShem saw that the evil of humanity on earth was very great, and every impulse of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all day long. Therefore HaShem repented that he had made the humanity on earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”

After the surviving remnant of creation disembarks from the ark, our parasha records God’s response to Noach’s offering. Genesis 8:21.

“HaShem smelled the satisfying smell, and HaShem said to himself, ‘Never again will I curse the ground on account of humanity, for the impulse of humanity’s heart is evil from his youth. Never again will I smite every living thing as I did.’”

I’m particularly interested in that word translated “impulse” in these first chapters of our Torah. The word translated “impulse” is yetzer. The corresponding verb occurs back a few chapters in the creation story. The verb yatzar is translated “to form” in English. Genesis 2:7.

“vaiyitzer and HaShem God formed the man of dust from the ground, and inflated his nostrils with the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.”

The psalmist clearly alludes to the formation of humanity when he declares that God knows our impulse, that he is mindful we are dust. Psalm 103:13-14.

“As a father loves his children, so HaShem loves those who fear him. For he knows our yetzer, our impulse, he is mindful that we are dust.”

God knows our impulse so well, because he himself formed it of dust from the ground! That impulse can be transformed by the One who formed it. For this reason King David prayed for God to direct our hearts toward himself. 1Chronicles 29:18.

“HaShem God of Avraham, of Yitzchak, and of Israel our fathers, keep this forever in the impulse of the thoughts of the heart of your people, and direct their heart toward yourself.”

Friday evening July 4, 1982 I turned in early for some Shabbat rest in my dorm room. Before midnight a sergeant burst in screaming that everybody in artillery was being called up. The commotion had just died down when students belonging to armored units were also rudely tumbled out of bed. The engineers’ turn was next. Somebody turned on the kitchen radio. I understood only nonsense expressions like “listening ear” and “grapes of wrath,” but students in the know strapped on web gear and hitched rides to rendezvous points. Girl MPs banged on my door demanding, “Are you deaf? What are you still doing in there?” By sunup, I was the only kid left in the building (I’m not an Israeli citizen, so I wasn’t mobilized). The invasion of Lebanon started the next night.

Everybody assumed the invasion would cost many Israeli lives. The Syrians had the advantage in tanks, in artillery, in planes, and in manpower. They had ringed the Beqaa Valley with the heaviest concentration of antiaircraft missiles anywhere on earth. But Wednesday July 9 we learned that superior weaponry alone doesn’t make a winner.

The fourth day of the war the Israelis sent unmanned drones over the Beqaa Valley which mimicked the radar profile of attack aircraft. It was enough to fool the Syrians into activating their acquisition radars, which gave away their positions. They then wasted all their ready missiles chasing those drones all over the sky. While the Syrians were busy reloading the launchers, the real Israeli planes showed up. They released radar-homing missiles, which took out the Syrian radars. Other tiny drones, no bigger than model airplanes with cameras, spotted the launchers, and Israel artillery took them out. Out of the 19 antiaircraft batteries in the Beqaa Valley, 17 were out of action within minutes.

The Syrians then launched their manned fighters. But the Israeli AWACS planes had the Syrian fighters on their radar from start to finish. This allowed them to set up ideal shots. Although the MIGs had front and rear radars, they didn’t enjoy 360º degree coverage. The Israel AWACS positioned their fighters to launch their air-to-air missiles into the blind spots of the MIG’s threat-warning radar. Frequently, the Syrian pilots didn’t even know they’d been engaged until they were hit. 29 MIGs downed with zero losses on the Israeli side! The next day the Israelis located and eliminated those last 2 remaining antiaircraft batteries, and the Syrians lost another 35 MIGs in the air. Zero losses on the Israeli side! It turned out to be one of the most lope-sided dogfights in history. And everybody in my dorm block got back in time for final exams!

Let me reiterate. Superior weaponry is not enough. In order to be effective, weapons need to be directed. Even very powerful weapons are no advantage if they’re not on target. Thoughts are no exception. Thoughts need to be aimed. We need to ask God to direct our thoughts.

We needn’t be dominated by random thoughts or unwanted thoughts. The God who created the impulse of the thoughts of the heart, is capable of directing it toward himself. If we, like King David, specifically ask God to direct our thoughts, we can be sure that this is a request he will grant. The Final Portion of Scripture, just like the Hebrew Bible, assures us that God is capable of directing hearts. 2Thessalonians 3:5.

“But HaShem will direct your hearts in the love of God and in the patient endurance of the Mashiach.”

Anybody who handles a weapon effectively requires training and regular practice. Professional soldiers, no matter how much combat experience they accrue, train throughout their careers. Those Israeli pilots who made air superiority look like an air show had been secretly training for months on a full-scale mock-up of a Syrian antiaircraft battery. The ground crews had trained until they could refuel, service, rearm, and get a plane back up in ten minutes. According to Rav-Aluf Raful, the architect of the Israeli victory over the Beqaa Valley, quote,

“Training is of greater importance than the means of warfare, than the weaponry systems, than the technology.”

Unquote. So how do we become proficient in the use of spiritual weapons? I want to suggest a few exercises. The first is prayer. Prayer enables us to think in the right direction. Prayer aims our thoughts. Philippians 4:6-8.

“Do not worry about anything, but in everything in prayer and in supplication with thanksgiving make known your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every mind, will keep your hearts and thoughts in Yeshua Mashiach. The remainder, brothers. Whatever things are true, whatever things are worthy, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are amiable, whatever things are of good repute, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, consider these things.”

There’s a causal relationship in Philippians chapter 4 between God keeping your thoughts and the sort of thoughts you choose to entertain. Obviously, God has no interest in preserving your vindictive thoughts, your impure thoughts, your envious thoughts or your selfish thoughts. God will only keep thoughts that are worth keeping: “whatever things are true,” worthy, just, pure, amiable, of good repute.

Why then does Philippians 4:6 instruct us to “make known your requests to God?” What is it that prayer actually accomplishes? Obviously, God’s already on top of the news; God doesn’t need a peek to know what’s on my wish list; God doesn’t need reports from the likes of me in order to manage his world. And I’m utterly incapable of presenting him with anything in the way of original suggestions!

Prayer is much more than the communication of information. Prayer is opening up to a Friend who knows me intimately and loves me infinitely. In prayer I acknowledge that God is sovereign in my life; I submit my thoughts and plans for his evaluation; I ask that he should displace whatever thoughts and plans of mine are not in harmony with his. If my life is to be lived in response to the discerning love of God, what is more natural than for me to lay my desires at his feet? Prayer prepares me to receive what God knows is best for me. Through prayer God directs my heart.

Another exercise by which we become proficient in the use of spiritual weapons is to think God’s thoughts. Although God’s thoughts are immeasurably higher than our thoughts, because we are created in his image and likeness, we can think his thoughts after him. We can have the privilege of contact with the mind of God. God rules his vast universe by thought, and he has given us access to his thought. Torah is God’s invincible thought expressed in human language. The way to think God’s thoughts is to mediate on his Torah. When the Psalmist describes the lifestyle of the privileged, he says,

“His delight is in HaShem’s Torah and on his Torah he meditates day and night.” [Psalm 1:2]

What does the Psalmist mean by meditation on the Torah? Meditation means asking questions. When we read Torah we need to ask is there an issue here that touches me? Is there an encouraging word here for my friend? Is there an example here for me to follow? Is there a command here for me to obey? Is there a sin here for me to confess? Is there a reason here for me to thank God? Meditation means we read the Torah like we read no other book.

Meditation also means we think through the situations which God addresses in the Torah. We play through the possibilities: why did God handle this particular situation this way? What was God seeking to accomplish at this juncture? Meditation means we use our imagination. Mediation means we reason from the evidence. Meditation means we don’t only go through the Torah; we take time for the Torah to go through us. Through meditation we learn to view people and their challenges as God views them.

Scripture describes God’s thought in terms of a powerful weapon. Hebrews 4:12.

“For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any two-mouthed sword, piercing to the separation of self and breath, of joints and marrow, a discerner of ideas and intentions of the heart.”

Mediation on the Torah is familiarization with that invincible weapon. Simply stated, anybody who thinks God’s thoughts is going to have victory. The General of the Conquest instructed Israel in the use of this potent weapon. Joshua 1:9.

“This scroll of the Torah shall not cease from your mouth, and you shall meditate on it day and night, in order that you might observe to do according to all that is written in it. Then you shall make your way shall succeed and you shall be smart.”

What you keep in your mouth will eventually lodge in your brain. This is why Scripture songs have so much to contribute to our spiritual life. This is why in synagogue Torah is never merely read, but always chanted. Repeating the Torah with memorable music helps us remember the message. If you bring the weapon to bear on target, right thinking will prevail over wrong thinking.

A third spiritual exercise by which God directs our thoughts is sharing his love with others. We often mistakenly suppose that our faith and understanding have to be perfectly developed before we can be competent witnesses. But in the divine order of things that order is reversed. God sends witnesses with imperfect faith in order to grant them the incomparable experience of knowing him. Isaiah 43:10.

“‘You are my witnesses,’ oracle of HaShem, ‘and my servants whom I have chosen. In order that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed; and after me none will be.’”

Notice the order. First “you are my witnesses.” Next “in order that you may know and believe and understand.” In spiritual warfare, practice comes before theory. That experience of conveying it to someone else, is precisely what makes God’s love so real in my own mind. I increase my faith by giving it away. I raise my level of commitment by letting another human being know what God has done in my life. First you witness. Afterward you know and believe and understand. You do it; then you understand it.

When the children of Israel stood at Sinai to enter into the covenant with God, they promised,

“Everything that HaShem says, we will do and hear.” [Exodus 24:8]

Certain readers have taken this as an indication that Israel was hasty, or too scared to think straight, or presumptuous for signing without reading the fine print. But in this instance the children of Israel got it exactly right. First you do what God says, then you are in a position to understand what God says.

We see this same principle at work in the great commission of Jesus’ disciples. Matthew 28:16-20.

“The eleven disciples came to Galilee, to the mountain which Yeshua had designated to them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. When Yeshua came he said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth is given me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the Gentiles, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all things that I have commanded you. Behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age.’”

Jesus doesn’t say, “Everybody with doubt, step aside! My most important mission is reserved exclusively for true believers.” No, Jesus sends doubting disciples out to teach other students everything he has taught them. Jesus knows that in the very act of sharing with others, the confidence of his disciples will be immeasurably strengthened. There’s no better way to learn a lesson well than to teach it to somebody else.

We all recognize that thoughts lead to action. But you and I are wired a little fancier than that. It works the other way around too. The Creator made us so that actions lead to thoughts. Verbal affirmation of God’s truth has a way of redirecting our thoughts. That’s just the way you and I were put together. This is a critical mechanism for aiming thoughts, which everyone serious about winning needs to be aware of: telling someone else what God has done for you will transform your own mindset.

When Israel’s sages came to the commandment to love HaShem your God with the whole heart, they took what parashat noach says into serious consideration. Israel’s sages considered the impulse of humanity’s heart. At the end of the Mishna tractate on blessings, the sages interpret the commandment to love God with the whole heart.

“A man ought to bless over evil things the same as he blesses over good things. As it says in Scripture, ‘And you shall love HaShem your God with your whole heart, with your whole self, with your whole strength.’ ‘With your whole heart,’ this means with both your impulses, with your good impulse and with your evil impulse.”

The written Torah says nothing about the good impulse, but the rabbis figured if we have an evil impulse of the heart, then we must also have a good impulse of the heart.

The rabbis’ idea, that you should love God with both your good impulse and your evil impulse, may take a little getting used to. But think a moment of how God loves us. God created us as whole persons and he loves us as whole persons. Now we all have our good impulses and our evil impulses. We all have our propensities to good and our propensities to evil. In fact, everything I do is motivated by a mixture of good and evil impulses. Few of my good deeds are entirely pure and unselfish. Few of my bad deeds are entirely beyond redemption. As a human being, my motives are mixed.

When I do good deeds, they are incorporated into me. When I commit evil deeds, they are incorporated into me. My character is formed by the sum total of everything that I’ve ever done in my lifetime, good and evil deeds. You know character is not what we are; character is not some abstract quality we can possess; character is how what we’ve done has imprinted on us.

Some theologians have suggested that God hates the sin, but loves the sinner. In my opinion, this suggestion misses the point, because God loves us as a whole persons. God does not love me as some kind of abstraction. If God were to eradicate my past, I wouldn’t be me. If God were to love only the good deeds I’ve done, he wouldn’t be loving me. I cannot be broken down into sin and the sinner, because I am what I’ve done!

The marvel of redeeming love is that God loves the real me, the whole me, the me who is comprised of bad deeds as well as good deeds, the me who is the consequence of bad choices as well as good choices.

Having considered how God loves us, we can maybe appreciate how we ought to love him: with our whole heart. This in fact is the only way we can love him. We cannot love God with half our heart. Loving him with our whole person means being in touch with our evil impulse, despite the risk.

Our evil impulse however, must be harnessed by the yoke of the commandments. Our potentially destructive impulses: anger, ambition, sexuality, acquisitiveness, are among the most powerful of human motivations. If we give into these impulses without inhibition, they’ll lead us into selfish misery. If we repress these impulses, we’ll be less than whole persons, we’ll deny our humanity, we’ll be guilty of effacing God’s image. But if these impulses are directed and disciplined in God’s service, they can accomplish great things.

Israel’s sages understood that in this present world both the good impulse and the evil impulse of the heart are necessary for survival. At the end of the sixth day, the day God created humanity, Genesis 1:31 tells us,

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, there was morning, the sixth day.”

The sages hung their insight onto the wording, where it says “and behold,” where we might have expected it to merely say “behold.” I quote Breshit Rabba.

“Said Rabbi Nachman son of Shmuel son of Nachman in the name of Rabbi Shmuel son of Nachman: ‘Behold it was very good’ — that’s the good impulse. ‘And behold it was very good’ — that’s the evil impulse. Can it be that the evil impulse is very good? That’s strange! But if it weren’t for the evil impulse, nobody would build a house, nobody would get married, nobody would have children, nobody would haggle in the marketplace.”

That’s the end of the quotation from Breshit Rabba.

Let us, by way of obedience to his commands, allow our Creator to transform our evil impulse into something which he can pronounce useful and good, like all the rest of his wonderful creation.