"For the shape of a man's heart is evil from his youth"

My Rabbi, of whom you have already heard, is moving to Chicago, to head up a yeshiva.  This is great news for him and I wish him the best!  Also, this leaves me without a potential mohel.  I have not broached the topic with him since the last time and I'm not sure if I will again.  This can become a major issue for me, as I have certain expectations and will only have someone that I trust fulfill this role.  Then again, there's a 50-50 chance that no mohel will be necessary; but, should one be, I will probably have other things on my mind in the first eight days of my son's life!

So I had my (sorta) weekly class with my Rabbi yesterday.  We have just been going over, line by line, the Hebrew bible (Tanach).  We only end up having 20 minute sessions, so we're not very far along.  Only the second parasha, following Genesis (the story of Creation): the story of Noah, with which everyone is surely familiar.  Some of the details may surprise you, but the basic outline of the story is well-known (for example, I, along with many others no doubt, assumed that the symbol of the olive branch for peace originates from this story. But going over it with the Rabbi, this appeared to make no sense.  A bit of googling revealed that this symbol is probably of Greek origin.  But I digress.)

So yesterday, my Rabbi and I got to the end of the flood, when the water subsided completely and Noah opened the ark and, along with his family (his wife, his sons and their wives), and all the animal specimens kept inside the ark, stepped on dry land.  Noah proceeded to prepare an offering to God of some of the animals (who did not go extinct as a result of this; another detail in the story which I will not get into) by burning them on the altar (those were different days than ours).  God found the scent rather pleasing and, being appeased by it, vows never again to curse the land nor smite every living being.  There is simply no point for "the shape of a man's heart is evil from his youth."  I'll stop for a second just to note the striking lyricism of this passage in Hebrew, for those of you who can read it: כי יצר לב האדם רע מנעוריו


Some of you can appreciate that some passages just do not carry the same force in translation.  Another striking passage, in the story of Cain and Abel, when God confronts Cain with the death of Abel He says "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the earth!" (All translations (adopted) from the Stone Edition).  This is clumsy, the Hebrew,
מה עשית קול דמי אחיך צועקים אלי מן-האדמה
comes at you at 100 miles an hour.

OK, so the Rabbi and I read this ("the shape of a man's heart is evil from his youth"), the Rabbi looks at me and asks, "Are you ready to be an educator?"  
"I'm not sure," I answer.  
"You're going to be one soon."
"OK"
"Do you have the tools to be an educator?"
"Hardly."
"OK then," he says, "give me one sec," and starts running around the study.  This is a pretty big room, lots of desks, chairs, a talmud session going on, a couple of other partners studying together.  He's looking for a book.  Looks over here, looks over there, has a chat with some fellow students, asks around, comes back.
"We don't have it!  How can we not have this book?  OK, I'll paraphrase for you."
I forget the particulars of this book.  It is some kind of commentary (obviously).

So the word translated as "shape" or "form", as in "shape (or form) of a man's heart" is yetzer, something like an inclination.  Yetzer ha-ra is an inclination for evil.  And he tells me, the Rabbi, that children have to be trained (his word), for they all come with this basic inclination.  Fair enough, but "trained"?  He goes on, in the tradition, and tells me a couple of entertaining stories told by his teachers.  The point of these is, sometimes being a disciplinarian is called for.  Sometimes, "because daddy said so," is the correct answer.  Why?  Because, if children do not hear this when they're young, they may well go astray, following their evil inclination.

My internalized reaction is to resist this approach, to view it as archaic (and perhaps typical in this case).  But, while the Tiger Mother may be extreme, tough love may sometimes be in order.  Or am I launching a culture war?

Now, in my own attempt to appease God, lest it be thought that I am not properly showing respect, I'll share with you this awesome song.