Rabbeinu Bachye (Devarim 29:18): It is also a well known fact that man's heart is the source of the existence of the body. His thoughts are like the branches, while his deeds are like the fruit of the tree. The Torah has stated (Genesis 6,5) that "all the thoughts of the wicked are about evil throughout the day." They will not cease producing evil and bitter fruit (Jeremiah 17,8). Even if all their thoughts are not carried out they are punished for their wicked thoughts . This is what Solomon meant when he said (Mishlei 15:13) "a happy heart makes for good face while a sad heart causes a pained spirit." The meaning of the verse is that one should not think that mere thoughts have no bearing on one's personality. If a person has a positive attitude he should not view thought as insignificant because joy and sadness are dependent on thought. If so that means that a persons thoughts reveal themselves through his body. It follows that you can understand the great reward if he rejoices with mitzvos and the great punishment if he rejoices in sin And thus the reward and punishment is proportional . This is also what the sages (Yoma 29) meant when they said that the thought of sins is more harmful than the sin itself. That is because the sinful thoughts, become deeds and also manifest themselves in the body.,which is not true of spontaneous sin consequently sinful thoughts are worse than spontaneous sin since you have sin together with thought as opposed to sin without thought This statement of our Sages is very valuable and there are many explanations and I only gave one while another explanation is that habitual thinking about sinning itself increases the likelihood of sinning. Another is that thinking about sin is more damaging spiritually because thought depends on the mind where the soul is located so he corrupts his mind with sinful thoughts this worse than the sin in which the mind is not involved. Another explanation is thinking about sin leads him to think of dealing with opposition to his committing the sin and will consider killing another person who tries to stop him so while he might have initially thought of breaking into a house to steal or commit adultery he is now thinking about murder. You might therefore have a question. How can the Torah punish a thought which is not carried out since it is impossible to control or stop evil thoughts? – so why be punished?
No coherent answer or explanation here
ReplyDeleteThe basic premise - bad thoughts lead to bad deeds and therefore are worse - seems cogent. However, I could offer a chasidish counterpoint and claim that bad thoughts are good because they force you to do teshuva so the more bad thoughts, the more teshuva you get to do.
ReplyDeleteHow does this mesh with the other maxim - if you see a Talmid chacham sinning, be sure he has done teshuva the next day.?
ReplyDeleteyou are misquoting the gemora!
ReplyDeleteYes, I had learned of this concept on here via another commentor
ReplyDelete"if you see a Talmid chacham sinning, be sure he has done teshuva the next day."
and
"If you see a scholar who has committed an offense by night, do not cavil at him by day, for perhaps he has done penance. ‘Perhaps’, say you? —Nay, rather, he has certainly done penance."
Thank you for the complete quote and reference.
there is no commentary on this Gemara from the rishonim -
ReplyDeletealso, anyone who is frum or davens, will have done teshuva in the morning, so why is this honor bestowed only to Talmidei Hachamim?
Again, it appears, at least on its plain meaning, as self-serving halacha.
An Am haaretz who sins is mocked and booed, but this is essentially a blank cheque to sin. Of course who am i to make any comment on the Gemara, i am a low piece of dust, and not worthy of thinking. OK, I will call the local brothel and do teshuiva in the morning...