Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily, a project of SIMHA, the Sephardic Initiative for Mental Health Awareness. We started the week talking about freedom of choice, believing in the power to choose, and being proactive as the first step to change. Then we spoke a little bit about studies on animals like the elephant and the shark, and the animal within. Now I’d like to tie everything together.
The Chafetz Chaim asks, how exactly does Bechira/freedom of choice work? What exactly is the understanding and the psyche behind freedom of choice? How can you have two choices in front of you constantly?
He quotes an early Rishon, the Semag, the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol, that tells us that man is part animal and part angel. His physical side is an animal, and his intellectual side is an angel. So he's an angel riding on a horse, and therefore he is in a constant tug of war. Does he follow his angel or does he follow his horse?
That’s where our freedom of choice comes from-these two opposite forces that coexist inside of man, body, and soul, if you may.
This concept is very important. The Chafetz Chaim gives a mashal of the man that hired a coach with a horse to take him from point A to point B. The driver looked a little tired after a long day, so the man tells the driver, “Please be careful, keep your eyes on the road, and keep your eye on the horse.”
Sure enough, a few miles in, the driver takes a little nap, relying on his faithful horse. But the horse sees some grass on the side of the road, leans over to eat it, and everything goes toppling. The man who hired the driver asked what happened. The driver answered, “This is my trusted horse. He's been driving me for years,” to which the passenger replied, “A horse is a horse, and when he sees grass, he will go for it.”
So too, the Chafetz Chaim says, We have to remember that we always have, inside of us, that horse and when he sees the grass, he's going to go for it. And that's why we always have to hold the reins tight. And that's where our freedom of choice comes in. We have those two forces that coexist. So what is the deciding factor? What gives us the ability to make that decision? Rav Wolbe says that's where Ratzon comes in. Will power. When a person is on a diet, those are the most important two words. Will power means the power of will. I will to lose weight. I will not to eat, and I won't listen to the animalistic desire inside of me that wants to eat now. I won't pay attention to that. That's the first step, he says, towards teshuva.
Of course, we have to believe in freedom of choice. But how do you overcome your wants and desires? That's where we have to strengthen our willpower. We have to want very strongly to change. You have to want lose the weight in order to be successful at the diet. You have to want to exercise in order to keep your membership going at the gym.
How do you create the want? He says, the want starts with clarity of mind. If I realize how dangerous being obese is, or how dangerous high blood pressure is, that will get my will power going. My will to live will cause me to overcome and control those negative forces.
That is our emotional background to Teshuva.
We have to realize the need for change. We have to want the change, and that will give us the ability to control those forces inside of us, which we will call the animal inside of us, that needs to be controlled.
Look at the beauty of our Torah and the depth of its understanding. Where does freedom of choice come from? Freedom of choice comes from those two opposite forces that God put together in one person.
Have a wonderful day.