Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily, a project of SIMHA, the Sephardic Initiative for Mental Health Awareness. Dr. Katzenstein previously discussed a concept called the negativity bias, when see the bad. One of his examples was that this negative bias shows up when we look back at our accomplishments. Sometimes we want to commit ourselves to something, such as seeing things in a more positive way, but we say to ourselves, “Last time I tried to do something, it didn't work out.”
We only see the bad things and we see ourselves as bad.
Now, we can look at this and use a psychological term, negative bias, but it's hard to know when these concepts are psychological and when they also have a touch of spirituality in them as well. Sometimes these types of thoughts come from the Yetzer Hara.
We have, inside of us, an evil inclination whose job is to cause us to fall and be unsuccessful, and he might be driving our negative bias in order that we portray ourselves as evil.
How do I know this?
The Sefer Nefesh HaChaim, by the famous Rav Chaim of Volozhin, starter of Yeshivot, who knew human nature, discusses the different ways the Yetzer Hara gets a person (The Hovot Halevavot also has a section that describes how the Yetzer Hara tries to get to us).
He says, “Every day the Yetzer Hara comes up with new ideas.”
He quotes a Gemara in Kiddushin, that says the Yetzer Hara renews itself against the person every day, and he quotes the pasuk, “רק רע כל היום Rak Ra kol HaYom
He is only bad all day.”
Simply speaking, the Gemara means that every day the Yetzer Hara comes up with new ideas, as he is always out to get us. But the Nefesh HaChaim has a bit of a deeper understanding. He says it means the Yetzer Hara is coming up with new ideas. That means his old ideas were, ‘I'm going tell you to do something bad.’ But now he has a new idea. “I'm going start poking holes in the good that you do, telling you that the Torah that you learned, the Mitzvah that you did, has no good in it.”
All day he’s telling you, “You are no good,” and to focus on the bad.
This comes from Bereshit 6,5
וכל יצר מחשבת לבו
רק רע כל היום
and all the thoughts of his heart, it’s only bad all day
that’s what's going on inside of us. Now let's give a little background.
This pasuk shows up when we're introducing the Dor HaMabul/ generation of the flood. God sees how bad the people are, and all they're thinking about, and that everything they do is no good.
He changed his mind and he says, I'm going to wipe out man.
Rav Yosef Zalman Bloch from Monsey says something fascinating going on. The Torah is telling us that what's driving the Dor HaMabul was this Yetzer Hara of saying that you're no good, always seeing the negativity in yourself- not just the negativity in the outside world- but the negativity in yourself, and that causes you to eventually despair and give up and say, I'm no good. We have to realize that's what the Yetzer Hara is out to do.
He's only out to make us feel bad and make us look bad in our own eyes. Therefore, this negative bias, besides surely being something psychological, is also spiritually driven; it's the Yetzer Hara that wants to make us feel bad and get down and not take on any new initiatives, because we think we're just no good. And we have to be aware of that Yetzer Hara ability.
Have a wonderful day.