The Subconsious Yetzer Harah

The Gemara Succah (52A) states that the greater a man is the greater is his yetzer harah (evil inclination). The evil inclination refers to a persons base desires that his physical self craves. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter explains why the greater a man is the greater his yetzer harah has to be.

Rabbi Yisrael Salanter points out another Gemarah with the same idea. There is another Gemarah in Succah (52A) which states the following: "In the future world God will bring the yetzer harah and slaughter him in front of the righteous and unrighteous. To the righteous it will seem like a high mountain and to the non-righteous it will seem like a thin hairbreadth. They will both cry. The righteous will cry "How can we have conquered this great mountain" and the non-righteous will cry "How is it that we were not able to conquer this thin hairbreadth"

As mentioned previously the evil inclination is a persons animalistic desires. As physical beings our basic physical composition pushes and pulls us towards these animalistic tendencies. However, R' Yisroel Salantar theorizes that when we as humans suppress these desires they start working on our subconscious. Physical desires cannot be wished away or ignored in the long run. We need food, nourishment, sexual activity, etc. Our bodies do not and cannot differentiate between physical activities that are forbidden by the Torah and permissible physical activities. There is a spiritual element that forbids these forbidden activities that lie in a different sphere. As we suppress those activities, subconsciously we are needing them more and more.

It is well documentad that the need/want/desire that lies within the subconsious is much harder to overcome that something that lies in the consious mind. As a person suppresses these desires they are driven deeper and deeper into his subconsious.

The Gemarah that says that a greater person has a greater evil inclination is refering to the new subconsious need to fulfill his physical desires that are an outcome of his initial suppression. When the Gemarah refers to a "Great Person" the Gemarah means a person who has started on the path of suppressing his physical desires. This also explains why the rightous man is astounded by the fact that he overcame his yetzer harah and why the non-rightous man cannot believe that he had a problem with it. The rightous man overcame a subconsious desire while the other could not even overcome a consious need.

Now that we know that you cannot suppress a physical desire because it gets driven into the subconsious the question that remains is how to deal with it. The answer to that question is in the following Gemarah in Succah 52B there the Gemarah states "One who encounters his Yetzer Harah should take him (metaphorically meaning himself) to the Beth Hamedrash. The Gemarah is telling us that the only way to deal with his desire is in a spritual way. As we stated earlier the difference between forbidden and non forbidden desires can only be defined in the spiritual sphere so therefore if a person wants to overcome these forbidden desires he must use the spiritual tools at his disposal which are promised to rid his subconsious of the evil inclination