A great misconception has permeated among the Children of Israel, suggesting that a righteous person is a kind of emasculated, hunched over, timid individual. Is this what the Torah taught us? Read and see for yourself.
Know that our forefathers were in exile for two thousand years, and erroneous concepts from Christians intermingled with our culture.
And know that one of the most basic and fundamental concepts in Christian culture is extremely mistaken and childish, a perception of small-mindedness and of fools and ignoramuses.
But this perception is not a complete lie, of course, because a complete lie cannot exist in reality at all. Rather, in everything there must be a spark of truth. In this case, it's a half-truth, and the other half is a lie.
And so their perception goes:
There is an aspect of heaven which is good, and this is the aspect of beautiful, pure, clear things, etc “. And there is an aspect of earth which is the aspect of evil, and this is related to bad things, ugly, crude things, etc”.
And everything that is of the heavenly aspect in the world is under His control “, and what is below, things that from their perspective are crude like sexual relations, etc”., is considered under Satan's control.
Indeed, this is a perception that is half-truth, and the Torah proves it:
“See, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil… I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:15, 19)
From here we learn that indeed we can say that relative to heaven, the earth is unequivocally an aspect of evil. Therefore, there is no doubt that there is half-truth in their perception.
But there is also a verse that proves the other half that is missing from their eyes, and so it is written in the Torah:
“Know therefore this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.” (Deuteronomy 4:39)
And in Midrash Rabbah it is written:
“Rabbi Nachman bar Shmuel bar Nachman in the name of Rav Shmuel bar Nachman said: 'Behold, it was very good' – this is the good inclination, 'and behold, it was very good' – this is the evil inclination. And is the evil inclination very good? Astonishing! Rather, if not for the evil inclination, a man would not build a house, nor marry a woman, nor beget children, nor engage in commerce” (ibid. 9:7)
And from these two we learn that in fact, even the forces that in our eyes appear as “evil” and suffering, in His eyes are tools to bring us back to the right path and to merit us good life in the future to come.
That is, we understand that there is really only one authority and it is absolute good.
And the confusion in our Israeli world says that being righteous means being a kind of emasculated, hunched over, timid individual.
And know that such behavior is excellently suited for fools and ignoramuses, and not for the Children of Israel, sons of kings.
And so says R' Shabbetai Donnolo, a great sage, physician and astrologer
(in the ancient world, a physician who didn't know medical astrology is like a carpenter who doesn't know how to use a saw, and any rabbi or therapist who doesn't know astrology is greatly irresponsible, and the Gemara disparages him, but we won't elaborate on that here) from the year 913 CE, who wrote a medical book and also wrote a commentary on Sefer Yetzirah called “Hakhmoni”, which is a book that was accepted by the great ancient sages of Israel and is quoted, among others, by Rashi several times in the Gemara.
And these are the precious and sweet words written in the book Hakhmoni:
“He added to man a good inclination and an evil inclination for his benefit and his detriment, in order to test and try him between good and evil, and in order to desire to build and to plant and to tear down and to destroy and to uproot what is planted and to chastise and to strike and to kill and to devise thoughts and to amass silver and gold and to fight and to wage war to rule and to dominate to plunder plunder and to take spoil and to be exceedingly angry, for if He had not added the evil inclination to the good inclination, he would not engage in procreation because of the fear of death, and he would not desire to acquire possessions, and cattle, and he would not build buildings nor plant plantings nor sow, and he would not desire to do work, for he would say in his heart since the decree of death has been decreed upon me, why should I toil for another I have no desire in anything [meaning that after he dies he doesn't take anything with him and it's inherited by others], and the whole world would be lost and destroyed”.
And know that the evil inclination in the aspect of the animal soul part of it, that automatic part that contains needs and works on instincts, belongs to the planet Mars, about which the Scripture says in defective spelling “very good” (meaning it's not written מאוד but מאד) and know that this part is one of His tools, for He has the sefirah of Gevurah which is related to the planet Mars.
And so it is written “The LORD” is a man of war: “the LORD” is his name (Exodus 15:3)
And behold, Mars is the aspect of the lord of war, and therefore you see that His male aspect is also built from Mars, only that it is, of course, Mars of holiness.
And what shall we, the people of Israel, do with that evil inclination, that Mars?
Shall we castrate it according to the opinion of the Christians, whose priest becomes a “monk” abstaining from sexuality and if he didn't have children beforehand doesn't reproduce, or shall we use that inclination in a different way?
And the Torah provides an answer to this as well:
“And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.” (Exodus 4:2)
And I saw in the holy Zohar that the rod is an aspect of Yesod. And Yesod is an aspect of the serpent, and Moses, who controlled his inclination well, knew how to turn the serpent into a rod, and rod is another word for a distinguished family or seed, as they say 'the rod of Levi', 'the rod of their fathers' house'.
And from here we learn that we need to take that strong and healthy inclination and use that tremendous power in the right and intellectual way for good purposes according to the holy Torah.
And God forbid not to castrate this thing, neither mentally nor physically.
And on the contrary (meaning the opposite), it is written in the holy Zohar, Parshat Mishpatim, page 108, column 2 (translated to Hebrew):
“And so for generations He forbade castrating the creatures that the Holy One, Blessed be He, created in the world, for all castration is of the Other Side.”
Meaning that castration is from the Sitra Achra, from the side of evil, and therefore there is a commandment not to castrate any living being and not to offer castrated sacrifices before Him, blessed be He.
That is to say, every man needs to strengthen and improve his health and his strength and not castrate himself at all, this is an aspect of Sitra Achra, but on the contrary, to be strong and healthy for his material and spiritual affairs.
Meaning that this rod we need to strengthen it and control it and choose whether to incline it to the right or to the left.
