Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Jews believe that the world is G-d's creation and for this reason everything in it is essentially good. Each person has two impulses. The impulse to do good (the Yetzer Tov) and the impulse to do evil (the Yetzer Ra). The Yetzer Tov could be called the conscience. It is what guides them to decide whether to keep a mitzvah or to break it. The Yetzer Ra is not so much the desire to commit evil; it is the impulse to satisfy personal needs without the thought of wider consequences. Jews feel that these impulses are within us. They believe it is not the result of some external power, such as the Devil acting on us. We each have a free will to act in ways that we choose. One can either follow G-d's law or rebel and be influenced by Satan, who caused G-d's creation to go astray. Jews believe that G-d created the universe because he wanted to do good. So there had to be people to receive that good. But G-d does not want to just give away good as a present. G-d wants people to appreciate it. He wants them to work and deserve it. Something you get for free you do not appreciate. G-d decided that people would have to work for it, and receive the ultimate goodness as a reward for work. But what is the work? G-d created the Evil Inclina