The Koach Ha’misaveh
The root of the Animal Soul is a raw, undirected desire. This is known as the Koach Ha’misaveh, the Faculty of Desire. This faculty doesn’t desire to commit sin, it just desires pleasure. However, this desire for pleasure is raw and intense, similar to the desire of an animal.
In contrast, while humans also experience desire, the intensity of this desire is normally moderated by intellect, ensuring that it is expressed in a controlled manner. This means that they don’t disregard conflicting obligations.
For instance, a wild predator, like a lion, will attack and kill prey without hesitation when hungry, acting purely on instinct. A human, on the other hand, even when extremely hungry, will often exercise restraint due to social norms, laws, and ethics. For example, in a famine or survival situation, a person might resist stealing food from another or resorting to extreme actions like cannibalism, even if it means suffering.
Thus, the Koach Ha’misaveh is an animal-like desire in that when it is fully expressed in the person, he can lose himself and forget about considerations dictated by the intellect.
In its essence, the Koach Ha’misaveh itself is not evil, because it can be directed towards G-dliness. It is simply a pure potential for intense desire. Therefore, it can be rectified.
Rectifying the Koach Ha’misaveh
What is evil is when the Koach Ha’misaveh assumes an evil form, whether an evil thought, speech, or action. One has then allowed one or more of the seven negative traits to be expressed in the form of a sin. This is the typical or default expression of the Koach Ha’misaveh.
The key to redirecting the Koach Ha’misaveh is Teshuvah, by reminding oneself of Hashem and how abandoning Him is “evil and bitter,” as explained.
When he reflects on this at length, and truly appreciates this to be true, and deeply regrets his sinful deeds, he uproots[1] his desire for those evil deeds and removes the negative spiritual energy that he brought down into the world through those sins.
This is the meaning of the command to banish the Seven Nations in our divine service.
Transforming the Koach Ha’misaveh
Once the person has pulled the Koach Ha’misaveh out of its expression in sinful behavior, he can then take its raw energy and transform it, so that the same intense desire that was once directed toward sin is channeled to desire G-dliness instead.
This is the meaning of the teaching of our sages that the reason that we are told “And you shall love Hashem with all your hearts,”[2] in the plural, is that we should love Hashem with our “two inclinations”—both the Good Inclination and the Evil Inclination,[3] for the Evil Inclination should also be inspired with love for Hashem. But how is it even possible for the Evil Inclination to love Hashem?
The explanation is that the essence of the Evil Inclination is the Faculty of Enticement (Koach Ha’meisis), which provokes the Koach Ha’misaveh so that the person feels a desire for something that he thinks will give him pleasure.
Normally the Evil Inclination provokes the Koach Ha’misaveh to entice the person to do evil, thinking that doing so will bring pleasure. However, by resisting this temptation and by uprooting the desire for sin through heartfelt Teshuvah, one creates the potential to use this power of enticement to instead awaken the Koach Ha’misaveh to desire G-dliness and holiness.
This is what the Talmud means when it explains that one should bring the Evil Inclination to love Hashem.
This is also the deeper meaning of the verse discussing the Messianic Era, “Then I [Hashem] will transform for the nations a pure tongue, that all will call upon the name of Hashem and serve Him with one purpose.”[4] Just as the nations will be transformed to serve Hashem, so can we transform our Evil Inclination to serve Hashem, as explained.
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[1] See Derech Mitzvosecha, Mitzvas Vidui U’teshuvah.
[2] Devarim 6:5.
[3] Berachos 54a. Sifri and Rashi on the verse.
[4] Zephaniah 3:9.
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