In the annual cycle of Jewish observances commemorating the destruction of the First Temple, the fast of the Tenth of Tevet marks the earliest point of the narrative. According to biblical tradition (Ezekiel 24:1), this is the day the siege began that led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple seven months later. The fast is an important reminder that most disasters do not happen in one dramatic moment, but as the culmination of a long process of natural occurrences and human choices.
The prophet Ezekiel demonstrates such attentiveness to process in a prophecy he offered about three years before the siege (Ezekiel 8:1). In his vision, he is taken to Jerusalem and shown the sins of the people and the idolatry they practice even within the Temple. The prophecy culminates in a vision of the divine chariot leaving the Temple (Ezekiel 11:22-25), leading us to understand that the building that was torched a few years later was an empty shell. God’s presence had left the Temple long before.
In Jewish thought, the Temple is not only a historic building, but a symbol of the innermost connection to the divine. What transpires within its walls is an archetype for processes that also unfold in the human soul. The same dynamics Ezekiel describes in the Temple are, in the Zohar’s imagination, present in the psyche.
Rabbi Yehudah opened: “Desist from humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils — of what worth are they?” (Isaiah 2:22)
This verse has been explained before, but still – what is the meaning of “desist from humans”? Is this a warning to stay away from other people? Should everyone do this, and people never be with each other? … Rather, here the holy, blessed One commanded and warned people to be careful of those who have been misled from good to evil, who defile themselves on a different path, the path of impurity. For when the holy, blessed One created humans, they were created in a divine image, and the One breathed into them a holy soul, consisting of the three parts we know – nefesh, ru’ah and neshamah .…
But if you take this holy soul into “other” service, you defile it and abandon your Master’s service.
Isaiah 2:22 is a call for people to trust in God rather than in fleeting human power. But the Zohar reads the word “desist” as a call to distance oneself from people who have defiled their divine soul by serving other forces, forces that contradict holiness. Like the presence of God in the Temple, the divine breath, the holy soul of a person, can be forced out, leaving a dark and empty shell behind.
But how to identify those who are defiled? The Zohar continues:
You can know a person by their anger, which will tell you who they really are. If a person can protect the holy soul even when they are angry, so that it is not uprooted from its place, so that a “foreign god” does not take its place, this is a worthy person. This is a person who serves their Master, a person of complete [devotion]. But if a person does not protect the soul, if they uproot that supernal holiness from its place, and bring in the “other-side” instead, that person has rebelled against their Master and it is forbidden to be close or to connect with them. Of this person it is said – “You, who tear yourself in anger” (Job 18:4). This person has torn out and uprooted their soul because of their anger, and taken in a “foreign god” instead.
In the beginning of this paragraph, it seems that anger might be the identifier of a person who has lost their soul, but by the end it is clear that it is the failure to control one’s anger that uproots the soul of holiness from within a person. In the Zohar, the term “other side,” the Sitra Achra, refers to the shadow side of divinity, a dark reflection of the holy and good, encompassing all that is evil and wrong in the world and within humans. To allow tools of evil, such as anger, into your soul is to serve the foreign gods so frequently warned of in the Torah. The identification of anger with idolatry is already taught in the Talmud (Shabbat 105b), which applies the verse “there shall be no foreign God within you” (Psalm 81:10) to a person who does not control their anger. But unlike in the Temple, where idol worship pushes the divine presence out, in the Zohar it is anger that supplants holiness. When a person gives in to anger, they turn their body into a temple for the foreign god of anger.
It is important to note that the appearance of anger does not always mean that the divine soul is expelled. The Zohar has great admiration for a person who can protect their soul connection even when experiencing anger. It is the person who is controlled by anger that risks destroying their soul. And while there is a way back from such tendencies, it is neither easy nor guaranteed.
You might think that this is a temporary state, that you transgressed, but then you came back … this is not the case. Once you uproot the holiness of your soul from its place and from yourself, and the foreign god occupies its place, it holds on strongly and will not leave you. It is only if a person totally cleanses themselves of this foreign god and totally uproots it, and then works on reclaiming sanctity and drawing holiness upon themselves – then, maybe they can reclaim holiness … This is the meaning of the verse: “Desist from humans, who have but a breath (neshamah) in their nostrils (be’apo)” for this person has exchanged their Master’s sanctity (neshamah) with their anger (b’apo). “– of what (bameh) worth (neḥshav) are they?” they are as (neḥshav) a platform for idolatry (bamah).
Rabbi Yehudah finishes with a series of wordplays. The Hebrew word for nostrils, af, is also the word for anger. And with a subtle vowel change, the Hebrew word meaning “of what worth,” bemah, becomes bamah, meaning platform for idolatry. The verse from Isaiah thus becomes a warning to beware of a person who has traded their soul for anger, turning their body into a temple for a terrible, foreign god.
Taken together, Rabbi Yehuda’s teaching and the Tenth of Tevet remind us that both people and institutions can continue to function after being corrupted from within, but that being hollowed out in this way will ultimately lead to destruction. Both are calls for vigilance against the service of “other gods” slipping into our national, institutional and personal lives. They remind us that the further we continue down destructive paths, the more difficult it is to turn back.
This piece was originally published as part of A Year of Zohar: Kabbalah for Everyone, an original series produced by My Jewish Learning and Sefaria. Sign up for the entire series here.
