Hirsch on Sensuality

Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch Commentary on Chumash, book of Bereishit. 

 

Bereishit 4:6 And G-d said to Kayin: Why are you so distressed and why is your countenance fallen?

4:7 הֲלוֹא אִם תֵּיטִיב שְׂאֵת וְאִם לֹא תֵיטִיב לַפֶּתַח חַטָּאת רֹבֵץ וְאֵלֶיךָ תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ וְאַתָּה תִּמְשָׁל בּוֹ
Is it not so that if you improve, it will be forgiven you? If you do not improve, however, at the entrance, sin is lying, and to you is its longing, but you can rule over it.

When we examine all the verses in which רֹבֵץ occurs in connection with an animal, we do not find even one instance where this verb means “to lie in wait”.  Throughout Scripture, without exception, the רֹבֵץ rests in peace and tranquility, in quiet repose and security.  Similarly תְּשׁוּקָה does not denote the passion of hostility; rather, it always denotes exalted yearning, the devoted longing of love, אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְעָלַי תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ, “I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me (Shir Ha-Shirim 7:11), sings the Song of Songs. 

It is true that חַטָּאת, sensuality, appears here as masculine: רֹבֵץ. Do not underestimate its power.  It does have the power to rule over you.  Nevertheless, it lies quietly at the door, and will not enter by itself, uninvited.  If, however, you invite it in to sit at your table, it will feel at home with you and become your master.  But if you do not awaken sensuality, it lies quietly at the door.  What is more, its whole desire is that you should master it and guide it. G-d created the power of sensuality, not so that it should control you, but so that you should control it.  You are not to suppress it or kill it; rather, תִּמְשָׁל בּוֹ, rule over it and guide it.  That is its whole purpose and mission. When you master your sensuality, it achieves its purpose.  That is why “its longing is toward you.”

Sensuality’s desire to attain its purpose through subordination to man is expressed by Sages in a beautiful saying: יורד ומתעה ועולה ומרגיז (Bava Batra 16a) Sensuality is sent down by G-d to tempt human beings; and when they have yielded to its temptations, it ascends and complains before G-d.  For it did not tempt them so that they should succumb to it, but in order that they should overcome and master it in freedom.  This same view is expressed by rabbi Shimon in midrash Bereishit Rabbah (22:6) “If sensuality comes to entice you to sin, delight it with the words of Torah, as the Scripture says: “With your controlled sensuality you preserve peace”.  And if you do so, I will credit you as though you had created both worlds.  For שלום is written here not once but twice.  And if you should say that this is beyond your power, Scripture says ‘its longing is to be mastered by you’”.