In my Yom Kippur Article I wrote about the two operating systems that govern us: the heroic operating system and thedefensive, instinctual one. It goes without saying that we can master our heroic system. We can dominate our instinctual system, ouryeitzer harah, with our heroic system, our yeitzer hatov. Lead By Greatness (now due out by Mid-November IY"H) will provide methodology to do this. But can we also improve our instinctual systems? Can we so to say, rewire our instinct and elevate it? The Rambam says we can and this week's parsha shows how even animals can rewire their instincts!
In the beginning of the Rambam's Hilchos Dei'os, he describes how we can achieve the golden mean of behavior by practicing the extremity opposite of the behavior we are trying to change. If a person is stingy, they should practice extreme generosity for a period of time and then they will find a comfortable place at the golden mean between financial discipline and generosity. Two things are puzzling about the Rambam's methodology of behaviorist therapy:
- If we are talking of behaviors that are required of us, that aremitzvos, then we should be able to make choices and exercise our bechira as with any other mitzvah without going through an extended behavioristic process. Whenever we are confronted with a choice, we are free to choose, this applies both to ritualmitzvos and to middos (behavior). Where else do we see a process of conditioning ourselves in order to keep a mitzvah?
- If halacha requires that we live at the golden mean, where does the Rambam get the halachik authority to permit us to voluntarily live at an extremity, albeit temporarily and for educational purposes?
On reflection it seems that the Rambam's advice is not for people making a balanced choice. The Rambam is addressing the breaking of a habit or addiction. How do you break the addiction to bad behavior? Once a behavior becomes a habit, it is no longer part of the heroic system. When a behavior is a habit it is wired into our systems and becomes part of our instinctual reactions not our value-choices. It is in these cases that the Rambam innovates the idea that even wired behaviors, habits and addictions can be modified through behaviorist processes. By practicing a behavior at the opposite extreme of a habit, the habit can be broken and the individual can again free him or herself to choose the golden mean.
From where does the Rambam take a precedent for this? Where in the Torah does the Rambam see behavior modification by practicing the opposite extreme, as an acceptable way to break an addiction and modify ones habitual conduct?
There is a remarkable comment of R. Yochanan in Sanhedrin 108b that has perplexed countless commentators. Commenting on the fact that the animals exited Noah's Ark "grouped in families", R. Yochanan says only two words: "Veloh Heim" (They were not them.) What could he mean?
The Meshech Chochmah [1] (Bereishis 8:19) explains that the animal world transformed in the Ark; the animals that emerged were not the same species as those that went into the Ark. In the worldview of the Torah, individual people and animal species are defined not only by their physical characteristics but also by their habitual behavior. In this sense, the animals before the flood bore little behavioral resemblance to those after the flood. When Noach loaded his Ark the animal world had been corrupted too and bred across its species, an activity akin to adultery in human terms. For a year the animals were completely separated from females of their or other species. Additionally they had to be satisfied with meager rations and they had to subject themselves to the disciplines imposed on them by Noach and his family. The result of this disciplined life was a behavioral transformation that impacted the animal world for all time. They emerged from the Ark grouped in families (Bereishis 8:19) and accepted to remain faithful to their own species for all time (Rashiibid.) - they were transformed. This is the meaning of R. Yochanan's comment: "Veloh Heim" (They were not them.)
Here we see the source of the Rambam's behavioral therapy process! It is possible and recommended by the Torah to free ourselves of corrupted behavior even when such behavior has become as engrained in us as an animal's instinct. It can take a year of hyper-discipline to rewire our instinctual operating systems and return them to the authenticity with which they were created. If animals can do it so can we.
[1] Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk' (1843-1926)
