Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

The Devil made me do it

We concluded our last Ma Nishma ‘Word of the week’ entry noting that it might best that we say no more regarding Satan, heeding the warning of our Rabbis: “Do not provide an opening (of the mouth) for Satan/שטן”. But, as you can see, I was compelled to say a bit more. “The Devil made me do it”.

The most significant biblical appearance of Satan, as an independently existing being, occurs in the book of Iyov/Job. With Satan appearing among/being of the “sons of God”, we find that it is the Lord himself who provides an opening for/invitation to him. “And the Lord said to Satan: ‘Have you considered my servant Iyov, for there is none like him in the earth, a faithful and upright man, fearing God and shunning evil’”.

As we know, Satan, with God’s permission/encouragement, goes on to severely test Iyov’s faithfulness. Not wanting Iyov to surpass the faithfulness of Avraham, the progenitor of our people, the Rabbis, present Satan as instigating God’s call to Avraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Here, as in the case of Iyov, Satan is depicted as conjuring up all means available, though with unsuccessful results, for Avraham to fail his test of fidelity.

This leads the commentator Rashi to read God’s words: “now I know that you revere God”, in not seeking to spare Isaac as an offering to Him, as “Now it is I who have an opening (of the mouth to Satan), a justification/reason to Satan for my love for you (Avraham)”. God only tries the just/gives an opening to Satan for His own over-riding purpose of shutting him up/out.

The Talmud relates that the great Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Akiva are almost led astray by Satan. While Satan does not meet with success, in seeking to allure them to transgress, he could be construed as delivering God’s message in the closing words of this tale: Satan said, “Had they not announced in heaven, ‘Be careful of Rabbi Meir/Rabbi Akiva and his Torah’, I would have made your life worth two ma’ahs” (equivalent to our “two cents”).

While a Torah-led life is presented as keeping Satan at bay, it is the opening words of this story that are most instructive: “Rabbi Meir/Rabbi Akiva used to scoff at transgressors”. Perhaps, it is being pointed out that these Rabbis underestimate the potency of Satan and/or need to be wary lest their own self-righteousness gets the better of them as it seems to have already done in blinding them to their responsibility of leadership. We later find the “maverick” Hasidic Rebbe, Rav Nachman of Bratslav, criticising the recognised Rabbinic authorities of his day, with the following words: “It was difficult for Satan alone to mislead the entire world, so he appointed rabbis in various communities.”

The Tale of these Rabbis might be suggesting that it is we, ourselves, who invite Satan in, by our words and/or actions. It, furthermore, might be asking us to consider wherein Satan truly resides.

Maimonides, the great Medieval philosopher and Rabbi, argued that the story of Iyov is not to be taken literally, even as “satan”, which, as previously noted, means “lead astray”, does not refer to an independently existing being. Citing the Talmudic sage, Reish Lakish, Maimonides in his Guide for the Perplexed, explains that satan represents the yester ha-ra, the evil inclination which inheres in each of us.

No embodiment of evil outside/independent of ourselves is to be held accountable for our being led astray. Responsibility and redemption lie with us. We must look to ourselves rather than declare “The Devil made me do it”.

(The word Devil derives from the Greek word diabolos, which was used as an equivalent for the Hebrew Satan, as we see in the Septuagint version/Greek translation of Sefer Iyov/The Book of Job).

“It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil.
If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men,
the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.”
Helen Keller