Why God Made the Evil Inclination and Rewards Each Effort

If you say: Why did the Holy One, blessed be He, create the evil inclination? Behold, He already has nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand myriads of ministering angels who sanctify His great name every day; from sunrise until sunset they say, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3), and from sunset until sunrise they say, "Blessed is the glory of the LORD from His place" (Ezekiel 3:12). And when the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself on Mount Sinai to give the Torah to His people Israel, He revealed Himself with two hundred and forty-eight thousand angels who constantly serve before the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, "The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them, Sinai is in holiness" (Psalms 68:18). Rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, created the evil inclination only for the sake of flesh and blood, who eats and drinks like a beast and excretes like a beast, yet comes to serve the Holy One, blessed be He. They told a parable. To what may this be compared? To a king who had servants, and they sat on the far side of an iron wall, and the king would proclaim to them and say: Whoever fears me and loves me, let him climb over the iron wall and come to me; and whoever climbs over the iron wall surely fears the king and loves the king, and whoever does not climb over surely does not fear the king and does not love the king. Of those who climbed the wall and those who did not climb, which of them is more beloved? You must say, those who climbed the wall. And what is the reward of those who climbed over the wall? See what is said of them: "And the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel" (Exodus 24:17). But concerning the righteous, what is said of them? "And those who love Him shall be like the going forth of the sun in its might" (Judges 5:31) -- which is not so of the ministering angels. How fine is the power of the Master of the house, who makes the crown of His servants like His own crown. And if you say: Will the one who read much and studied much, and the one who read and studied little, have the light of their faces alike as one in the radiance of the world to come? It is not so. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, before whom there is no favoritism. And how do you know it is so? Go and learn from Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy of the elders of Israel, who were all in one assembly and the light of their faces was alike as one; and since Moses went up on high and read and studied much in the words of the Torah more than them all, he merited that the light of his face was so great that people could not gaze upon him, as it is said elsewhere, "The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor" (Proverbs 12:26). And this is the question that Habakkuk the prophet asked before the Holy One, blessed be He, and said before Him: Master of the universe, will the one who read and studied much and the one who read and studied little have the light of their faces alike as one in the radiance of the world to come? And the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: No, but each and every one according to his way. And because Habakkuk stood and spoke excessive words, the Holy One, blessed be He, showed him all the measures that were spoken to Moses, the father of wisdom and the father of the prophets, and He showed him scales of righteousness and weights of righteousness and an ephah of righteousness and a hin of righteousness, as it is said, "In wrath remember mercy" (Habakkuk 3:2) -- even in wrath, that the Holy One, blessed be He, has mercy, He remembers. And so the sun shall be ease of spirit and great delight to the righteous in the days of the son of David and in the world to come. But the wicked of the unlearned will be judged by it, by the sun, and will be nullified by it, as it is said, "Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve Him. For behold, the day comes that shall burn like an oven, and all the proud and all who do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that comes shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings... And you shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet" (Malachi 3:18-21). But the wicked of the nations are judged continually for generations on end, as it is said, "And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men who have transgressed against Me, for their worm shall not die nor shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh" (Isaiah 66:24). But the pious of the unlearned, even though they did not read and did not study, since they had their children read and study, and there is no idolatry among them, and no violence or robbery among them, and no forbidden relations or bloodshed among them, and they sustained the disciples of the wise from their possessions -- the Holy One, blessed be He, brings them and seats them beside the righteous, and they shall enjoy the sun that shall shine for the righteous in the days of the son of David and in the world to come, as it is said, "In that day Israel shall be a third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth" (Isaiah 19:24). I did not know what this verse meant, but when it says afterward, near it, "whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance" (Isaiah 19:25) -- thus the verse says: "Blessed be Egypt My people," these are the children of Israel who went out of Egypt; "and Assyria the work of My hands," these are the children of Israel who were exiled to Assyria; "and Israel My inheritance," these are the unlearned who had their children read and study Torah. Their children rescue their fathers from that shame and disgrace and from that humiliation and from the judgment of Gehinnom, as it is said, "Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now grow pale" (Isaiah 29:22) -- Jacob shall not now be ashamed before his father Isaac, nor shall his face now grow pale before the father of his father Abraham.