There is a fascinating Medrish Rabba (Vayikra 4:4) on this week’s Torah portion of Vayikra, which presents a very powerful technique on how to ensure our mind, the soul force, keeps control of our body, with its many passions and desires.
The medrish states: “There are 10 things that serve the soul (nefesh):
1. The throat for eating.
2. The windpipe for voice.
3. The liver for fury.
4. The lung for drinking.
5. The omasum for grinding (digesting the food).
6. The spleen for humor.
7. The stomach for sleeping.
8. The bile for jealousy.
9. The kidneys for thoughts.
10. The heart for conclusive decisions.
The soul is above (and responsible) for all of them. Hashem said, ‘I made you above them and you go out and you steal, and you are violent and you sin.'”
This medrish is brought in conjunction with the pasuk, “Speak to the Children of Israel saying, When a soul will sin unintentionally from among all the Commandments of Hashem that may not be done, and he commits one of them” (Vayikra 4:1). The Etz Yosef explains that the medrish is giving one of many explanations for why the Torah uses the term “soul” who had sinned instead of “person” who had sinned. The point being that since the soul is above all these parts of the body, the medrish wonders, how could it have sinned?
There are many interpretations about how each of these body parts are used for their expressed purpose; for example the Etz Yosef says the liver is where blood boils, and heats up the heart, which can trigger the emotion of fury and anger that could arouse a person to defend himself from imminent threats, like those who want to hurt him. Matnas Kehuna says the bile works to settle nerves and emotions like anger and jealousy, for when the liver heightens anger the gall bladder throws a drop of bile into it and calms it down. The Etz Yosef says that the lungs draw or help direct liquids where they are supposed to go in, and the stomach vaporizes food to create a calming effect to help people sleep.
However, if the soul doesn’t take responsibility and control of its physical faculties, to use them to serve Hashem properly, then it is held to account for the sins committed, even accidentally. The Etz Yosef explains the conclusion of the medrish, “[that if the soul] doesn’t recognize the kindness of Hashem that He made her above everything then she is sinning against Him as if she is an ingrate.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
The soul is a “spark of Hashem” (צלם אלוקים) endowed into the physical body of every human being. Hashem gives it responsibility for being the leader of many parts of the body and to guide them, as they help to serve Hashem. But why is the soul considered ungrateful because it had sinned, especially if by accident? Granted, it’s better because it’s a spiritual entity which has powers and abilities to emulate Hashem; but Hashem put it into the physical body and it is outnumbered by all the physical drives and whims around it. Indeed, even from the outside world around the body, there are so many things in the world which can easily distract the body and cause the soul to lose control. True, the soul has the ability and potential to keep the body at bay and direct it but it is not easy. That is why Hashem put the soul into the body; to test it and watch it overcome its challenges and earn a close seat next to Him once the soul goes back to Heaven. So why is sinning a lack of gratitude?
It would seem therefore that if a person truly internalized the gift of being made in the image of Hashem, and the potential one can reach, and the responsibility he has in reaching that potential, then the feeling of gratitude that Hashem endowed him with, this potential, will compel one to not sin.
We see from here that hakaras hatov, gratitude, is a feeling that can and should be used to help a person avoid sin. The sense that if I go against the Will of Hashem that I am being ungrateful for the soul which is so incredibly great and powerful, that He created inside me – this can be used as a motivating push to be very careful not to sin.