Muttar

6 Cheshvan 5782

“For Sin makes itself appealing to him, until his iniquity be found and he is hated.” (Tehillim 36:3)

Sin can make itself appealing even to a person with the best possible intentions. To the undiscerning and well-meaning eye, something dangerous can seem like an object waiting to be uplifted to holiness. By such deception, a person with only good intentions can venture onto the other side, subjugating his actions to the sitra achara and being drawn into it against his will.

“And Lot raised his eyes, and he saw the entire plain of the Jordan, that it was entirely watered; before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah” (Bereishit 13:10)

We find something similar in this Parashah. After Lot and Abram decide to part ways, the former chooses for himself the portion of Sodom and Gomorrah, of evil and sin. His reasons for choosing this portion are not sinister. He desires it because it is filled with “streams of water,” good “for [growing] trees” and “for [growing] seeds.” In the end, however, Lot is drawn into their wicked ways and almost destroyed along with them.

“This, in fact, is the root of “assur” (meaning “forbidden”; lit., “bound”): the kelipah hovers over [the forbidden thing] so that it cannot rise aloft to holiness like that which is “muttar” (meaning “permitted”; lit., “unbound”).” (Lessons in Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh, middle of Epistle 26)

However appealing they may seem, these forbidden things are restricted to unholiness in their very nature. No amount of wishful thinking can free them from this state. It is the Jews mission to avoid them at all cost, by studying the Halacha carefully and sticking to it without compromise. Instead of taking risks, a Jew should seek out those “muttar” (meaning “permitted”; lit., “unbound”)" things which are easily “able to ascend by means of the person consuming [them] with his mind on G-d.”