I’ve heard Judaism described as “a this-worldly religion”? Does this pertains to the everyday life and God being involved in that life? How do the commandments and yetzer (natural inclinations) tie in with this?
Life and this earth are real. This is a central tenet of the wisdom that Israel received at Sinai. If you hurt them, people, and even animals, feel pain. Life is certainly fleeting and this life in this world is not all there is for us in the universe, but life – in this world, as G’d has been gracious enough to give it to us – is to be sanctified, not denigrated or defiled, by us His servants on earth.
G’d is very much involved w/ us here too – He sustains every particle and every atom in existence, in this and every universe, Sinai teaches us. He cares about our pain here, as He cares about the pain of animals, as His Scripture teaches – so we see that, since it matters to Him, it matters! The word “Mitzvot”, normally translated as commandments, comes from a root, “tzevah”, meaning “to make a connection.” By fulfilling a Mitzah, or commandment, we, who are commanded, make a connection to the One Who commanded, G’d Himself.
A Yetzer – an inclination, impulse, or urge – is a natural part of life. “Without the Yetzer Ha-Ra (the evil inclination] no man would build a house, take a wife, beget a family, and engage in work.” (R’ Shmuel ben Nachman, Talmud) It’s part of the greater dynamic of the universe. But Torah and mitzvot – G’d’s great moral instruction book, the Law, as He revealed it to man at Sinai, together with its commandments – “temper the Yetzer Ha-Ra, as fire bends iron.” (R’ Shimeon ben Eleazar, Talmud). So Torah, too, is part of the dynamic of all life in the universe.
Michael Dallen