Unnatural Desires

We were born with natural desires, all meant for good and healthy purposes. They just need to be channeled in the right direction.

But we human beings have a knack for creating desires that fight against our own nature. Desires that are destructive to ourselves, our society and our environment.

Such desires can’t be rechanneled. But if you have the power to create them, you also have the power to wipe them out and start again from what G‑d gave you.

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Natural Desire

The Prison of Stuff

By Tzvi Freeman

From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory; words and condensation by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman. Subscribe and get your dose daily. To order Rabbi Freeman’s latest book, Wisdom to Heal the Earth, click here.

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11 Comments

David J. Amyx Palmeto,Fl. March 9, 2016

I Thank Ha Shem for the Rebbe his words have helped me more than I could say here Thank you ! Reply

Tzvi Freeman Thornhill, Ontario January 22, 2009

To Anonymous 1. I, for one, never imagined this would be the meaning.

2. Repression and denial are bad strategies. The first step to overcoming any bad habit is to recognize that it is there. And then to recognize that it does not have to be.

3. There are those who fight a tremendous battle with their desires every day. We tend to look askance at them for the times that they submit. In truth, we should be humbled by the times that they overcome. We each need to ask: Did I ever fight a battle of that intensity? Was I ever challenged with such? The very fact that G_d never gave me such a challenge is evidence that I do not have what it takes to overcome it. Reply

Anonymous January 22, 2009

unnatural desires i think that everyone can agree that the issue that is not directly stated is that of homosexual desires. As an observant Jew, a mother, a wife, and an attorney, i am not myself desirous of what is being called here unnatural but know and can relate, I believe, with those who have these desires. And I can agree with the poster who stated that this lesson encourages hiding, fear. I suppose that the result that this lesson wants those of us with that desire to remain forever celibate, but is that not itself "unnatural"? And who would want the unhappy marriage that has to be the result of someone with no desire for his or her mate? Would that be the real finding of the soulmate that we wish in a marriage? Is marriage only for reproduction? This teaching raises more questions than answers. Reply

Tzvi Freeman Thornhill, Ontario January 22, 2009

For Elisha Both Charles and John need to reread the dose--as though they have never seen it before--and see that their comments are answered by the dose itself. We are talking here about bad habits--not inherent faults. Anything inherent to the human being can be sublimated. It's those faults that we create for ourselves that are the most destructive.

How to be rid of them? Again the answer flows naturally out of the thought: If you were capable of creating them, certainly you are capable of wiping them away. How? The same way they came to you--show them the same door out. If they came through repeated habit, repeatedly ignore them. If they came from having the wrong friends, get the right friends. Each fault and its history show you its medicine. Reply

charles atlanta , georgia January 22, 2009

UNNATURAL DESIRE Guess I went the long way with my question. How, is the question of the day!
Can anyone give a practical answer ? Reply

R John Miller Baltimore , MD January 22, 2009

The Heart's Desire and the Brain's willingness Rabbi -- I want to buy Seforim that will increase my knowledge of Judaism and I want to become a traditional bookbinder to repair the oh so many Siddurim and Seforim I see falling to pieces in the shuls, but the equipment I need to do a good and lasting job will take a lot of money. And the Seforim themselves are expensive, I want to but a Torah Anthology of the Chumash, the Mishnah Torah and the Shemirath Sabbath all from Eichlers and those volumes alone are going to cost around $1,000.00 and to become a bookbinder in the right way with all the tools and materials in order to do the best job possible, it will cost between $25,000.00 and $30,000 and I will repair the books for the shuls according to their means or my cost or for free if necessary, to do the work as a mitzvah. Are these the type of desires that I should want to wipe out? I am not out to become a millionaire, I just want to grow in my Judaism and help Others. What is so evil or wrong about that? Reply

Anonymous New York, New York January 22, 2009

Unnatural desires Tzvi,

What you wrote is an addition to the Daily Dose.

I am asking HOW,

HOW does one WIPE OUT unnatural desires and start again? Reply

Charles Atlanta, Georgia January 22, 2009

Unnatural desires Being that we are creatures with a fallen nature, it seems that our nature has a bent toward depravity. You say wipe them out and start over with what G-d gave you. We are playing it seems with the hand G-d gave us. How do you go about the business of "Wiping out " these desires that by the very nature of our humanity are natural, in exchange for more G-dly wholesome desires? Reply

Anonymous ny, usa January 22, 2009

Unnatural Desires This is a very nice Daily Dose,

Now the question is HOW?

"You can't channel such desires. You need to wipe them out and start again from what G–d gave you."

How do you wipe them out? Reply

Tzvi Freeman Thornhill, Ontario May 6, 2006

Re: Accept what comes and reject what goes So if a person has a desire for adultery with another man''s wife, or murder, or thievery, is he supposed to just admit to it in every public forum and refuse to repress it so as to avoid guilt? Or should he better learn to control his desires and perhaps eventually overcome it?
What is unhealthy is to refuse to admit your failures to your own self. That's what leads to unhealthy guilt and "secret lives". But a human being that does not repress some desires has ceased to be human. Reply

Immanuel via chabad.co.za May 1, 2006

Accept what comes and reject what goes This is a recipe for guilt, repression, and the secret lives led by so many people, who can't get rid of their desires but are not allowed to publicly own them Reply

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