As human beings, we often find ourselves caught between competing worldviews, inner drives, and value systems. And when we do carve out a moment to reflect on who we are and why we do the things we do, we can be left in a state of doubt and confusion, confronted by gnawing questions like:

Why is it so difficult to align my day-to-day behavior with my higher ideals? How is it that I can so easily identify and relate to both the hedonistic and the holy?

Who am I really? An egocentric animal or an altruistic angel?

Unfortunately, this existential quagmire is all too common and relatable. Some might even call it the human condition. But, in fact, this whole way of thinking is based on a very particular worldview that seeks to one-dimensionalize life, reducing everything into black and white, good vs. bad, etc. If one is spiritual, they may not be self-concerned; if one is driven by physical appetites, they may not be spiritually evolved. This is a hyper-dualistic way of viewing the world and relating to the self that is based on a rigid paradigm of dichotomous mutual exclusivity.

In Jewish thought, however, humans are not seen as monolithic caricatures, but as multifaceted beings, comprised of both self-serving animalistic desires as well as self-transcendent angelic potentials. According to the Torah, this inner tension and conflict is an essential part of the human experience. In fact, we learn at the beginning of Genesis1 that man’s very creation came about through the fusion of two such opposites: ”G‑d formed man of dust from the earth”—the earthly, ”and He blew into his nostrils a breath of life”—the heavenly. The human is therefore quite literally a fusion of heaven and earth.2

The Hebrew word for man, adam, evocatively expresses this dichotomy. For example, the word adam is related both to the word adamah, earth, and the word domeh, likeness, as used in the phrase adameh la’elyon, heaven-like,3 teaching us that the human being can either resemble its earthly origins or reflect its Divine design.

Furthermore, this existential duality can be found in the composition of the word adam itself. Alef, the first letter of the word adam, has a numerical value of one, alluding to the primordial oneness and unity of G‑d. The second two letters spell the word dam, which means blood, the physical lifeforce and vitality4 of the human being.5 Thus, the Torah’s conception of the human condition is encoded into the very name given to humanity.

R. Joseph Ber Soloveitchik points out6 that there are two seemingly contradictory accounts in Genesis for the creation of man. In the first version, Adam is created in the Divine image and summoned to exercise mastery, to fill the earth and conquer it. In the second version, Adam is created from the dust of the earth and brought to life by the breath of G‑d, and his calling is to cultivate the garden and keep it.

This, R. Soloveitchik concludes, is not a glaring contradiction between competing textual traditions, as Biblical critics would assert; rather, it is a meaningful juxtaposition of archetypes that express the inherent contradiction within the nature of humanity. “The first Adam is Majestic Man—aggressive, bold, and victory-minded. His motto is success—to harness and dominate the elemental natural forces and to put them at his disposal. The second Adam is Covenantal Man. His goal is not success but redemption. He seeks not control over his environment but control over himself; not to confront and defeat mute nature, but to allow himself to be confronted and defeated by a Higher and Truer Being. Not to advance to the outer reaches of his universe, but to retreat to its center.”

Commenting on R. Soloveitchik’s teaching, David Brooks7 introduces the distinction between resume virtues and eulogy virtues. “Resume virtues consist of the skills you bring to the marketplace. Eulogy virtues are the ones that are mentioned in the eulogy, which are deeper: Who are you in your depth? What is the nature of your relationships? Are you kind, loving, dependable, honest, consistent? Most of us would say that eulogy virtues are the most important. And yet, in many cases, are they the ones that we think about most?

“The tricky thing about these two sides of our nature is that they work by different logics. The external logic is an economic logic: input leads to output, risk leads to reward. The internal side of our nature is a moral logic and often an inverse logic. You have to give to receive. You have to surrender to something outside yourself to gain strength within yourself. You have to conquer desire in order to get what you want. In order to fulfil yourself, you have to forget yourself. In order to find yourself, you have to lose yourself.”

In the book of Tanya,8 R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains that man’s dual impulses come from two different souls. These souls operate by inverse and opposite drives; their gravitational pull could not be more different. For the animal soul, the pull and natural default direction is earth-bound, towards that which is indulgent and self-centered; for the G‑dly soul, its drive is heaven-bound, towards the transcendent and other-centered. The animal soul is the seat of the ego and the source of one’s base desires, whereas the G‑dly soul seeks only to cleave to G‑d and occupy itself with selfless and loving acts of goodness.

R. Schneur Zalman compares this psycho-spiritual dynamic to a “battle between two kings, both seeking to dominate the same city.”9 This “city”10 is understood as referring to a person’s inner kingdom, so to speak, which is populated by one’s thoughts, words, and deeds. Only one king can rule at a time, but which will it be? Ultimately, we ourselves decide who controls the “keys” to the palace of our mind. By carefully choosing the focus and direction of our thoughts, words, and deeds, we are able to consciously determine which side of ourselves we want to bolster and become.

Margaret Thatcher’s father once told her as a child: “Watch your thoughts for they become your words. Watch your words for they become your actions. Watch your actions for they become your habits. Watch your habits for they become your character. And watch your character for it becomes your destiny.”

In sum, we are each comprised of both heaven and earth; whom we choose to become is completely in our hands.

The Big Idea

We are not monolithic but multifaceted beings, in constant struggle with conflicting drives and impulses. It is up to us to choose which side of ourselves we will bolster and become at each and every moment.

It Happened Once

A wise old man teaches his grandson about life:

“A fight is going on inside me,” he says to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One is evil; he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

“The other is good; he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you—and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thinks about it for a minute and then asks: “Which wolf will win?”

The old man replies, “The one that you feed.”