Temptation is not seduction

By TED ROBERTS, the SCRIBBLER ON THE ROOF

It was just my usual walk around the block. I wasn’t prepared for a moral challenge any more than when Joseph listened in frustration to the soft cooings of Potiphar’s wife. Just my usual walk until suddenly a fig tree lush enough to have been plucked from the Garden of Eden infringed on my sidewalk path. It only stretched a few fruited branches over the sidewalk. It was early summer – the fruit was green – not yet ready for the intruder’s grasp. I walked this path daily and cast an appraising eye on the gradually maturing fruit.

Did I tell you I love figs? Did I mention I have three trees of my own? But NOT like this lady. There are as many species, even individual varieties, of figs as there are of the human race. This species was royalty – figs the size of plums – approaching the color of red roses. And best yet, shielded by shrubs and other non-fig bearing superfluous greenery, from the greedy fig lovers who lived in the house and owned the fig tree.
I bided my time until the fruit was ripe. Then one day with jealousy, envy, and lust brimming in my heart I extended a clutching hand to a cluster of three figs that called out to me in a language that drowned out Mrs. Potiphar’s pleading.

Waitaminute – this wasn’t my yard, my tree, or my figs. This was thievery. The dumbest attorney could build an ironclad cage of a case. Everyday I brushed past that tree and everyday I plunged my hands into my pants pocket. I am not a thief. My conscience literally shouted at that corrupting tree. After all, in the view of this scribbler who never attended or even walked by a Yeshiva, Judaism is a religion of deeds, not impulse or intention. Not even of faith. Remember, our progenitor, Jacob, wrestled with G-d, we are told in the Chumash. Deeds, not inclinations or even intentions, which are sometimes beastly, are the bar we Jews must clear.

Finally, the day came. That bunch of figs was ready. OY! I had waited too long. Hungry, but immoral, birds, bees, and insects that likewise didn’t own yard, tree, or figs had eaten into my booty. I was barred from sin. I plunged my hands back into my pockets. It seems that He who monitors even the planet’s trivia intervened for the sake of goodness.

Remember a few decades ago when President Jimmy Carter – during a TV interview – admitted to sin? The interviewer gasped. Why? Because I lusted after a woman, replied the red-faced, model Christian. Not a Jewish answer. Lusting, which the hybrid human heart cannot control, isn’t seduction. We judge on deeds, not inclinations.

It’s true that the anomalous 10th Commandment somewhat mars my thesis. But I’m not lusting for my neighbor’s 78-year-old wife (they do have a young maidservant) or his chipped and dented 1998 Chevy. And even if I did, as long as I dammed my flood of desire, I’d see myself as pure as Elijah. Deeds, that’s the measure of Judaism. Temptation is not seduction.