[Avodah] The Forces Within Man

[Yitzchok Levine]

In his commentary on Vayikra 16: 10

But the he-goat that was designated by lot “for 
Azazel” shall be left standing alive before God, 
to effect atonement upon it, to send it away, as Azazel’s, into the wilderness.

RSRH gives deep insights into the nature of man. 
In part of his commentary he writes:

Be “Adam”; be a likeness of Me (cf. Commentary, Bereshis 1:26); be
a God in miniature, in and over the little world that I have assigned to
you along with your physical frame. I have granted you freedom of My
freedom; and I have given you power of My power to master the forces
of nature. Within your frame — that part of you which is of the earthly
world — powerful forces and impulses are at work, just as they prevail
in the rest of the elemental and organic world, from which your frame
derives. Left to themselves, these forces drive on the way that is innate
to their nature, and find satisfaction in so doing. But you are free, and
I have granted you freedom of My freedom; I have given you power of
My power to master the forces of nature; I have breathed into you a
spirit of My spirit to hear the laws of My will; and you are to use that
freedom and that power to master, with a strong hand, your own world
of inner drives and impulses, subordinating them all to the laws of My
will. Thus, when you subordinate to Me your drives and impulses, and
through them subordinate to Me your very self, you will be close to
Me and above all others, the one free being in a world of forces that
have no freedom of their own.

Implicit in the concept of freedom, however, is the possibility of
opposing God’s will. It is absurd to say that the ability to sin and the
temptations of the senses are only consequences of man’s degeneration.
For without the ability to sin and the alluring temptation of sensuality,
man ceases to be man. For man’s whole virtue is contingent upon his
ability to sin; and man’s whole dignity lies in his ability to disobey God’s
will. In the elemental and organic world there is no sin, but — precisely
for this reason — neither are there moral virtues. If sensuality were not
attractive to man; if man, too, were to find satisfaction only in using
his faculties in accordance with God’s will; if all evil were bitter to him,
and all good were sweet; if he could not resist God’s will, as he can
resist the urges of his senses; if he were not capable of becoming a sair
l'Azazel, as he is capable of becoming a sair l 'Shem— then, he, too, would
be subject to the compulsion of God’s law, like all the other created
things. For these never deviate from their assigned tasks; only the fulfillment
of God’s Will brings them satisfaction, and any deviation from
it is antithetical to their nature.

We all are faced with the decision between Ha Shem and Azazel. We all stand
at the Sanctuary entrance — to choose between God and the power of
our senses. Inside, in the Holy of Holies, rests the Torah as the holiest
of holies. With our eyes on the Torah, we make our decision.

I have posted the entire commentary of Rav Hirsch 
on this posuk at http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/vayikra_501_506.pdf

Yitzchok Levine 
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