[Avodah] Yetzer HoRa Issues

[Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer]

Apropos my essay on the topic of Pinocchio as a paradigm of Jewish 
Education (see http://aishdas.org/rygb/pinny.htm), I have been asked to 
address the fundamental statement made by Chazal (Koheles Rabbah 4:15) 
that is a core issue in the education of high school age students -- 
viz., that while  one is  born with his or her yetzer ho'ra, the yetzer 
ha'tov only begins its development at the age of bar or bas mitzvah. The 
person who asked me to address the question commented that: "This 
assumption has implications for educational practice all across the 
board, including before, during and after bar mitzvah age.  It works 
within a much larger view of moral and religious development that needs 
to be worked through, but has the promise of linking in with a much 
larger vision of Jewish education.  In the world of educational 
psychology, the views that have been offered about moral and religious 
development have turned out to be insufficiently complex and easily 
undermined by empirical research."

 He proceeded to challenge us to achieve a systematic articulation of 
this principle. The specific questions he suggested for a more intensive 
examination were:

1.     What was the deeper basis for the assumption made in Koheles Rabbah?

2.     Do Chazal address this issue in greater detail anywhere else?

3.     Is there consensus regarding the age of thirteen?

4.     Were Abraham's theological musings as a child as reported in the 
Midrashic literature detached from his moral development or did they 
occur after he was thirteen years old?

5.     Is it the same for girls?

6.     What happens at thirteen that makes the yetzer ha'tov come to 
life?  Is it biological? Is it related to sexual development?  Is it social?

7.     Does it happen all at once?

8.     Are there references or works in the tradition that focus in 
depth on the developmental aspects of moral consciousness?

9.     Are there references or works in the tradition that explicate the 
educational implications of this view?


Any conversation on these questions would be very helpful. Thanks!


KT,

YGB

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