Passover is often framed as a story about freedom from oppression, and it is. But it is also a story about what happens after freedom is handed to you. What kind of person will you be with it? What kind of man?

Jewish tradition has a useful way of naming the inner tension that shapes that question: the yetzer ha-ra and the yetzer ha-tov—the so-called evil impulse and good impulse. Those names can be misleading. The yetzer ha-ra gets a terrible publicist. Because it contains the word ra, evil, we assume it must be the part of us that is purely destructive, selfish, and shameful.

But that is far too simple. The yetzer ha-ra is also the force that gets a man moving. It is ambition. Hunger. Desire. The drive to build a life, make a name, create a family, start a business, master a craft, win respect, make something of yourself. Without it, a man might never leave the couch. He might never risk anything, want anything, or become anything.

That is not evil. That is energy. The danger comes when that energy becomes your only........

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