True Freedom: The Torah’s Mastery of the Animal Soul vs. the Illusion of Liberal “Liberty”

The Torah teaches that within every Jew there are two souls: the G-dly soul that yearns only for Hashem and holiness, and the animal soul whose entire existence is built around the drive for self-preservation, pleasure, and continuation of the species. These natural drives are not evil in themselves—Hashem placed them in the world for a purpose. When the desire to eat sustains the body so it can serve Hashem, it is holy. When the reproductive drive is channeled exclusively into the sacred framework of marriage for the sake of “פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ” (Bereishit 1:28) and building a bayit ne’eman b’Yisrael, it becomes the vessel through which new generations of Torah-observant Jews enter the world.

But when these same drives are disconnected from their G-dly purpose, they become the most powerful chains imaginable. The animal soul does not know “enough.” Left to itself, it will pursue more food, more comfort, more sensation, more intensity, endlessly—until the person is no longer master in his own house. The yetzer of the animal soul whispers: “One more bite, one more moment, one more experience, and then you’ll be satisfied.” It never is. This is the Torah definition of avdut (slavery): when the drive rules the driver.

Chazal express it starkly:

“אָדָם נִבְרָא מִטֹּמֶא וּמִטָּהֳרָא – מִטֹּמֶא, זוֹ הַטִּפָּה שֶׁל אָבִיו; וּמִטָּהֳרָא, זוֹ הַטִּפָּה שֶׁל אִמּוֹ” (Niddah 31a). The very force that can create a tzaddik can also, when misdirected, drag a person into the deepest impurity. The same energy that builds the Jewish future becomes, outside its holy boundaries, the doorway through which the sitra achra enters.

The Torah therefore commands:

“וְלֹא תָתֻרוּ אַחֲרֵי לְבַבְכֶם וְאַחֲרֵי עֵינֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם זֹנִים אַחֲרֵיהֶם” (Bamidbar 15:39).

Do not stray after your heart and after your eyes. Rashi explains: the eyes see, the heart covets, and the body completes the sin. This is placed immediately after the command to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim because the entire purpose of the Exodus was to exchange slavery to Pharaoh for avdut Hashem alone. Any other master—even the master called “my feelings,” “my urges,” or “my personal truth”—is a return to Mitzrayim.

The liberal world proclaims: “Follow your heart! Express yourself! Your body, your rules!”

The Torah answers: The heart is the yetzer’s most effective spy. The moment you follow it unchecked, you have willingly put on the chains that Hashem shattered at the Yam Suf.

This is why the Rambam rules that the only truly free person is the oneher who conquers his animal soul through Torah (Hilchot Teshuva 6:1–3; Shemoneh Perakim Ch. 6). Everyone else—however many “rights” society grants him—is a slave: slave to appetite, slave to mood, slave to the need for the next momentary rush of satisfaction.

The same principle applies to intoxicating substances. The animal soul seeks ever-stronger sensations; wine, spirits, and modern chemical compounds promise to lift a person above his limitations. For a fleeting moment they seem to grant freedom. In reality they strip away da’at—the very crown of humanity—and reduce the person to behemah (Sefer HaChinuch, Mitzvah 387). One who loses his conscious awareness has, for that time, forfeited the tzelem Elokim that makes him free.

Chassidus explains it even more deeply: every time a person chooses the harder path—the path of restraint, of kedusha, of “no” to the animal soul—his nekudat habechira (point of free choice) moves upward and he becomes freer (Michtav MeEliyahu, Kuntres HaBechirah). Every surrender moves the point downward and tightens the chains.

This is the secret behind the demographic strength of Torah-observant communities. Those who train themselves daily to say “no” to the animal soul in a thousand small ways acquire the inner power to say “yes” to life itself—to marriage at the proper time, to many children, to building homes filled with Torah and mitzvot. Societies that remove every guardrail and celebrate the animal soul’s “liberation” discover, too late, that they have sterilized themselves out of existence.

True freedom is not the absence of fences.

It is the presence of mastery.

It is the Jew standing at Sinai declaring: נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע—first we accept the yoke of Heaven, and only then do we become the freest nation on earth.

May we all merit to live this freedom—the freedom that comes only when the animal soul serves the G-dly soul, and the G-dly soul serves Hashem alone.

Sources (selected):

- Bereishit 1:28 and Rashi

- Bamidbar 15:39 with Rashi and Sifre

- Third paragraph of Shema (daily)

- Rambam, Hilchot Teshuva 6:1–4; Shemoneh Perakim Ch. 6

- Avot 6:2

- Niddah 31a

- Sefer HaChinuch Mitzvah 387

- Michtav MeEliyahu, Kuntres HaBechirah

- Tanya, chapters 1–2, 9–12 (distinction between the two souls)

The Torah Definition of Freedom Versus the Liberal Definition

The Torah declares that the only truly free human being is the one who has conquered his own animal soul. “Ein lecha ben-chorin ela mi she’oseik ba-Torah” – there is no free person except the one who occupies himself with Torah (Avot 6:2). Freedom, in Torah terms, is measured by how completely a person rules over his desires rather than being ruled by them. The Rambam states explicitly: every other person – no matter how many political rights he possesses – remains a slave to his appetites, his anger, his cravings, or his fears (Hilchot Teshuva 6:1–4).

Modern liberalism defines freedom in precisely the opposite way: freedom is the absence of external restraint. No one may tell you what to do with your body, your time, or your impulses. “My body, my choice” is treated as the highest moral axiom. The heart’s desire is celebrated as the most authentic guide; any limitation placed upon it is labeled oppression.

The Torah answers with a single verse that we recite three times daily: “Do not stray after your heart and after your eyes, which lead you astray” (Bamidbar 15:39). The eyes see, the heart covets, and the body sins – and in that moment the person is no longer free. He has become the servant of a momentary urge. The Exodus from Egypt was not granted so that we could exchange Pharaoh for new masters called “my feelings” or “my personal truth.”

The Reproductive Drive

Hashem created the powerful drive to perpetuate life and commanded us: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Bereishit 1:28). Within the holy framework of kiddushin and a bayit ne’eman b’Yisrael, this drive becomes the holiest force in the world – the power that brings new Jewish souls into existence. Outside that framework, the very same drive becomes the yetzer hara’s most devastating weapon. Liberal culture insists that this drive may be expressed in any consensual form, at any age, with any number of partners, or suppressed entirely if children are deemed inconvenient. The result is plain for all to see: fertility rates in liberal societies have collapsed to 1.2–1.6 children per woman – far below replacement level – while Torah-observant communities average 4–7 children and continue to grow generation after generation.

Intoxication and Loss of Da’at

The animal soul constantly seeks stronger sensations. Alcohol, drugs, and every modern chemical promise to lift a person above his limitations. Liberalism treats these substances as matters of personal liberty: legalize, decriminalize, reduce harm. The Torah view is uncompromising: anything that removes da’at – conscious awareness – reduces a human being from the level of tzelem Elokim to the level of behemah (Sefer HaChinuch, Mitzvah 387; Rambam, Hilchot De’ot 5:3). Cities that adopted the liberal “harm-reduction” model are now filled with streets of living corpses. Torah communities that treat da’at as sacred have almost no presence in those statistics.

The Fruit on the Tree

Liberalism promised liberation and delivered epidemic levels of anxiety, depression, addiction, loneliness, and childlessness. It removed every guardrail and then acted surprised when the car flew off the cliff.

Torah Judaism demands discipline, restraint, and daily surrender to an authority higher than the self – and delivers the only measurable, sustainable human happiness that has ever existed: large, stable families; near-zero rates of suicide and substance abuse; joy in mitzvot; and an unbroken chain of tradition from Sinai until this very day.

One system crowns the animal soul as king and wonders why everything collapses.

The other teaches the animal soul to serve the G-dly soul – and produces life that not only survives but flourishes against all odds.

The Torah is not a theory.

It is the only proven, 3,300-year success story of genuine human freedom.

Everything else is commentary – and the numbers speak for themselves.