The Evil Inclination in the Targums to the Writings

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to examine if and how the Targums to the Writings make use of the concept of the Evil Inclination (yeṣer hara‘). Research on the Evil Inclination has focused mainly on texts from the Talmud and Midrash – and rightly so. It is worthwhile, though, including the corpus of Aramaic Targums in discussions about rabbinic concepts, because these contain valuable information about Jewish interpretations of Scripture compiled over many centuries, primarily throughout the first millennium CE. As such, Targums reflect, at times, how some rabbinic concepts were perceived, thus affording one more perspective through which to understand the concept under scrutiny.