Jedi Mind Tricks. As Obi-Wan teaches, "Be mindful of your thoughts, Anakin. They betray you." Only when you can master the self-awareness of both inclinations can you live a virtuous and balanced life of substance, and be a true "Chakham," or... Jedi Master.
Don't Underestimate the Power of the Dark Side. The Yetzer Hara includes negative impulses like selfishness, ego, and base primal desire, but it's also the driver of essential traits such as ambition, competitiveness, and productivity. Without it, you're prone to being passive and ineffectual.
He Will Bring Balance. The Yetzer Hatov, on the other hand, guides morality, ethics, and compassion, feeding off the G-d given inclination to make the world a better place (and our Jewish mothers proud!). But without any edge, without drive, you can't reach your full potential of an upright and meaningful life.
Now don't get me wrong, one still needs to always be combatting their Yetzer Hara, unchecked it will inevitably lead to peril. The task for all of us is to elevate our consciousness so as to always be wise to its pull and influence.
A New Hope. George Lucas, when developing Star Wars, used this concept of balance to help build the narrative of the entire six-episode Skywalker saga (the last three don't count). Anakin's purpose was to go beyond destroying the Sith, he needed to change the conditions that made it possible for the Sith (the dark side) to rise to power in the first place.
This wasn't some accidental theme either. Lucas has said it plainly himself: "What these films deal with is the fact that we all have good and evil inside of us, and that we can choose which way we want the balance to go." He built the whole saga on a deliberate synthesis of world mythology and religion, so this idea of balance was baked in from the start, not something we're reading into it after the fact.
The Shroud of the Dark Side Has Fallen. The Jedi had become too rigid, too self-righteous, too detached, and too arrogant. The Order had been tempted by institutional power. They had embraced politics and become a tool for coercion and enforcement, their primary purpose becoming more about serving power and control than serving people. Even though the Jedi clearly came from a place of goodness and light, the influence of power and lack of humility allowed the Yetzer Hara to pull them off the path of righteousness. The lesson here is to never obsess over control and piety. To seek control is to fear not having it, and as Yoda warns Anakin himself, "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."
Blind We Are, If of the Sith We Could Not See. Over the centuries many a great Sage has pondered these ideas found in the Tanakh and beyond.
"Do not be overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise; why should you destroy yourself?" — Ecclesiastes 7:16
Rabbinic literature is more direct on this concept. In the Mishnah it states:
"A foolish man of piety, a conniving wicked person, the overly abstinent, and self-mortifying Pharisees, these destroy the world."
Too Much Light or Dark Would Be the Undoing of Life. Earlier we mentioned finding balance in order to pursue righteousness. While the two concepts might not seem dependent on one another, their connection in Judaism is pronounced and beautiful. In multiple places in the Tanakh, the same word "Tzedek" is used to describe both righteousness and balance. The Rambam, arguably the greatest of all the sages, brings the big picture together in his focus on "the middle path":
"The right path is the intermediate measure in every single character trait... This is what the Sages call the complete and straight way. The one who aligns their character to this exact center point is called a Tzadik (a righteous person)." — Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot De'ot (Laws of Character) 1:4
We'll end this entry the same way we started it, with a quote from a certain smuggler with an ego who once helped save the galaxy: "Hey Luke, may the HaKoach be with you!"
Go Deeper
Explained as only the brilliant scientist and Torah scholar can, Ephraim Palvanov discusses and explains the concept of Yetzer Hara in his weekly teachings, Mayim Achronim.
Here's a beautiful sentiment on real life application of discerning balance in the pursuit for righteousness from the amazing Rabbi Yonaton HaLevy - head of the (B"H) growing Shiviti movement:
And here is a nice explanation that gets into the more nuanced understanding of the role of the Yetzer Hara.
This section would not be complete without hearing from the man himself, the "Rabbi of Sci-fi", Mr. George Lucas. This is a great snippet of video where Mr. Lucas is teaching the philosophy of his cinematic universe to a young Dave Filoni and others during the making of the animated series, "The Clone Wars."
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