Editing Surrender and Decisiveness (Intellectual) (section)

== Decisiveness of the Intellect ==
The Torah forbade taking bribes because "bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort the words of the righteous"[2]. And since the Torah here refers to the judges of Israel with praise – calling them '''wise and righteous''', it is clear that it does not intend, G-d forbid, to suspect they would deliberately pervert Torah judgment from innocent to guilty or from guilty to innocent, for this would violate Torah law itself – so what does this have to do with taking bribes?

Rather, the issue is that through taking a bribe, the liability appears very small in his eyes until he doesn't see it at all. Why? Because taking the bribe creates a connection between the judge and the litigant, and things can reach the point where the judge puts himself in the litigant's place. And since "a person doesn't see his own liability"[4], the judge also doesn't feel the liability of the litigant.

This doesn't mean that he knows it's a liability and deliberately refuses to see it, but rather that due to his self-love, he '''doesn't see''' the liability at all. Because of this connection, any liability appears small in his eyes for '''correct''' intellectual reasons, as if it's not a liability at all. Therefore, this isn't considered violating Torah law, since he rules based on intellectual reasons that are in themselves correct '''and true'''.

This intellectual bias comes from will, as the will '''transforms''' the intellect completely – and this is called '''decisiveness of the intellect''' from liability to merit. That is, when will prevails over intellect, it happens in a way that transforms its very essence – the same intellect and reasoning that previously showed liability now shows merit. As we find regarding the flood: initially "the wickedness of man was great"[5] led to "I regret that I made them"[6]. And afterward (through Noah offering a sacrifice that was a pleasing aroma to G-d), it is written "I will not continue etc."[7] for the reason that "the inclination of man's heart is evil from his youth"[8]. This is the very same reason that brought the flood – so what new development caused "I will not continue etc."? This means that through Noah's sacrifice and G-d smelling his offering, G-d's will inclined toward him, and through this the very same reason for liability was completely transformed into a reason for merit!