Why Sinful Thoughts Can Be Spiritually More Dangerous Than Actions

"We learned in class that thought of sin is worse than the actual act. Why is that so? In my opinion, thinking about a sin seems less severe than doing it."

Shalom and blessings,

The words of mussar (ethical teaching) you heard were not intended to be taken literally. It is similar to saying that a snake is worse than a lion, because a snake attacks a person at any time, without distinction, whereas a lion only attacks when it’s very hungry.

Of course, factually speaking, the lion is far more dangerous than the snake — you can’t run from a lion, and you can’t fight it off. However, in one specific aspect, the snake is worse, because it strikes without warning and without reason.

In a similar vein, there is one aspect in which thought is worse than action, and that is the duration of time the person is immersed in the sin.

Although the actual sin is much more severe (and a person is punished for it), once a person commits it, he is, so to speak, “satiated” and his mind is no longer occupied with it. One who only thinks about the sin however, never reaches that “satiation” and can remain obsessed with it all day long. His thoughts about the sin accompany him for much longer than the time it would take to actually commit it. As our Talmudic Sages said, “A person is where his thoughts are.”

That said, there is no doubt that actual sins committed in deed are far more severe, because they corrupt the person himself and are punishable.

The Rambam writes in Hilchot Teshuva that there is one area in which “light” sins are in a sense more dangerous than “severe” sins. With severe sins, a person knows he must repent, and so he deeply regrets them, and is often forgiven. In sins of thought and speech however, a person may not even think to repent for them, and doesn’t regret them much at all. As a result, these sins can accompany him into the World to Come because he never did teshuva for them! In this sense, light sins like sinful thoughts or speaking lashon hara (gossip) can carry a hidden severity not found in severe sins.

Rabbi Ben Zion Mutzafi explains: “The commentators wrote that God forbid one should think that an action is preferable to a sinful thought! For the act itself can be punishable by death according to the Torah, while a thought is never mentioned in the Torah as punishable. Rather, the sages meant that sinful thoughts are dangerous because they constantly disturb a person, and certainly a sin that is both in thought and action is the worst of all.”