There’s a really cool idea put forth in Philip K. Dick’s the Divine Invasion, which I just finished reading for the second time. It’s what he refers to as the “beside-helper.” As far as I can tell, the concept is an amalgamation of ideas from Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and other sources which I am not as familiar. Let me try to summarize it in my own words.

There’s a passage in the novel where the characters are talking about the judgement of the soul after death. According to this, in most ancient systems, the system of judgement was more or less mechanically driven. Like, you had all your sins on one hand, and all your good deeds on the other. Whichever one was more substantial indicated whether you would move on to your eternal reward or your eternal punishment. Actually, this is more or less how I understand karma, also. Except that it determines the course and context of your next earthly incarnation, rather than whether you’ll be spirited off to heaven or hell.

Right, so this whole system up until a certain point was completely mechanical and automated, and everyone was punished or rewarded according to their deeds. But then at some point in the history of the after-life, a mysterious figure appears. This figure, Dick terms, the “beside-helper,” the “yetzer ha-tov” or the “advocate.” Basically, the premise is that, each person, before the moment of their judgement is offered a choice. They can be fed into the “cosmic justic machine” and have it compute based on that person’s deeds and misdeeds. Or, they can take the assistance of the Beside-Helper. What this figure does then is it feeds in its own records of deeds and misdeeds into the cosmic justice machine in place of yours. But it’s record is completely blank, so the machine sort of misfires.

Dick says something about how it was an attempt to introduce “mercy into the circuit”. There is, of course, a conundrum in the whole thing. First of all, anyone who is truly innocent has no need of the Advocate to intercede on their behalf. Second, most people who are guilty, don’t accept the help of the Advocate, because they believe they are innocent. Essentially, in order to get the help of the Advocate, you must first admit to yourself that you truly are responsible, that you truly are guilty and deserve to be punished. And very few people are ever willing to admit that.

Also, he uses the idea of “the Court” a lot, in terms of this cosmic justice machinery. And just as their is an Advocate or defender available for you in the court (although you can choose to represent yourself), there is also a prosecutor, whom he terms “The Accuser.” This is traditionally the role of Satan in Jewish mythology. Satan, in fact, means adversary. And he acts on behalf of God to bring the guilty to justice.

“Satan” is NOT a proper name referring to a particular being who is the antagonist or rival of G-d, as Christianity erroneously teaches. In its original application, in fact, it is a common noun meaning an adversary who opposes and obstructs. It is applied to human adversaries in 1Shmuel 29:4; 2Shmuel 19:23; 1Melachim 5:18; 11:14, 23, 25, and its related verb is used of prosecution in a law court (Tehillim 109:6) and the role of an antagonist in general (Tehillim 38:20, 21; 109:4, 20, 29).

The angel who was sent to obstruct Balaam (BaMidbar 22:32) was evidently chosen, as a “satan” (le-satan), and perhaps the consonants l-s-t-n are rather to be read as the infinitive liston, “to oppose or obstruct.” (Ency. Judaica)

Dick uses the term “Yetzer Ha-Tov” to refer to the Advocate, and “Yetzer Ha-Ra” to refer to the Accuser. According to a few sites I saw online, these terms are more genereally taken to refer to the “good inclination” and the “evil inclination.” Yetzer ha-ra seems to have something to do with innate drives for security and property, which in themselves aren’t negative, but can be if taken too far. Also, yetzer ha-ra seems to have something approximately (but not quite) to do with the Christian idea of Original Sin, which is handed down to all mankind, based on Adam’s transgression in the Garden of Eden. These sources also indicate that the good inclination, the yetzer ha-tov is acquired when you reach thirteen years of age, and it then functions along with the Torah to help guide your evil inclinations into socially beneficial institutions and behaviors which bring you closer to God. Age thirteen, of course, is when you receive your bar mitzvah.