Does Evil Exist According to Judasim? Class with Rabbi Kaufmann

Okay For today's topic we're going to have something that's very uplifting and inspirational Evil I mean you don't find talking about evil inspirational. We will hide in the class Actually, I think this is technically the scuttle's color code, right? Yes, so it's a knowledge class, right? So all you have to make sure that you know more going out of class and you're going in not responsible for how you feel Sign inspiration of class Also, you're not supposed to be better at anything on a skills class So much for the color code Okay, so what we're going to do is we're going to break the class into three parts We're going to talk about evil and as we always start we start with more classic Jewish understanding and That is going to be itself in two levels. We're going to talk about evil Using a more rational framework Then we will move to how can evils classically understood in Judaism using a capitalistic framework Specifically the Arizal's innovation in Kabbalah, which has become quite widespread and then finally we will See what has this ads That is a new spin on it now. I want you to understand something that's very important I'm not going to spell out as we go through this But it is not necessary that one idea supplants the other But the later idea can incorporate the earlier ideas. So I'm going to talk about one idea of evil Then another idea of evil the rational idea of evil then the capitalistic idea of evil and then a unique dimension that's talked about and Cicadas The idea here is that the later ideas incorporate elements of the earlier ideas Much the way is we mature in life right we incorporate arts of our earlier selves rather than just totally reject them I mean unless you have mental health issues in which case You should see somebody okay So we're going to use as our stand in the Rambham for the rational's perspective although there's obviously a tremendous amount of variation Different opinions, but we need to consolidate and the Rambham is a good one to start to my monides and so my monides asks a very simple question Why does God make evil? God is good. Why does God make evil? Simple of question. Yes, and the answer is he doesn't make evil He doesn't make evil Why doesn't it make evil? No I'll consume no No, because there's no such thing is there's no such thing as evil There's no such thing as evil it doesn't exist It exists as a mental category in our minds But there doesn't actually exist in reality there are many things that exist in mental categories in our minds, but don't exist in reality Okay, what's a mental category that is now on to clear mental categories are different than among the people are doing they're different from Things that are real just not physical and they're different from things we imagine Okay, so there's a table here. Okay, that's a real thing Then there are things which are real, but they're not physical Okay, we'll say for instance Happiness happiness is a real thing the experience happens a real thing but it's not a physical thing Okay, angels are real, but they're not physical things God is real. He's not a physical thing Then there are things that are imaginary like unicorns. Okay That the realm does not say that evil is this non-physical thing There's no such thing as evil, but he's also not saying something we imagine It's a mental category that exists so leave you example a mental category that exists as a mental category, but it doesn't actually exist in reality and that is darkness There is no such thing as actual darkness you cannot go to the store and buy some darkness Darkness is the category we have in our minds for The lack of light and why am I using lack as rather than absence? And this is going to be important for two reasons one and because it's actually correct and two and we carry this over to evil Because if you go into a room you might say that this room is dark and you do not mean that is totally devoid of light on any level You just mean that there is less light than whatever standard you're using at this point in time, right? So you know, you go into a movie theater and you say it would darken here, right? I mean you can still find your seat, right? Not that any of us would know because what you know God frame true goes into movie theater, but Makes sense. Okay, so the Ramam says every time we label something as evil and I'm using the English word evil for the Hebrew word route Which has a kind of a broader meaning than just evil it includes things like bad or negative in any sense Really it's a mental category that we have we're saying that something is lacking Okay, but something is lacking. It's not it means that it's lacking means there's no actual stuff there You can't go get some more evil Any more that you can get some more darkness So I'm going to use an example to illustrate this okay, I apologize in advance, but are we still in the area we need to do trigger warnings? Okay, well that will have to count as one if you need one we're going to use the example of a murder So somebody murder somebody will call our murder or Bob Bob Bob murdered somebody and We need somebody to be murdered. So we'll have bill Bob murdered bill. Yeah, simple enough is that evil? So we're gonna look at bill first, okay? Is it evil that Bill was murdered So the Ramamam say well, okay, let's think about it You can only what is being murdered? I mean somebody else caused your death right With specific consequences with specific context about you know wasn't justified It wasn't within the context of what the law allows fine set that aside from it Bill was alive right Bill's life had value right? Okay, and then Bill's life ended So we might feel sad because we recognize that had Bill lived longer there would have been more value Right, so what are we acknowledging when we think of it as evil? We're just saying that if 27 years of Bill's life was good 28 would have been better But we didn't get 28 years of his life right so what is the evil? The absence of years 28 onwards of Bill's life right the lack of those years Wait, wait, that's in terms of Bill Now there's that that what that lack means for the existence of Bill himself and for Bill's family But in all things all of the evil we associate is just the fact that now that there is a Lack of what would have been good had Bill lived into year 28. Yes There's no actual stuff there in the world so again as a mental category to be a mental category We are acknowledging it would have been better There would have been more good had Bill lived To your 28 but in better for Bill better for Bill's family, but okay, but At the end of the day right if I give you $27 you don't say that that's evil You say well, yeah, I could have had 28 think about what kind of person says that how could we be 28 dollars? Something warped about that right okay, so we can recognize that something would be better and we can recognize the lack has a negative quality to it But there's no actual lack there in the world right doesn't now reflect that though So that's what Bill what about Bob say Bob murdered Bill Bob is an evil guy right? No, that's not murder murder has that finishes okay So let's run this through okay Bob if Bob murdered Bill there are few ingredients that go into that number one is Bob has to be capable of pursuing courses of action intentionally That makes sense you can't murder somebody if you're not capable pursuing action tension, although it's not murder Right, okay? Is it is that a positive thing for people to have the capacity to pursue? Course of action intentionally. Yeah, I mean think about it. You have a child and the child is getting bigger physically and you don't see that Characteristic develop we all see that as a negative so the very existence of a human being ability to say this is an outcome That is I want to pursue and the ability to then go pursue it and act upon that agency and planning all things That's a positive aspect of our existence. That's not evil Right now say okay, yeah, but he chose to do something really really bad Okay, well why did he choose to do something really bad? Is that because his ultimate objectives are bad? Well, why do people do anything? People do anything in the pursuit of There Desired no, no, they don't produce things if it desires desires is the thing that we have that motivates a pursuit thing But the thing being pursued is What what kind of what are our ultimate goals? Our ultimate goals are not happiness No actually so the wrong way we actually have pretty much all the same ultimate goals We may have a very different proximity goals to get to a second and happiness by the way is not really much of an ultimate goal But we'll talk about that some other time maybe do that in questions and answers the ultimate goal relates to The preservation and enhancement of our being In other words, we do things so that we live longer we do things so that are Family our genes our group persist over time. We do things so that the quality of our existence is better Right that's what all things are and now so Why is it now is that is that that's good? I mean if imagine a group of we're not pursuing that right person did not pursue the Flourishing of their being both as individual as a member of a community what would happen? People wouldn't eat people wouldn't sleep Right people wouldn't get dressed in the morning. I mean that that we wouldn't think that's a good thing Right we have a name for that right clinical depression people don't do that right We think that is that so that we think that's all a serious lack Okay, so what do we have we've got Bob is capable of pursuing courses of action with intent That's a positive Bob is motivated by some attempt to achieve thriving and flourishing and well-being That's fine. Where's the problem? He doesn't have a very good sense of how to do that right He's a very very short-sighted Sense of what is ultimately in his well interest both as an individual and as a member of community and the community are large Right and that's because of a wait for the word lack of wisdom and lack of maturity So the problem is not that Bob is a bad guy and he's possessed by the devil and he's evil. It's just that He's not wise and mature enough And his lack of wisdom and maturity resulted in a lack of Bill's life So is there any evil out there in the world? No, is there a category of lack? Yeah, there's a category of lack, but it's a mental category and it's a useful mental category And there's ways to relate to mental category But God did not create lacks you do not create absences. He created stuff and he created some stuff that's lacking and Stuff stuff that's less lacking and stuff that's less lacking still or you want to give it the other one He's created stuff which is more whole and stuff which is less whole and stuff which is less so you say well Why would God make anything lacking no questions yet? Why would God make anything lacking? Why not make Bob have enough wisdom to know that that's not the way to get what really valuable Life and wine and therefore Bill would live longer So take that line of reasoning to its ultimate conclusion if you think that a being that lacks Shouldn't exist then what's the only being that should exist? God so the very fact that God creates things means that he says just because your Existence is lacking doesn't invalidate the good and worth whileness of your existence Now there we have something which is called the category error Which is we take a category that's very useful one thing and then we apply it somewhere else where is the category of evil useful? The category of raw negativity useful. It's useful when the lack is something we can remedy So for instance if I realize hey Bob is not such a he's not such a mature person. He's not such a wise person. I should say Okay, so he's lacking those things. Well, okay. I Can dare take steps to prevent Like the ending of Bill's life as a result of that I can even maybe take steps to remedy that so that I don't have to then take those future steps So that's where it's good to have that a case of category, but if I say you know, I can't You know, I can't walk through walls Which I can't I'm lacking that capacity to walk through walls should I now sit around feeling miserable because I don't I can't walk through walls? No, what does that lead to? Leads nothing so the round would say okay acknowledging the category of lack is good But you should only really label with that judgmental category of raw evil and negativity when there is at least something we can do to Remedy or address the lack but objecting to lacking in existence altogether just means you object to God creating anything which is kind of silly Notice there's no actual stuff called evil in the world If you go like this, so what's your evil inclination then? A lack Your evil inclination is what happens when you have animalistic tendencies lacking wisdom and maturity We call the evil inclination. That's all it is But real evil cannot be changed real evil doesn't exist. There's no such thing any more than theirs Darkness can you give an example of something we can't remedy? Yeah, walking through walls So just like walking through walls going back to the changing the past So anything we put in that category of evil we have the ability to If we're using the category properly we at least in principle There is some There's some way we should pursue trying to figure out how to Remedy that lack so far since they right so if somebody for instance is ill could we find treatment or possibly a cure? Yeah, so should we think of that as within the category of raw or evil because there's something we can do to Right if somebody is has as if someone doesn't have wisdom and maturity right we can do things to prevent that From ending someone else's life of doing damage and we can also maybe educate them But there's no thing we have to go out of battle evil. It's like you say there's darkness in the world So what are we gonna do get a bunch of sticks and chase it away with our sticks? We're gonna chase away the evil you do chase away darkness No, you just figure out What's lacking and if what's lacking is something that can be remedied then we should label as as such This is a lack that it's not good for it to stay here We could try to do something about it and then there are other kinds of lacks and deficiencies. There's just nothing you do about it I mean like for instance the ramam says I'm well gonna die And that's just like by default of being made of flesh and blood So is there any reason to worry about that? No, it's just like I mean complaining about dying is complaining about being a physical being and that's what the kind of being you are So you don't call that evil but if you could Ensure that your ability to function while your physical life is at a higher quality or that the duration of your life is a physical Right okay, those are lacks that we can do something to mitigate and so therefore we should label those things to be missed so death It's not an essence evil sickness maybe more so The fact that we can't understand everything not evil the lack of wisdom and maturity maybe we could call that evil But even there it's you're talking you're you have a category of lacks which are preventable Avoidable addressable and that's what we mean by the Hebrew or raw evil bad negative It's a good use of mental category if you use it properly and if you start misusing it then you make yourself miserable And you start asking stupid theological questions like why why did God create the thing that doesn't really exist? If God creates the world it doesn't create light does he have to in addition create to that create darkness? no When do you notice that it's dark? And there's no light when there's light you know what light is and you're expecting some light And there isn't anything like oh, that's that's there's darkness here, okay? But there's no actual substance darkness. It's a way of categorizing it which can be useful if you use it properly and this is a very classic view in Judaism God is good and he creates everything he creates is good because existence is good and But not everything is equally good. It's the animal form principle All animals are equal but some equal than others all things are good, but some things are more good than others Okay, fine and the only thing that is ultimate good has got himself and all of us that are not got himself are a little bit less than Completely good meaning we're leading in theory. There's a higher form of being Okay, if we can improve it then we should label as such and try and improve if we can't accept it and move on and this is a very classic understanding And then you don't have the question of like why do God create evil because he didn't Now is this the only view in classical Judaism? No But this is very foundational. Why is this very foundational? Let's assume for a moment the opposite before we go on to the Kabbalah, especially their results Kabbalah Let's assume the opposite for a moment. Let's assume that God really did create evil What would that mean? Well, God is good and God created evil Worse than that the outside himself is a acidic problem Then he made something that he made something that it's whole definitions that it poses him Okay, so what do you call a person who lives in a world which has two powers that are in competition with each other and one is the God they worship? That's not is that monotheism If you believe that there's the God you worship and then there's the other being who opposes that like that then you're like that the polytheism If God really is is and is now exists in a state where there's another being that is actually an odd genuine opposition to God because that would be if God is good and evil is evil is the opposite of that and You believe that you live in a world where there's two beings one you worship and the other one who's the one you worship's enemy Then how many got how many higher powers that got run the world that you're That's like a minor version of paganism Okay, so this very important is even if we're gonna move past the Ram's position the fundamental consideration Still has to be true that fundamentally God creates reality and therefore everything flows from God Everything has to be consistent with God There cannot be any true evil in a sense of something yet but that genuinely Exists in opposition to God because if that would be the case Then God would have since some sense a kind of an equal a kind of a competition Even if God is more powerful Right we don't say that we worship the most powerful God we say we worship the only God What is a God what's the Hebrew word for God and one of the board for goddess and One of the Hebrew word for goddess Elohim that is the generic Hebrew word for God it could also be eloca but it's usually paralyzed because words of Significance are pluralized if you mention the previous class Elohim. What is the word Elohim literally mean? higher power authority figure Strong being That's what the word means. So what's a God? Some kind of being like that that has some real power over your life in an existential sense Okay, so if you think God created this other thing called evil and evil is a force in the world in opposition to God And you are kind of stuck in between these things and they're pulling a new different God on one side and the forces of evil on the other Then as far as your existence is concerned How many Elohims do you have you have two? Yeah Which is why even though the tomah doesn't get into the philosophy yet But the tomah does speak about sultan, which is the Hebrew Hebrew word is that means just means adversary It's a job description not a proper name So it says that sultan Does things Lisham Shammah for the sake of God Sathons on God's team so whatever the tomah means the tomah is very clearly We know in fact to say that God created evil and then and then evil is this thing that end that is opposed to God Would end up making our existence not worshiping one God so even if we feel pulled by the forces of evil whatever they are The tomah is saying like don't don't read too much into that at the end of the day There aren't two competing forces fundamentally. There's only God and he's the source of reality and the wrong by I'm taking a more philosophical Approach of many people go along with this idea is that Really what we're talking about is the mental category of things are not as good as they could be and we know we can make them better And that's important mental category to have because it allows us to grow and develop and protect and whatever But that doesn't mean there's actual forces of evil in the world No one is caught in a conflict between Satan and God Okay, that's because if you feel like you're caught in such a conflict as far as you're concerned how many Eloquemes do you have? Two you may say hey one is more powerful than the other but you know just because you think Zeus is more powerful than Hermes Doesn't mean you're not a palatist You're still believing to God All right, so that's one take on evil Now we're gonna move under the second take on evil The second take on evil says no no no no evil really exists Evil really exists. This is the capitalist of you evil definitely exists now There are different ways to explain this we're going to go with the Ariazal's way of explaining it which kind of makes evil exist as much as possible Now it gives it as Without the system make make evil even exist even more but we're gonna wait for that. Okay All the negative stuff all the negative stuff all the negative stuff because remember the Hebrew Ruh is Generic enough it covers everything from things we don't things we think of as suffering all the way to moral evil and it covers all of that where it is Okay, so The Ariazal has a idea which some people may have heard of it is called the shattering of the vessels Okay, if you heard of the shattering of the vessels Okay, well if you haven't heard of the shattering of the vessels this makes my job easier If you've heard of the shattering of vessels makes my job harder because if you've heard of something you usually have what Pracency notions. This is how the shattering of the vessels work. Have any of you ever had a very profound question That was like existential really about fundamentals of life and you really wanted to answer if you ever had that And if you haven't had a few imagines on having such a question Okay, and being like really obsessed with this question that you need to know the answer Okay And you have this deep sense of urgency and then you're told that Somebody has the answer somebody really knows the answer And you travel to them and they say okay, you ask them the question and they can give you the answer And they say first what we need to do is establish certain basic principles and they start talking about things very Mandanely and antically dealing with very very simple ideas. What happens to your patients? You lose it. You like just give me the answer so they can find I decide you know what I will give you the answer and what do they do? They give you the answer in 25 words or less What happens? You do not understand the answer And now what situation are you in? You're shattered Because you had this deep urge for something this deep need for something right you were expecting to get it and instead of getting it what happened It's not now that you it's not now that you didn't get it right it almost gives you a sense. It's not it's not possible to get Right, this is the common experience of when a teenager has like a question about God and they ask like you know The rabbi or the the rabbits in the Khabad house and they start like trying to know I want to the answer like like how do we really have free will like? And the rabbit's don't know what they're talking about and they get frustrated and then and you can have this about a relationship you can have an issue and the issue is The single-minded focus that I need this now makes it impossible for you to have what you need and The result of that is you actually shatter and what does mean shatter? Everything gets distorted everything it gets twisted what you work once pursuing You now reject what was once clear now becomes fragmented Okay, by the way this happens to every single person Sometimes it happens more subtly sometimes happens more intensely. I'll give you some subtler examples Assuming that you grew up with a mother and father that way, you know within the broad range of normal When you're a child you kind of have a sense that like your parents are some kind of God-like figures like a small child And then you discover usually as you start approaching puberty that Your parents are not God-like figures. They're just people Okay, what does that do to the psyche? It messes you up when do you fully recover? That's an interesting question if you ever fully recover Why? Because your mind is not nuanced and sophisticated enough to handle the fact that they play this absolute Existentially ground-dream role in your life and at the same time there are no more Perfect than any other flawed human being but you just You know the 10 year old mine does not have that level of nuance and sophistication and so things break now We try and put them back together if you're keen to do it into adulthood, right? That's a messy process. Okay? Good and you know the example Sometimes people think of themselves a certain way and not Illigitimately so like they're an honest person Why do they think they're an honest person? Well, they don't lie. They don't cheat You know they They act like an honest person so they're an honest person what then happens when they're put into some sort of extended circumstance and They do act in a deeply dishonest way because they feel they just need to get by What does that do to their sense of themselves? Shatters right why? Well, if they had a more sophisticated sense that no person is like this type of person people have different qualities and facets, right? I'm not an honest person. I have a sense of honesty and it's very strong Especially when it's not challenged that doesn't make me an honest person So if you have a Simplicity about your sense of reality and a drive and the clarity about things You are brittle and you will break How does God make reality? Well God is one God is simple and God is absolute So what happens to the first revelation of God? It's brittle and if it's brittle what happens it breaks that's the basic idea of the shattering of the vessels God says I am one. I am simple. I'm absolute. I will reveal that That makes everything very brittle And it breaks Now God does that intentionally and there's a reason for it which we'll get to in a second and the result is now there's a mess Now here's the thing If you are a deeper person a wise or person a mature person what would you rather be a person who has gone through some kind of a Shattering experience to your psyche and rebuild yourself by picking up the pieces and figuring out how to put them together in some sort of constructive manner or Person who's never gone through that The first one the second one the first one why? There's stronger there's more depth right but if you Freeze frame in the middle of that process right between childhood and adulthood right and we want to be Precious be 15 years old no Right no one's perpetually be 15 years old, but you don't get to be you know a strong Nuance mature adult if you don't go through being 15 years old Right you don't get to be Someone who is a is is is is is has their own family right unless you have to confront the fact that your parents are flawed people You can't stay a child and then also be a mother or also be a father Okay, as I like to say boys don't have sons Girls don't have daughters and therefore there has to be some kind of sense of dealing with that. Okay So what does that mean? Where is the truest manifestation of God? A simplicity and absoluteness a clarity that is brittle or something that has Resilience it's integrated it's mature it's nuanced it's adaptable Where is God's presence going to be found much more in the latter one? But how do you go from the first to the second? Things have to break in the middle. Okay. What do you call the stage of in the middle when it's broken? That's called raw that's called evil So is the evil evil? It's a real state of existence, but it's not an Entity in its own right it is part of a process and When you're in the process and you relate to the process own as an isolated thing you start to ascribe to it Power that it doesn't really have But to then ignore it and say okay, well, I just gonna pretend that I'm going back to this implicitly in the childhood and that even it's all you know Lollipops and you know gummy bears and no, it's not like that life is messy life is hard life is difficult I think they've a word for this now There's a word for people who want to stay children And then try to also be on the other side you want to have the simple before things break and then you also want to have after things break without going through the Breaking you know that process is you know what that word for that is it's a new modern word. It's called adulting Think about it. Why is it called adulting? Because because because you're pretending you're doing there's an imitation like like deep down I'm a child deep down. I want everything just to be straightforward and easy and simple But it does allow me so I feel like no no no You need a shatter you like you don't get to go back to childhood You get to incorporate childhood into this new other thing, but you don't get to stay a child Okay, by the way, this doesn't just have to do with childhood, okay? You ever seen a 10 year old you ever see an infant they look the same they function the same way No, 10 year old 20 year old. They look the same. No function the same way. Okay, good 20 30 Closer right that's only because you're looking at it from the outside See what happens is the difference between zero and 10 is the most obvious difference the the different the external manifestation is the most clearest 10 to 20 is almost as clear but not yet 20 to 30 30 to 40 40 to 50 And I like that was the difference, but you know what happens if you actually go through being 40 and then you go into being 15 It's your it's a totally different person Okay, so now let's imagine that you have a relationship Very close relationship where the external manifestations of who you are are not the primary thing But how you actually really engage life together such as a marriage And you had a really good marriage when you were in your 20s, but now you're in your 30s You've seen there's gonna be a problem Because the relationship that existed was relationship between two people in their 20s and now you're two people in your So what if you insist on trying to like keep going, you know, and we're gonna we're gonna We're gonna how do they say adulting we're gonna 30s our relationship even though you deep down want to hold on to the world What was on your 20s that gonna work? Okay, so we have to let the 20 the relationship of the 20s do chatter and then we have to rebuild And then we have to do it between 30s and 40s Okay, now can you do it in controlled manner? Yes, okay fine right doesn't have to be did most disastrous thing Okay, and there but this is a dynamic that exists and the original source of this dynamic is God reveals the absolute clear simplicity of his being that has a pretab that's brittle It breaks and then from that there is the rebuilding of something more robust more deep more mature That that and that gives more of a sense of the truth of his being in the prous profound way okay in historical perspective God creating the world And then we end up with the sin of the tree of knowledge a good and evil Flood right all things just get but then there's also idea of the giving of the Torah and Thus working to refine the world ultimately the coming of Mishiaq and so the story of everything is the story of simple shattering reconstruction and The shattering when you go through it is genuinely evil But when it's in context What is it? It is good It's like the flood is like the shattering The the sinning of the flood is more the shattering the thing that leads to the flood Okay, and if you think about your life and you think about horrible things that you go through God forbid and you Rebuild yourself from those things how do you look at them in retrospect as parts you could just surgically cut out of your life and then everything will be wonderful is Is it something you would wish upon anybody including yourself to go on through the future? Yeah, right so it is evil when it you zoom in on it and It is good when it is recontextualized that's the basic understanding of evil in or Kabbalah more generally and especially their reason in particular And the whole idea according to their result of what Torah is is it gives us the guidance the power to Put the pieces back together in a deeper more mature way to recontextualize everything and ultimately that process concludes for all reality That's the coming of Masha'a But to the degree that these haven't been put together there's all sorts of warring parts at each other that are driving crazy But does that mean there's any Regenuine real opposition to God? no It might feel like that because it's part of the process and you're not looking at the whole thing But it doesn't mean that there's any genuine being who really stands in opposition to God Okay Is that the same kind of you that we had when we spoke about the Rambam? It's very different right you actually now have to confront the evil right you have to look at the demonic parts of yourself You have to look at those horrible voices the gates are the inclination Kuregu could really be something trying to influence you and you have to not just ignore it, but actually Face it and figure out what he's supposed to do with that Okay, and that's part of the wisdom of the Torah Good I want to point out two things number one in both of these descriptions Is there a real difference between what we would call good and evil? There is a real difference for instance the first one good is what is real and exists Starting with God and then less and less and less lower the kind of creation is and evil is just the Mental category of the thing fact that something is lacking but could be better and then maybe we can do something about it In a second one right good is where The sense of God comes clearly through and evil is the state of the shattering When you have not yet put the pieces back together But the shattering is important part in fact there is also clearly God did not do this by mistake. He did it intentionally The shattering was intentional why would God wanted to go through the process? Why not just create the outstate from the I mean God could do with anything right want to just create the end state to begin with just make God Just create the perfect ideal way of everything working together in this deep mature robust sophisticated integrate away and Their reason gives two answers Both answers kind of align with each other answer number one God actually wants us to participate Have you ever read a story? What's the basic arc of a story? Heroes journey with the most minimal level. Well conflict is which part of the story the middle You need to set up something then you have to mess it up and then you resolve it and somebody can then go through the journey Right if you just write the last third of the story where everything is resolved That's not a story. There is no agency there right so if God wants us to engage with him with with free will with agency Right well then there needs to be some that reality to work that way. That's one idea. So that's not a mistake the other thing is Um, and this is why it has to be like on the level of the divine revelation Does God want to be the observer of the story like when you watch a movie or read a book or does God want to be a participant in the story? Well, that means he has to sort of speak make himself vulnerable to the narrative arc the shattering can't just happen in your Experience of reality it also has to happen and his otherwise it's not a joint story. It's one person's journey and the other person's voyeurism Right and God gets to watch you have a story. That's not what he wants God wants to be Right, there's a book called the encyclopedia Judea Which is exactly what it sounds like it's encyclopedia about all things relating to Jews and Judaism. It's not orthodox God also is interesting things in it. So there's an entry called God which is reasonable because you know It's a part of Jews Judaism right and there's a bunch of subentries So I remember correctly the first entry in God is What do you think the first entry in it's like the pediatrician? No No No God is the hero of the Bible Think about it. Who's the main character? No, he's the side that shows up in act two of five No, they don't it depends when you want it depends when you it depends when you want To label the Jews, but they don't show up at the beginning. This is a story of God So guys like he makes a world and people over to listen to him and try and again He's focusing on one guy in his family and like yeah, and then and then there's the sequel You know where there's the whole like you know conquer the land and there's like that's the whole thing and then they're eventually like This is wonderful marriage and there's this like divorce but it's not really divorce a trial separation and then kind of cuts off And like you know you're waiting for like you know the next installment Like really if you think about it the main character of everything right God acts like a character Yeah, he's the hero of the story Right, he doesn't want to be the observer of the story He wants to be a participant So therefore the arc has to work not just for us, but also So the shattering asked to not just be in our little subjective experience of our psyches It has to be existentially in reality itself because God is the source of our reality And that's the idea of the shattering of the vessels So is it evil sure it's evil? Is it good it's also good Because when you understand this idea of putting something in context right The middle part of the narrative arc where everything collapses and everything is miserable It only works because everything collapses everything is miserable and it's bad, but that's what makes the story good So if you get through the whole story, it's really good if you get stuck in the middle It's really bad and those are not a contradiction But again the line between good and evil has been preserved We'd never conflate them we never say oh good evil doesn't matter It's all the same because that's the opposite Judaism Hashem tells us very clearly Re'en'isatulif'anechusia'id place before you As the chai'invesative life and good Vesemostusera' death and evil O'bacharte'm chai'in'choos life This is fundamental we do not think that it's all a matter of perspective There really is a dividing line between good and evil But it's not a dividing line between two conflicting forces that are really battling it out And even when we have descriptions that are like that we need to put them proper context to realize God does not have competition And God is good so evil needs to be understood in some different way So this is all without chasidus Do these ideas show up in chasidus? Sure they show up in chasidus But chasidus adds something that is quite unique So now we're going to go into our third understanding of evil Which is what chasidus adds And we're going to start with the story in the Torah God made a garden Where do you put the garden? No he didn't actually It's a true question The river that watered the garden flows out of Eden That's what's called gardens Yeah there's a place called Eden And there's a river that flows out of Eden The water is the garden and the river flows out of Eden and then goes to some other stuff So it's called garden of Eden because of the water source it's not actually in Eden So It's a way I don't know Well I mean they start off the upper waters like flowing down to the water right the water that the water is going down So there's this place called the Garden of Eden Which was a physical place and he still leaves a physical place It also means spiritual levels and whatever But we'll go to the stories of Garden of Eden And in the garden There's a tree How many trees are there? A lot of trees good at least that one you didn't trip up on I was like there were two trees It's a lot of trees There's a lot of trees There's a lot of trees Okay No But there are two trees that get named One is the Eitsachheim the tree of life And the other is The Eitsadastovarat The tree of knowledge of good and evil What is odd about that description And I'm going to give you a few seconds to think about it It's not the same to the different trees There's a garden And true trees get named for whatever reason in the story But they have different names One is called the Tree of Life And the other is called the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil What's odd about those names Okay What's the opposite of good? Evil That's good Okay, whatever the word whatever the different we have a word for it right Do we have a word for the opposite of good? Do we have a word for the opposite of life? Yes So if I were to keep the symmetry going what would I expect? The Tree of Life and Death and the Tree of Good and Evil Do I Do I get a Tree of Life and Death? I get a Tree of Life? Yep Singular and I get a Tree of Good and Evil Yeah Which is odd because my concept of life has a counterpart which is So this indicates something that there's actually two notions of life Remember I said that God says I've placed before you Life and Good, Death and Evil, choose life So there is a life that has a corresponding death that parallels with Good, Corresponding and opposing evil right But then you get to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden It doesn't speak about life in that way It speaks about life is just an absolute There's no there's no opposite of life or anti-life or unlife There's just life But then you get to Good, Oh no, Good has a counterpart evil I didn't say like everyone has shown me the world that he created death That's true, but also saying created evil Although it does say it later in the Embrace No, not in gracious it says it later in the prophets If you give me a sit, I'll tell you exactly where So I'm giving one of those heevers to the right there Yeah that one That's, you know right next to Yeah No, no, no, that's the other side I'm sorry Okay You're burning your mouth That's okay All right I don't think that's the font I was like What What was that I thought they would put the source Okay, they didn't put the source I'm sorry So we say a blessing every day before we're citing the shaman in the morning And the blessing is blessed are you Hashem, our God, King of the universe Who forms light creates darkness, makes peace and creates everything But that's a paraphrase of verse I thought they would put the source of verse to usually do But it puts the source of this pomegranate But the actual verse reads Forms light creates darkness, makes peace and creates evil But because we don't want to say that in our prayers We'd use a euphemism He creates everything What is everything? Everything But yeah, I think it's a book I think it's from Isaiah but I have to double check Yeah, so I mean it does say it there But it doesn't say it in the actual story in Genesis and Baratius It does not speak about creating death It does say that death comes into existence when At least for people It doesn't mean I speak about death in animals But when does death come into existence for people When they do what From the tree of The tree of that's over the tree of knowledge of good and evil So this is even doubly interesting now The tree of life is just the tree of life No concept of death Then you have good and evil You eat from the tree of good and evil Not the tree of evil It's just the tree of good and evil And also you get death Well this breaks our symmetry Because I would think you know you have good, evil, life, death And also parallels nicely You know what happens? I don't know Good and evil go together with death And the life is a category on its own And this is what This is the going to be a unique Perspective on evil that Chasiddus adds Again it doesn't mean to supplant the other perspectives It ultimately incorporates them And those like this I'll use myself as an example When are we still on Kabbalah? No this is Chasiddus This is all the way to Chasiddus Okay Although Chasiddus does read this into Kabbal and uses Kabbalistic language and stuff But It's not specific rather it's just like a general It's a general thing you can see many of the revés discuss Okay If you want sources I can give them to you But they are not translated into English So She can read Okay So I'll use myself as an example I have eight children What do I want In as much as I have children Okay So take a specific child let's say we'll take my 12 year old son What do I want? I have a 12 year old son what do I want? I want him to succeed This is a very serious problem This is not good What's not good about wanting my son to succeed? If he doesn't, do you want to go back to you? Oh no no no Of course I love him if he doesn't succeed that time You have no control or it really it's up to him Um I'm influenced Yeah I mean You know I don't have absolute control correct but I have a lot of influence That's not that doesn't make it that's not bad I want him to succeed You want him to thrive I want him to thrive There's something What There's something wrong with this succeed Let's go with this succeed for right now It makes it clear that we can go to thrive The time problem is going to be to thrive That's I think as actually good thing Parents should have definitions of things Children are born into the world really really ignorant It's not fair to make them figure it out all the wrong I mean I doesn't mean that your definition doesn't need to be slightly modified and updated Because you're not perfect but like It's kind of foolish to like say well You were born with no knowledge of reality at all And so you figure it out Like I've been here for a few decades I might have a head start Should give you at least a working framework Okay I mean with the humility that I'd probably have a few things off I mean some of the stuff I'm telling you today is wrong You know that right I just don't know which parts When I figured them out and I teach it again I won't include those parts But I just don't know which parts are the wrong parts But does that mean I shouldn't teach you at all? No Okay No the problem is like this Before we all walk out of class I mean if you want to walk out of class that's fine But like you know if you're set your threshold to I must know 100% that everything I ever think is correct Is for sure correct it can never be wrong As your threshold of learning anything Then you had to stay as ignorant as you were when you came out of your mother's womb Right because there's because there's no way that anything would ever meet that standard Like so here's that's what it means to be human We're lacking absolute awareness of reality Among other things also the ability to walk through walls we lack Um so what's the problem? What's the problem? I really don't want him to fail So why is that a problem? That's right And now I'm going to suffer If you want something If you and the word want here is actually a very great word We don't have a good word for want in Hebrew There's a lot of words in English that started off referring to Some kind of an objective reality and then started to morph into a subjective sense of things I'll give you an example You know what frustrated is? So frustrated is the feeling that happens when you need to get out of the room But the door is locked and you don't have the key right Okay but frustrated used to mean the fact that you can't get out of the room Because the door is locked you don't have the key Frustrated meant your your progress is being obstructed So just an objective reality Right my my studies have been frustrated Because of a lack of I don't know the teacher showing up or something But then you feel a certain way right And then the word starts morph into that right Okay you know what a hat is A hat instance No a hat It's the word that used to be an English word in English but we dropped out of use But it became happen stands happen happy Happ is a positive occurrence that it that happens to you Which makes you feel And then it kind of turned into kind of a power form which we call happen And the unpredictability of it got morphed into the word happen stance But the original meaning is still preserved in the word Mis-happ Right okay so you see how the words change their meanings or morph Okay so the word want is a great word and we just don't have one like this in Hebrew Every language has its you know it's ups and downs The word want originally meant and still sometimes means lack or privation Like you say you read some Victorian novel and he was found wanting which just means he was missing something Right maybe he didn't have good character or whatever But if you're missing something you have a desire to get it right And we tend to use that desire to get what we don't have as Also want right So I say I want to mis-happ actually mean two things I'm lacking mis-happ and therefore I have the strong desire to go get mis-happ See If I say it in Hebrew the word wrote said doesn't really have that connotation of lacking It has the connotation of running towards Okay or will power Or authority it has a slightly different feel Now over time and languages makes nobody pays attention to these things But so for instance no one no one in the you know in the Jewish theology department of the great medieval Theologians and cabalists and never so he says how can you say god wants things they never ask that question You know like because it's all in Hebrew and the Hebrew word there is russum which means god has a will for something Or god projects his energy towards something but once you translate in English you have this new question which is Why would god want anything? It's a different word and carries a different meaning okay So the problem is if you want something Okay, there's a there is a Hebrew word for a desire where where there's a notion of fulfillment and attainment Which is a Mavukhush A seeking out of something And if you have a Mavukhush you are seeking out something You have you have bifurcated you have split your reality into two Because there's the fulfillment of what you are seeking out and then there is What it doesn't get fulfilled when the opposite occurs Now some people don't like that so they make them self vulnerable and they decide that I'm not going to want anything You're like sometimes kids won't ask for what they want because they might get the answer knows they'd rather pretend they don't want it Okay, some adults do this too The thing is if you want if you desire it doesn't really matter what you desire You now live in a world split between two things between Tov and Ra between the fulfillment of your desire The fulfillment of your want the fulfillment of your Mavukhush and it's denial And whether you have full control over or you don't have full control is almost beside the point there's now two halves of you So this is the problem of having a child You have a child you want that child to succeed You're now definitely afraid they might fail You want the child to thrive You're petrified the opposite way to curve And even if you have the power to do so you're still operating with a strong sense of negativity In fact a lot of the mistakes that parents make in life and not just parents Business people anybody who wants something or is pursuing something right is That there's two motions. There's two drives there which is My Mavukhush what I desire and what I'm trying to avoid and prevent and run away from And if you're so afraid that your child might not succeed might you do things that are probably not the best thing to do Okay If you're too afraid of ever losing money will you ever do anything to further your financial stability? No because that only we do does taking a certain amount of risk And so might you have to invest money you get it? I use to lose money right there's no there's no you know There's no way to there's no way to progress forward without Taking some level of risk the issue is not whether you control the risk or not the issue is now there is some level of internal conflict And that the external conflict doesn't always have played out on the behavior It means that as long as there's some outcome that is important for me that it be achieved to be attained I have a strong drive towards something and a strong pull or drive away from something To use this in very mystical language in the Zohar the Zohar says that the infinite light of God A sends without end and descends without end Now, I mean why is God light moving in two different directions? Isn't God one? What happens if God wants something? Then how many divine energies are they going to be now? A positive energy and a negative energy because the minute God wants something There's also the thing God doesn't want to happen this if God wants there to be Health and happiness and what does God not want? Yeah, suffering and death okay. Well when you that's a negative energy, right? You know here's the problem with God. I mean there's no problems with God, but this is a problem with God See one of the great things about not being God is that you do not generate reality I mean you have some limited control of reality you have I mean obviously how you think affects your coming internal states and your actions affect the world and blah blah blah But you don't actually just generate reality You know what happens if God is totally indifferent to something Just doesn't relate to it at all. It doesn't care one way the other about it. What happens to it? It doesn't exist That's simple enough, right? So if one of something giz exists God has to in some way relate to it Okay, if God wants something then what happens? It exists right, but if you want something what what is the shadow of wanting? The shadow of wanting something is the negative energy you have towards the opposite of what you want the negation of what you want You want your child to thrive and to succeed. You're also afraid The opposite right and that is a kind of relating to something So if God really wants things to be good he must really hate But guess what happens when God pays attention and feels something towards something it exists So God you know what you know why evil exists? God loves good The consequence of loving good is hating evil, but hating is relating hating is a way of connecting And if you hate it exists to you and if you're God then it really exists And so God's hatred of evil is what evil makes evil exist But his hatred of evil goes hand in hand with his desire that they're be good So now we have very serious problem Because now if we keep pursuing good what's going to happen to the evil in the world? It's not going away because of this As I was like there's this tree over here. There's this whole way of being where it's like you feel attached What are the meanings of DAS? Which is knowledge is is attachment To really be connected to engage to identify with something So here's the thing if you identify with good you've also identified with evil just as the inverse And you have all these negative emotions towards it If you identify with your child success you've also identified with their failure just in a negative way As the thing you fear and doesn't matter how much you beautify what the thing is that you feel connected to such as like oh it's not it's not their success and achievement It's their thriving. It's their flourishing. It's their moral. It doesn't matter If the thing that you want more than anything else the world is your child to be a good person a god-fearing Jew Then what's your worst nightmare? You have a worst nightmare and you know when you're all alone at night and nobody's there That nightmare still exists and thank God you're not God because if you're God your nightmare becomes reality So I mean there is a way for God to You know get rid of evil. What's the way of God get rid of you? He's gonna take away good. He's just stop caring but that stop caring would also mean stop caring About everything. No existence. So now we have a very fundamental problem How do you have reality without evil? You can't Let's go back to the Garden of Eden. How many trees were there? Two. There were two trees. There are many trees. Two that were named. Two that were named And one of them is called the tree of Life. Life. Here's the thing once you pursue good once you love good once you have You know good and you want to connect to good you've now identified yourself with evil and that is the ultimate undoing That's where death comes from But there is a concept of life that it's not just oh you happen to not be dying There's a different idea. There's different way of being altogether There's definitely God could relate to reality which is not good. It's not evil. It is living So I actually have God can be just totally indifferent in which case nothing else would exist So that's not even discussed God can Be passionate have this deep mvukas this deep desire and yearning for something good But then that means God also has a deep resentment hatred negative attitude towards evil And when God relates to something it exists so then evil would exist in some way shape or form But then there's another way Not good not evil Because that ultimately downgrades into death just like when Adam and Eve ate from the tree eventually brought death into the world There's a notion of just life And so the only way out of this problem is not to Figure out how do I avoid evil and get to good Because as much as I try to avoid evil and get to good what am I subtly reinforcing Evil I need to figure out how to get past good versus evil and get to life And that is a that is a perspective that chasidus adds so we need to understand what is this life This is why I use example of my son. I have a 12 year old. I have a 7-8-1. We'll use my 12 year old Is my relationship with my son Defined or contained in my desire for his thriving flourishing his well-being Is that really what that relationship is? No Right and does that love have a mavookish does that love have a want does that love have something is trying to attain? What is this a sense of This is a sense of being connected Being connected Now from that being connected I now have desires Through guard to it and therefore I have fears with regard to it. Okay When does the good versus evil problem? To evolve into death When is the evil actually take on this negative thing? So let's go back to the story of the guard They need what happened gods has don't eat from the tree of knowledge of good evil and what do they do? They eat from the charge of good evil. Okay Our sages tell us that had they waited and first eaten from the tree of life they could eat from the tree of knowledge of good evil Because the entire context of how you relate to good evil is different if you're already grounded in life So if there's a parent is feels connected to their child and that's the fundamentally they really just feel connected That connection is not goal oriented. It's not achievement oriented. There's no success failure dynamic to it all they just really feel connected And then from that place they recognize I mean there is the idea that they could do better or worse Then they can have some notion of positive and negative emotions without it spilling out and becoming a thing in and of itself But what happens when your whole approach everything is goal oriented? The opposite of what you want comes true. The opposite one because now you have strong emotions towards Avoiding the failure avoiding the opposite that have a life of their own So what would be the solution to the problem? Not too we completely ignore good versus evil After all, right god does tell us choose good in life, right? But notice he says choose life doesn't say choose good choose life and from the place of life you engage good evil I'm like what I have many in the desert in the garden So what do that mean? Let's take some very concrete examples, okay? One of our practices that we have in Judaism is called pray Which is not the best translation Um the actual Hebrew word is one of the exactual Hebrew word is Elite Palais the verb right? Tfilas the noun right? It's an act of Tfilas. So what is the root? Tipu which is kind of like Hila no no no no it's nice. It's cute but no The the actual word literally Tfilas Elite Palais comes from the root Palais which means to think or to reckon To very very consciously aware and attentive to so for instance One of the biblical words for a judge who has to make a judgment in a civil dispute is Pili In modern Hebrew a felony is Avon Pili Because of that so the actual root comes from the idea of thinking in a very present conscious way So what is Tfilas? Tfilas the Elite Palais literally means to make oneself very conscious The aware of and reckon with the presence and reality of God Chocytis goes once the further and using a play on words says it's similar to the word Tfil Which means to bind because the ultimate meaning and purpose in this process is To be bound up and connected with God Okay, how do we Davin which is the Yiddish how do we pray? We ask for what we need that's the structure right? The structure is that's what you need okay? All right, watch. In praise, ask, thank you for saying that. Yeah, yeah, yeah That's getting more detailed, but the basic structure is the basic structure is to ask Those if you asked you prayed Now did you pray properly? No, because you should first praise and then think but Yeah, it's like if you know if you're missing if you're missing the the framing you still have the picture So I've ever ever have the the I've heard this idea or felt this idea that prayer doesn't work Is it possible for prayer not to work Yeah, because you're not consciously there then you just pray that's not prayer didn't work you didn't do it It's like you know My my studying doesn't really work because I failed medical school. I'm saying what did you study? Did you study well? I mean I showed up to class and I kind of have paid attention and whenever When sitting in the library like a kind of like flip through the textbook a little bit. Okay, so that's studying doesn't work You didn't study You know if I open up a book I just do this in English. This is fun right so we was like oh, you know praying. It's like you read the words and you think about what they mean That's not praying I'm a sitter me know So I'm going to not pray okay But I'm gonna do it out loud for you Okay Blessed are you so the reason why we say blessed is Not because God needs our blessings because we're trying to draw down his presence and then we say you because we're trying to directly Address God as if he's president front of us and then we have the four letter name of God Which represents his transcendence of time and space but we pronounce it with the name of God that signifies his Sovereignty over us and then we say elocano which means our God Signifying that he's all powerful, but we're also coming to terms with the fact that he identifies with us Now am I reading the words and paying attention to what they mean? Yes, I invest that when do that my praying no no I'm not praying right I'm studying the text of the sitter now I could do that in Hebrew quietly in my head, but it's still not praying Okay, so so let's say you pray you make yourself consciously aware and reckon with the presence of God in front of you and ask him for what you need You actually do that, which I'm not saying is easy. Let's say you do that Could prayer fail could prayer not work You're you're noting it could not work Do you know why people think prayer could not work Because they feel Like prayer has an end goal which is getting what you asked for No because it's not what prayer is about that's just the form in which you do it The form in which we pray is asking for what we need and what we like and what we want But that's not what prayer is prayer is Connection well did you connect you connect it? Is it possible to connect and then fail to connect think about that No, that's like silly. We had this meaningful conversation. Well, it was a meaningful conversation Did you come to agreement? No Did the person decide to give into your side? No, so it was the point. It was a meaningful conversation. We connected You kids if connection is the thing you're after then there's no notion of success or failure You're if you're connecting is If you're connecting you're connecting if you're not connecting you're not connecting But if you're connecting in order to get something Well, then you might not get what you want and then you think of it as a Okay So let's go back to the child and when I'm about to say is harsh and I do not wish this upon anybody Everybody unfortunately in the times of exile does go through some West children goes through some slight version of these things some through every version of things But I'm going to go to an extreme version of these things One of my sons when he was in second grade had a classmate who got cancer in the brain Which is a horrible horrible thing now What is the goal of being that child's parent? You know the child had parents what was the goal for them of being that child's parent It's a trick question There's no goal there is parents There's his parent they it's not a goal Now there wasn't okay Now as parents do they feel that they should do particular things in that circumstance? Yeah, but there's no goal of being his parents But now here's the thing when you ask a person randomly say what is the goal of being a parent? Oh, it's a help the child grow and how be healthy healthy and mature and live a meaningful life and we start a family of their own Okay, that's very nice you live in fantasy land But that's that that maybe your goal's a life and you but that's not a parent being a parent is not a goal thing Because this child and that's unfortunately happened did not live The child one the last thing is a child asked is to be able to put on to fill in when he was like I think 11 years old Because he wasn't going to live to his parents fine There's no goal there There's no goal Now are there ways of engaging the reality what's happening? Sure, but there's no goal right? Okay, so now why is that any different if your child is going through Something else like a drug addiction or your child is going through difficulty religiously or you're just child is like a normal well-adjusted person Does now that being a parent have a goal? No It's you are the parent there's a connection that that is the reality of your life if you are engaged with who you are and who they are your lives are intertwined That's just reality Live that now if that's where you're coming from Are there appropriate things and inappropriate things that you're going to do? Sure Right are you going to be there sure you're going to be there but Will you have maybe proximate goals in terms of figuring out how to conduct yourself? Sure But at your core you're going to be driven towards goals No Because going back to the analogy of of the avenue of prayer of Tefila There's no Being connected means you're connected if you're connected you're connected. There's no goal of being connected And so what Hacidah says is The fact that we think of avoidance of evil and the pursuit of good as somehow the ultimate layer of reality Is what perpetuates the existence of evil It says does not say therefore dissolve the difference and there's no difference in good evil Well, Hacidah says approach the difference of good evil But that is not the first layer reality before I and now we're not always consciously in touch with this But before I care that my child succeeds and thrives before that on next essential level I'm connected to him because of my child and that's not a goral oriented thing And if that is something that I feel that is something that is flowing through me like the life of the soul flows through the body Well, then I can engage helping him be more successful and avoiding things without that becoming what defines reality so When we start with a sets That That there is good there is bad and these are juxtaposed if you pursue that to its end what happens death But if you start with a sense that there is life there is just who I am and who I'm connected to and that is the reality of our life And we live that and then from that place there is a notion of I do it this way and I don't do it that way well then There's not going to be any death And really the real idea is is that we're not You know on one level like there's a goal we want to bring mishach Some people ask the question okay, so the goal is to bring mishach and then what what happens after we bring mishach What happens after you win monopoly? And what do you do? You put you what you do is what you do is you You just tell the kids to go put on pajamas and then you try to feed them and you forget to put it away You're right says you want me to put away so yes, but okay, that's what have last on my plate But yes, the game has to get put away right that's the end of it. So you're not over okay. So the goal is to bring mishach okay now I brought mishach now what Game over no it's not the whole point I have a very very wise son who's in first grade And I asked him Why should we do mitzvus This was when he was in the beginning first grade And he said it's I'm saying I said yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I know shamsa like that that's that's like what obligates us But like what's the point? What's the no he were asked him what's the tahtos? What's the what's the goal? Like what does it lead to and he says we do mitzvus bring mishach so okay and what's the point of bringing mishach like why don't you And he says so we can do mitzvus When can you do more mitzvus before mishach comes or after mishach comes No, all right. The wasn't having really you offered a sacrifice in temple recently. No Did you um did you hear did you hear the Davidic King read from the scroll of the Torah every seventh year? No, okay, right so and um at what point did did the Jewish people have the practical opportunity and the Internal mental and emotional and spiritual state to be able to do all the mitzvus properly the way god wanted when did that happen That's right. So In fact if you look in the robum in the laws of mishach he says very clearly the one of the first things is that what's so great about mishach We get to do all the mitzvus Which we never have really done okay, right. So I said so wait a minute. That's my son So you mean to tell me That we do mitzvus So we bring mishach so we can do more mitzvus. We're just doing mitzvus to do more mitzvus and he looks at me says Ken mitzvotem tov Which means yeah because mitzvus are good and he didn't understand why this was complicated Oh, it's so cute Because and by the way, what is the meaning of the word mitzvus literally Commandment Something you are required to do because an authority figure told you to do so if you failed to do so that's a moral failing on your part in your Belgrade responsible for it. That's what the word mitzvus literally means but Kabbalah, Hacidus do another word play because there's an aermake word which means connection Savsa and they there's words are very similar and so so the intermeaning of the commandment is really the connection and Is it really proper to think of connection as a goal oriented activity? No, does that now if you're grounded in that sense of connection, which is what life really is Does that flow into a way that a proper improper way of going about it? Sure But that doesn't have that same goal orientedness And so if we eat from the tree of life before we eat from the tree of not good and evil everything is fine If we ground everything in I am connected to God and I'm living out that connection Then we can do good and avoid evil without perpetuating evil and when God feels I'm not pursuing good and I hate evil But I'm connected to my people And this is how it should look then evil as the verse says Bila muvassal Netsakh death is swallowed up forever And the spirit of evil is eradicated from the earth Because it's not defined in terms of this goal oriented thing And so what Haciddo strangely says is if you goal is to get rid of evil then stop having goals Does that mean I should become just passive and indifferent? It means I should ground myself in life and what is life? Connection connection to God Connection to our spouse connection to our children connection to our community connection to our students connection to our teachers And through that life of the life which is the true being of God spreads throughout the world And yes things will be good and evil be avoided Without the downside of all the negativity coming about So those are three very different spins on the idea of good versus evil yes Okay, this is what does it mean that only one of these is right? No, but there are different layers to it And the first is that reality is good And what we call evil or bad is just recognizing a lack that could be improved upon at least in theory The other is that there is a narrative arc to reality not judges for people would even for God himself so to speak And in the middle of an narrative arc there has to be the conflict stage the shattering stage That's what makes it a that's what gives agency and the journey and participation And then the final thing is That Evil is a existential bri product of pursuing good And the way to get rid of evil therefore is not to pursue good But to really be connected and then this is what the motion tells the Jewish people before he passes away He says At them baking by Shemulay Kechem You are attached to a Shem your God Kaim Kulchem, how you have you are all living today You're attached you're connected to your life Now that your life live out that life okay, there's things that will be appropriate in your appropriate in that context And we can find that in all sorts of areas and then when we really live that We have a personal redemption we bring about the old-to-old redemption and then we just continue living and living is good I will see you guys next week have a wonderful showbiz