On Good and Evil

By RABBI DAVID ROSENN

Parashat Nitzavim/Vayelech (Deuteronomy 29:9-31:30)

See, I set before you this day life and prosperity, death and adversity.

(Deuteronomy 30:15)

This verse is what biblical scholars call a merism, a Greek term that means using two opposite extremes to refer inclusively to them and everything in between them. A classic example of this kind of term is in the first verse of the Torah: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Most interpreters understand this to mean that God created the heavens, the earth and everything in between. Another example is the phrase "they came from near and far," which doesn't mean that people came only from nearby and from far away, but from everyplace.

In the verse above, then, God is not asserting that we have a choice of two extremes before us (life or death, prosperity or adversity), but rather that a wide range of options exists in human life, and all of them are "set before us" as part of creation.

The prophet Isaiah spelled out one of the implications of this verse when he said:

I am the Lord; there is none else. I form light and create darkness, I make good and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.

(Isaiah 45:6-7)

It might be difficult to think of God as the creator of evil, but Isaiah is clear on this point: everything that exists in the world—both good and bad—originates with God.

The rabbis of the Talmud embraced this idea and gave it liturgical force when they taught:

We are obligated to make a blessing on the occurrence of bad things, just as we must make a blessing on the occurrence of good things, as it says: "Love the Lord your God with your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might."

(Mishnah Berakhot 9:5)

In our work to confront social injustice, we encounter so many occurrences of "bad things". Why would the rabbis instruct us to bless the bad along with the good? Do you prefer to think of evil as outside of and opposed to God's creation or a part of that creation? What difference does it make?

© AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps