Why Is There So Much Evil in the World?
We learn in the wisdom of Kabbalah that there is a single, eternal and perfect force that created and sustains reality, and that this force acts toward us out of love and mercy, in order to develop us to its degree. It created us in an opposite quality to its own — its quality is giving; ours is receiving — where we each wish to serve ourselves alone, and in such a quality, we innately disagree with the existence of a single force since we perceive several different and opposing forces in a constant struggle.
We see a world full of conflicting, opposing and resisting forces. We do not see the true world because our perception is based on our fundamental disagreement to the idea that there is a single force that acts solely to benefit us.
We see a world full of conflicting, opposing and resisting forces. We do not see the true world because our perception is based on our fundamental disagreement to the idea that there is a single force that acts solely to benefit us. In the language of Kabbalah, such a disagreement is called “the quality of judgment.” If we perceived the true world, then we would see that only one force of love and bestowal dwells in reality, which Kabbalah calls “the quality of mercy,” and then we would see this force acting mercifully toward everyone.
The reason we view the world behaving according to the quality of judgment, i.e., regularly hearing about terrible and evil events, is due to what Kabbalah calls our “lack of correction.” It means that we view reality through a shattered lens of our opposition to the quality of love and bestowal. Moreover, while opposite by nature to the quality of love and bestowal, we need to undergo a process of development in order to shift our perception: from transience, separation and incompleteness to the view of one force acting in an eternal, perfect and whole manner. Then, when we complete this correction process, we come to see that only one force — the quality of love and bestowal — dwells in the world, and that this force is good and does only good.
What should our response be, then, to hearing about negative phenomena, i.e., to all the wars, suffering and crises on personal, social and global scales? It should be, as it is written, that “they have eyes and see not; they have ears and hear not.” When we see disasters taking place, we should acknowledge that we fail to perceive the positive force of love, bestowal and connection behind it all, and also that we would like to perceive it and see that it acts ultimately for our benefit.
We need to remember that there is a good source that acts on the world, which created everything opposite to its quality of goodness in order for us to develop ourselves to reach a perception of its oneness, eternity and perfection above our opposition to that quality.
We need to remember that there is a good source that acts on the world, which created everything opposite to its quality of goodness in order for us to develop ourselves to reach a perception of its oneness, eternity and perfection above our opposition to that quality.
Therefore, the conflicts, evil and hatred we see in the world are part and parcel of a grand theatrical production playing out before us. Through this theater, we can attain the ability to accept the providence behind such a show as absolutely good and benevolent toward us. It is a game that we have been given to play. This is the meaning of “playing with the whale,” which is what we do when rise above the opposition in our perception to reveal the single benevolent force guiding reality.
However, on one hand, we should be careful to not treat this matter lightly, i.e., relating to our lives as fake and “just a game.” On the other hand, we should also be careful not to fall into states of intense sadness and/or anger with what we see unfolding in the world. Instead, we need to constantly navigate ourselves in between these two poles, in what Kabbalah calls “the middle line.”
Therefore, we should acknowledge that the role of evil in the world is to show us that everything is good. We would be unable to feel goodness, love, bestowal, harmony, peace, happiness and confidence without their negative counterparts. Also, we need to learn about how we develop to a final destination in our lives where we will perceive a single, good and benevolent force.
It thus turns out that if we see evil in the world, we should exercise the opposite good qualities of love and bestowal by positively connecting to each other. By doing so, we gradually come to neutralize any appearance of evil in the world while increasingly discovering the single positive force of love and bestowal dwelling in reality.