In Da'at Tevunot, a profound work of Jewish thought, we find a compelling answer. It challenges our assumptions about the very nature of good and evil, offering a perspective rooted in the idea of God’s presence, or, perhaps more accurately, God's absence.
The text begins by referencing several powerful verses. First, Psalm 30:8: "G-d, with your will you raised me up like a mighty mountain, when you hid Your face, I was afraid." Then Psalm 104:29: "When you turn your countenance they fear..." And finally, Moses himself, in Deuteronomy 31:17, says "...and I will hide my countenance from them and they will be for consumption..."
What's the common thread? This idea of God's face being hidden, of a turning away. Da'at Tevunot uses these verses as a springboard to explore a radical concept: that negativity, or "evil," isn't a separate, independent force. Instead, it's the absence of God's divine emanation, His overflowing goodness. Think of it as light and shadow. Shadow isn't a "thing" in itself; it's simply the lack of light.
The text explains that God constantly emanates goodness. This emanation, this divine flow, provides everything necessary for the well-being of creation. When this emanation is complete, when all the "rectifications" – the necessary conditions – are in place, the object of that emanation thrives. But when the emanation is absent, even partially, deficiencies arise.
To illustrate, Da'at Tevunot offers an analogy: imagine the divine emanation of existence and life. If it arrives fully, with all the proper preparations, the recipient is alive and healthy. But if that emanation is completely nullified, the recipient dies. And if the emanation is only partially absent – if some preparations are missing – the recipient doesn't die, but becomes sick, afflicted, and lives a life of suffering. It's a spectrum, a gradient of presence and absence.
So, what does this all mean? It means we can’t think of good and evil as two equal and opposing forces. The text explicitly states: "we cannot say that the good and the negative are two G-dly emanations." Instead, negativity is a consequence. It's what happens when God's light, God's goodness, is diminished or withdrawn, either entirely or in part.
This perspective is deeply comforting, and also profoundly challenging. It means that evil doesn't have inherent power. Its power comes only from the absence of good. And if that's true, then our task becomes clear: to increase the presence of God's goodness in the world, to bring light into the darkness, to fill the void with acts of kindness, compassion, and justice.
It's a reminder that we have agency. We can choose to be conduits of divine emanation, or we can contribute to its absence. The choice, ultimately, is ours. So, how will we choose to illuminate the world?