It’s a question that’s plagued humanity for, well, pretty much all of humanity. And Jewish mystical tradition, particularly the Kabbalah, offers some fascinating, and often challenging, insights.
Today we're diving into a passage from Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah, a Kabbalistic text that grapples with this very issue. It poses a fascinating contrast: the "root of good" was already there, primordial, needing no creation. But the "root of the Other Side" – that's evil – was an innovation, something new.
Think about that for a moment. Good is inherent, foundational. Evil… is an add-on?
The text goes on to say that the root of this "Other Side" is deficiency. A lack. And it only came into being after the Tzimtzum. The Tzimtzum (צמצום) is a crucial Kabbalistic concept – the primordial contraction of God, making space for creation. So, according to this, evil didn't exist before creation, or even in the initial act of creation itself. It emerged as a consequence of that initial withdrawal, a shadow cast by the divine light.
This idea helps address a tricky question. Why does evil seem to have more "real estate," more power, than good? The text phrases it like this: "evil has two places while good has only one."
The challenge is in how we interpret the phrase "also this one against this one." If we see it as referring to good and evil within the Sefirot themselves - the emanations of God's attributes - then we might assume the "Other Side" is simply an offshoot of the deficiencies that remained from that initial creation. Just as the "Holy Side" is an offshoot of the inherent good.
But that’s not quite right, according to the text.
Instead, it states that it's the entirety of the Holy Side and the entirety of the Other Side that are "this one against this one." Meaning, we’re not talking about leftover bits of good and evil within the divine realm. We’re talking about two complete, opposing forces. Good is fundamental. Evil is a undefined to the void created by the undefined. It fills a space, but it's a space born of absence.
So, what does this mean for us? It suggests that evil isn't an equal partner to good. It's a consequence, a reaction. Perhaps understanding this can help us better navigate the challenges of life, recognizing the source of negativity not as an inherent power, but as a response to a lack, a deficiency that we can, perhaps, strive to fill with light and goodness.