The text Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah, a Kabbalistic work whose title means "Forty-Nine Openings of Wisdom," delves into this very question, and it takes us to some pretty cosmic places. It speaks of Atzilut, the realm of divine emanation, the highest and most refined level of existence. Think of it as the source, the pure, unadulterated goodness from which everything flows.

But how does that goodness turn into… well, not-goodness? According to this text, the root of actual evil lies in the lowest level of Malchut, the last of the ten Sefirot (divine attributes) in the realm of Asiyah, the world of action. That's a mouthful, I know. Basically, we're talking about the most physical, most manifest level of reality, furthest removed from the divine source.

The Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah tells us that when the "Supreme Mind" – we can understand this as the divine will – wanted to bring evil into being, it did so by, in a sense, hiding Atzilut, that pure divine emanation, behind “garments.” What are these “garments?" They are concealing forces that allowed other, lesser energies to take control. These garments then ruled independently, and the concealment intensified to the point where that lowly power emerged and—boom—evil came forth, actual evil.

Think of it like a light bulb. The light, the Atzilut, is always there, but if you cover it with a dark cloth, the room becomes dark. The darkness isn't inherently bad, it's just the absence of light. But in this Kabbalistic model, that absence allows for the potential for evil to become actual.

So, what happens when we try to fix things? When we strive to reveal unity and rectify the damage? According to the Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah, the state in which evil actively produces evil has to be negated. That particular power that produced it in actuality no longer needs to exist, and the concealment that brought it forth disappears. The garments exist as they did in the beginning, where evil has the potential to be actual evil, except that it does not come forth because of the unity that has returned and consumed it, and which no longer allows it to exist in the state of actual evil.

In other words, the potential for evil is always there. It’s part of the cosmic fabric. But the revelation of unity, the awareness of the interconnectedness of all things, is what keeps that potential in check. It's the light that pushes back the darkness.

Here's the really interesting part: the text emphasizes that this unity is revealed only after the emergence of actual evil. Why? Because evil, in a strange twist, shows us the power of unity. Evil has the power to spread, and is prevented only through the revelation of the unity. Thus evil continues to exist in its sunken state in order to show the power of the unity.

It's a paradox, isn't it? Evil exists to demonstrate the power of good. The darkness reminds us how vital the light is. Perhaps, then, the presence of evil in the world isn't a sign of God's absence, but rather a constant reminder of the power, and the necessity, of unity. What do you think?