THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 31, 1994 TAG: 9412300094
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Issues of Faith
SOURCE: Betsy Mathews Wright
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
EVIL DIDN'T take a holiday this Christmas season.
In Essex, Md., a minister was stabbed to death during a Christmas Eve robbery of his home. A French jetliner was hijacked by terrorists and three hostages were killed. In Jerusalem, 12 people were wounded during a bombing. Even here in Hampton Roads, a Chesapeake mother was charged with murdering her husband and two children.
``As I look at families in the light of Christmas,'' lamented Pope John Paul II in his Christmas address, ``I cannot but turn my thoughts to the greater human family, unfortunately torn by persistent forms of selfishness and violence.''
Where does such ``selfishness and violence'' come from? They come from evil. But how is it that evil came to exist in a world created by a compassionate, just and loving God?
That is a question that has haunted mankind for centuries. Nearly every culture and every faith has its own answer. Often the answers have changed from generation to generation. For example, early Jews viewed evil as a simple reality of life. They didn't see evil as something separate from God, but a force that God controlled to accomplish his ends. Evil was thus always a part of God.
Later, Christians would separate the force of evil from God and associate it with a supernatural being, Satan, who opposed God and God's people.
``When illness, tragedy or calamity occurred in ancient Israel,'' writes Samuel A. Meier, an associate professor of Hebrew and Comparative Semitics at Ohio State University, ``one tended to see God at work; in the New Testament, Satan and demons are generally seen as responsible.''
Still, believing in Satan and demons as the source of all evil isn't enough to answer how these evil ones came to exist in the first place. I've read and heard dozens of explanations. One of the most fascinating explanations comes from the teachings of Isaac Luria.
Luria was a Jew who lived from 1534-1572 in Galilee. He practiced Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism that had its roots in the second and third centuries, but did not flourish until the 12th and 13th centuries. Though he was not a writer, Luria's conversations were written down by two of his disciples. Their manuscript wasn't published until 1921.
Bear in mind, my interpretation of Luria's theory is rough. It's really an interpretation of an interpretation found in Karen Armstrong's excellent book, ``A History of God.'' I do, however, think I got the gist of it.
Luria believed that evil was born in the very beginning of God's creation of the world. Prior to the creation of the heavens and Earth, God inhabited every inch of eternity and space. God's attributes - things like mercy, wisdom, judgment, compassion and patience - all mingled harmoniously together in this God-filled space.
When God decided to create the physical universe, he had to withdraw from himself, or shrink, in order to leave enough space for the physical universe to be formed. During this process, which Kabbalists called tsimtsum, there was great chaos. God's attributes became separate from each other, particularly his Hesed (mercy) became separate from his Din (stern judgment). Without mercy and the other attributes of God, stern judgment became a potentially destructive thing.
Now at the same time of the creation of the world, God created the first man and filled him with God's own now-separate attributes. Each attribute, in the form of divine light, was to be housed in a different part of the body. As God was placing the attribute of stern judgment in the eyes of the first man, a catastrophe occurred, which Luria called the Shevirath Ha-Kelim, or the Breaking of the Vessels.
The blood vessels of the eyes were not strong enough to hold the attribute of stern judgment. They burst. The divine ``sparks'' of God's stern judgment poured out. Some returned home to the Godhead, while others fell to the chaos of the newly formed Earth.
Thus, stern judgment entered the world, and without the other attributes of God, it became evil. Until the end of time, Luria explained, God will engage humanity as his helpers in the process of redeeming those divine sparks that were lost and scattered in chaos at the Breaking of the Vessels. However, because humans have free will, it is they who choose to work with God or against God.
Kabbalists constantly warn readers not to take their ideas literally. Armstrong writes that ``it is a fiction designed to hint at a process . . . that cannot be described in clear, rational terms. . . . ''
Still, the story is fascinating.
How did evil enter the world? Tell me what you believe next week. MEMO: Every other week, Betsy Mathews Wright publishes responses to her
opinion column. Send responses to Issues of Faith, The Virginian-Pilot,
150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510; call (804) 446-2273; FAX
(804) 436-2798; or send e-mail to bmw(AT)infi.net. Deadline is Tuesday
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