God is Good: A Kabbalistic Look at Why Evil Exists & Why Bad Things Happen to Us?

what we're going to be talking about is the idea of that God is good that's what we're going to really get to and hopefully we'll uh we'll bring it out in this para although one will ask right away why we talking that God is good in the paraa where uh we see God you know sending plagues to the Egyptians and the Egyptians causing Jews to suffer you know it's a very very uh difficult time for the Jewish people in in this week's paraa and the whole aidea of the we call the birth pangs of our Redemption from Egypt it was not so simple we hear about Jewish children being thrown in the in the river you know power persecuting and causing greater suffering on the Jews you know once Moshe shows up so difficult times and it's specifically here that we want to talk about the fact that God is good and that you know all that God does is good that's what we're going to bring out let's start the P reads Hashem El Moshe God says to Moshe come to because I have hardened his heart in the heart of his servants in order to place my signs within him in them in Egypt when God his name is appears in the Kish and even in prayer as well there is a difference between the different names that are shown and we have to understand and appreciate why the shift from for example the name Elohim which is the name that shows up in the beginning of creation versus the name Hava we say we call the name sh Hava which is the name of Y God's letters yud and and and you know so what's the difference between these names so the standard explanation given is that the shame Elohim is Judgment or the or strictness punishment uh we find in a the prior par when when God Appears to you know to mosha and tells him how he appeared to the the forefathers so over there there's a shift from language the PK starts talking in the language it says Elohim it says that God spoke using the word debor and Elohim then it says and the commentators over there mention that debor is speaking harshly and aloh is judgment and Punishment and V is speaking softly and the main name of God is Mercy and goodness and he tells him Bo El Paro okay anyone have a problem with this this phrase come to parro you have a problem with it does it say go to excellent question I have the same question and you should know we're not alone because many many years ago the in addition to the many commentators that have this question it's brought up by many of the commentators the Zohar which is the main source of cabala that we have written by RAB shimai you know the one of the tan one of the Holy tanay so he asks this same question in the Z he asks why does it say come to parro it should say go to parro now the Zohar gets into a very deep cabalistic answer which is really not what we're to discuss now but I wanted to mention that the question is brought there because it's important that they focus and bring up the question and my question to us to you guys right now is what's the problem why can't you say come to power why why is it a problem to say come instead of go excellent I'm so happy that other people see things my way I love when people agree with what I'm about to say beautiful and everyone else agree I'm so happy today see I this was going to be a good class talking about God's goodness excellent bamin right bamin is I think correct and I think no one else here wants to argue with either of us uh so we're all AG in agreement right that when you say come to a place the implication is that it's in proximity to you you know if I talk to someone I say come to the store so obviously if I say come to the store it means I'm there with the store and I'm telling you come to the store where I am if I tell you let's you know go to the store I'm telling you to go away from where I am that's the what essentially said that that's what I'm just reiterating because it is in fact what what I noticed and and you agree as well everyone agrees good now this is a little bit interesting though or problematic what is going on over here parro represents the real Catalyst the source of all of the sorrows and the and the heartache and and Troubles of the Jewish people parro is the bad guy that you can't get worse than parro stubborn reluctant to give in the cause of not only Egyptians suffering but uh the Egyptian suffering but the cause of also Jewish suffering he's making everybody suffer and Hashem is telling Moshe using the name Hashem which is Mercy goodness speaking softly telling come come to parro and we said the implication is that Hashem is there with par so we know that the Torah really speaks to us on more than one level there's simple way of understanding things and there's the deeper implications there's there's the secrets as we mentioned the Z reveals from this P but there's also many different ideas that we can bring out one of the ideas when we talk about par the person that lived in Egypt parro so there's many different ways to appreciate what parro means there's par that person but there's and there's also inala what par is and there's also different ways to appreciate what power represents because the word has different meanings in the Hebrew language now for this we will uh use a famous method of J this is aasha the word par is really which is rooted in the word PR PR and there's a verse obviously prya is something we do in onit we reveal the of the of the Brit we it uncovers and Reve deals we also have precedent the word of p prya with the the woman the Wayward woman who they uncover her hair they are they uncover her hair so the word means to uncover to reveal now if you're going to tell me skeptically like listen Rabbi till now we were with you but you know come on the story is talking about parro he was a person in Egypt what are you trying to do over here how many how much games can we play when we're learning Torah you know you're going to tell me now it means reveal that's a little bit uh I I'm not ready to take that that that far of a step so I'll tell you don't trust me we'll trust a holy holy Rabbi that actually I was I'm have the same first name is him and we're both have the same first name ASU which now you know the name the K the holy RV he was a tremend tremendous tremendous cidic Giant in his time in explaining the deep deep deep ideas of of cabala in in the method of kism where they explain it in in in nice ways that make it applicable to our divine service he was also a huge a you know a scholar and a Pok Ina and there are many many stories about his greatness so he has credibility we beyond question and he brings the same drush he takes the word par in a prior para in the para with Yash when Yehuda approaches y to speak to him Yehuda says you to me are like parro you are like parro and the K Le says over there that over there also the word par when Yuda says to Y you are like par the meaning there is from the Revelation and uncovering and it means over there also gu it means Revelation so in the same way that the K explains the name par which is referring to the real power that lived in Egypt the the the leader of of Egypt so too I'm using it here that par means Revelation okay so now you guys are okay if we're with me and the K Le it's not just me we're all ready to take this journey yeah excellent so what does it mean though so that's the way we're looking at it now it's El come to power which we said now means Revelation so the truth is what we said that the Torah works on multiple tracks so to speak it's not an old-fashioned system that we can only use one track at a time this is a very modern very sophisticated system of whatever the you know most advanced you know windows or whatever is happening today we can use both tracks simultaneously so really theot of parro doesn't disappear we're going to parro which is like I said the source of all of the suffering and hardship in the world right now the the the essence of of of evil in the world but at the same time Hashem is telling Moshe on the level of Dr come to the Revelation and he says come as we started saying because really I'm there so what we come out now is come to the Revelation that God is really there behind parro which is the source of all the suffering in the world and that's a principle that we all have been taught and we all have understood and somehow accepted whether we understand it or not maybe we have questions on it but ultimately through our faith and this is one of the principles of of Judaism we know that everything that God does is for the good and everything that happens in the world is from God we know that there are not two rulerships two dominions in heaven that are fighting against each other as some very primitive uh you know confused people want to think even until today that there's the good and bad powers above and you know we better pray that the good side wins but who do you pray the good side wins if they're equally battled then uh how does it no there's one one power and that's the power of God Almighty our forefather Abraham realized it and our religion is based on the belief in that good and bad all things that happen under the sun come from one Divine being that has no limitation and nothing above him and that is our God and so that's what we're being taught over here come to parro cuz I'm there and everything even the wickedness and the harsh brutal treatment that the world has experienced right now because of power was ultimately coming from me and now we have the one of the greatest questions and dilemmas of Life why do bad things happen to people if God is loving and good God why do why do we suffer why do bad things happen we're going to tackle death can anything be worse than death no so let's talk about death death is so terrible right why should we have to die why did God give us life in order to take it away from us and all the hurt involved with that death is a positive thing or a negative thing it's both I would think so I like that answer I love any answer that leaves us confused this is what the job the job of any good Rabbi is to to ask the right give answer that leave you confused right that's so I like it is that inferring that whenever we're just born our our original action is to die so the r explains like this death is a good thing and death is a necessary thing but like we started in the back very nice point you want to bring out if life is good then it should be that death is not good so externally or if you have a if you're looking at only part of what death is so we can say that that's bad that's harsh it's negative we don't like it we don't want it nobody prays to die unless they're a little bit foolish which is an interesting question if somebody's uh unfortunately sick and depressed is he allowed to pray to to die someone is physically sick and suffering can he pray to die or or or we are are we meant to embrace life all the time it's interesting question uh but let's deal with death death can be bad superficially or looking at one aspect of death but ultimately if we said what we started saying in sheer that everything that God does is for the good because the purpose of creation is only for good then even death which is part of creation has to also be good let me read you the words of the Aral this is this is you know Aral one of the main main books of cabala let me read you briefly the beginning of what it says over here in shim and the ramal Really discusses and expands on this idea in a lot of his books says like this when it arose in God's will when the will when when God's will was to create the world okay there's a point so to speak which is hard to talk about about because we're talking about above time in time but there there came a point where God desired to create the world what was the reason says here in order to bestow goodness upon his Creations so there's a a first thought there's an initial really ruton a desire which is connected with the idea of of course a thought first of all when we originally born I original that was to live forever it wasn't until the first sin that it was decreed upon man to die dying is only a result of sin dying is does not represent our Essence nor does it represent the purpose of God creating us it is a result of of of of sin of turning away from God and of doing something other than what God created us to do it's a negative result which is part of what we're going to discuss now what it's real purposes but let me first finish this this point over here it says further here in the and he says we should recognize God's greatness that means in simple terms that God also wants a connection with us and he wants us to be connected with him so and to be connected further it says and we should Merit to become a chariot above says to cling to Hashem ultimately the purpose for man is to transcend this lower existence in this physical world and to unify really all of the worlds and become a chariot for the divine presence and be connected and clinging to Hashem that's the purpose of creation said here but the main point is Le everything is for good as we started talking about today now obviously based on this the ramal explains further in his book D Hashem and other books that since god is perfect the good that we just mentioned that he wants to give us has to be perfect God cannot do anything that's not perfect now if we'll continue this rationale God made us so we must be perfect so I'm so happy I I I woke up on on the wrong side of the bed I thought I was a little bit overweight today you know I thought I had a bad attitude I was argumentative with my wife but now I find out that everything that God makes is perfect so I must be perfect so I feel much better now don't you feel better we're perfect so I feel better you okay uh we are potentially perfect and the good that want God wants to give us is perfect the question is how do we get there remember there's the initial desire to do something and then there's the goal and we're in between so the ramal explains God wants to give a perfect good now how does God give a perfect good first thing we have to know that a freebie is exactly that a freebie is missing value and anything that's free free comes with it's something that's missing now I really have a hard time identifying with what I just said because I love when things are free I love free gifts which is a double you know you don't have to say both words but I love to I love the free gifts I love the regular gifts free things are fun but in the end of the day God understood when he created us that if he would give us the ultimate good that he wanted to give us the perfect good it can't be free because then it wouldn't really be ours if someone lends you something so something's missing in that it's not yours but when you when you work for something and you buy it and it's yours so then you feel better about it it's yours because it is really yours for however you earned it or got it but when it's not really yours so it's missing something so to the good that God wants to give us if it was free it would forever be tainted this is called in the Zohar bread of shame I mean I heard of pumper nickel bread I heard of uh you know rye bread what is bread of Shame you ever anyone ever ordered a bread of Shame when they go to the restaurant so bread of Shame is bread that you don't earn and the mush the analogy is this a poer comes to your door and asks you for bread he's starving he's hungry bread is really food and you're a nice guy and you say you know what you're very you know hospitable wealthy guy you say I was just about to have dinner and I'm not talking about a regular dinner I have a m a five course meal I'm about to eat come and join me and we'll eat together this five course meal and he has soup salad you know two Meats two fishes you know dessert everything as you can see how much I love food how I get into the uh I get into this you know you know I can even talk about which kind of fish and which anyway for another time basically and Friday yeah at the end of the meal they're both full but they're not both satisfied in the same way because the popper received a handout and he has a feeling of worthlessness he doesn't have any real self-worth because he can't produce enough to even take care of himself he's riant on someone else to take care of him that's why it's called the bread of Shame they're both full in their stomach but one the other one's one's empty because he can't take care of himself and so that's the analogy that that're that we're given to appreciate what it means to get something for free and God understood that even though Yak would love free gifts he understood that but really in essence y will feel worthless if he can't earn anything in life and so when God wanted to give us the ultimate good which is an eternal good because remember we were created to live eternally not just for uh 6070 years when we were created to live eternally so he said I want to give you a good that's going to be Eternal you have to go earn it and so before we can live in that Eternal world that's the perfect world aarish had to First go through a challenge and that challenge resulted in the first sin and subsequently we are all trying to work through that first challenge that first the result of further subsequent sins and ultimately all of this is in order for us to be able to receive the good that we are going to receive because we earned it the Bas yose one of the famous rabbis he wrote toab Cairo he was a tremendous scholar so holy and so special in Jewish history that his book is perhaps the most in studied and the most authoritative and important book of Jewish law and he not only did he write this book of Jewish law but he has another book well-known book called a book that records his conversations with an angel that was specially appointed to teach him Torah to teach him secrets of Torah so we have in this book M his conversations with this Angel a Magid and over there the B gives an answer to this famous you know you know Timeless question why did God make the soul which is perfect and beautiful and a part of the Divine above and it was living in the spiritual Realms and it was like you know you talk about five star hotel this was a 55 star hotel unbelievable Paradise utter Paradise like it said closing with Hashem everything the soul had it all and it says you know what it's time for you to go down there go down here who wants to be here it's dark it's cold forget it so he asks the famous questions everybody asks why did God take a soul that's having such an unbelievable beautiful experience and throw it down into this world into a body that's going to portray it and it's going to be selfish and you're going to have to have the battles and the suffering and the hardship that we have we've been talking about why so the tells the angel an answer he says because otherwise all of the good that's receiving in heaven is unearned and if it's unearned it's not perfect it's tainted so we go through the descent into this world and all of its challenges and tribulations and all of the suffering and all of the Triumph in order to earn the ultimate good we're going to receive later when we come back and this is unbelievable thing because what's the difference between what the soul experienced before it came down and that it experiences when it returns no difference but the difference is that you earned it and now it's that much better because before you earned it it wasn't perfect now that you earned it it's perfect and that's what God wants to give us and that's why we have to come into this world now I'm not avoiding the the the big guy that we want to punch out death I'm going to address death now so according to all this we can start to appreciate and understand when we sinned we caused a tremendous blemish and a tremendous descent in the Perfection and the beauty and the holy Holiness and purity of the body and its new state that it fell to very very low it was no longer possible to just give it a touchup you know when you get a little d in the car you take it to the shop fixes it no problem you're back on the street with the uh now they switched P now it's a red Porsche you're back on the street with the Porsche but if the Porsche is is is damaged to the point where they can't just do a quick fix so you need to you know such thing is totaling a car so in I'm paraphrasing of course but the way ramal explains it is the Damage Done to the body after the first sin was such that no longer could the sin fix itself in one lifetime I mean no longer could the body fix itself in one lifetime it required to die and to decompose and to be reincarnated even a person comes back many times but The Reincarnation is really talking about the soul the soul also needs to come back many times for it to become fully fixed but that body doesn't come back physically again we don't have every time the soul returns to the world the body wakes up from the dead that's at the end so the soul has to come back many times to be fixed so what about the body so the body has to decay in the earth and go back to being Earth and through that Decay and that that's also a fixing a prep rectification for the body's imperfections and when we reach the end of days when we finished fixing everything physical and spiritual then all of those Souls all of those incarnations will come back down into the world and be reunited with its body on this topic of body and soul and the separation and reunification of body and soul there's a beautiful again a Zohar that talks about when when Abraham comes to cry for Sarah Sarah dies the wife of Abraham of course and Abraham comes to cry for her and the Torah records that he's crying for her Z says in a deeper sense that really means the cries the comes where the body is buried and it cries because it's not it's it misses the the the the connection between Body and Soul especially with Sarah when a body and soul unite in Harmony and fulfill the will of God that separation is tragic the soul is buried in the earth I mean the body becomes bued soul is in G which is a nice place the soul gets pleasure but that's not the ultimate that's only half a story half a sad story half a happy story The Body the soul cries and Mourns over the separation between Body and Soul that's what it means abam cried over Sarah in a deeper sense but of course that's not an eternal tears because God will come and reunite the body and soul when we're done with the fixing but so in light of what we're saying you know to not to get you know too dramatic you know we'll get to pass out the tissues at the end we see that death is not a bad thing death is a necessary process to reaching the so that the body can re reattain its Glory its Perfection its beauty and be the proper vessel for the soul in its perfected state to come back in the body this is what ad marish was before the sin the level of AD marish before the sin says amazing things about him do you know that when Adam rishan was first created the Angels mistakenly almost bowed and prayed to him he was so awesome in his appearance so perfect um we we say that Adam marish was able to see from beginning from one end of the world to the other because he had that perfect sight that came before the sin we reached such a level before Matan Torah and we fell again but ultimately we're meant to return to that state of of glory and that stature but the difference between Adam's original state of glory and stature and the state that we're going to reach at the end is the same difference we mentioned about the soul before it descent into the world and after when we reach back to the level of it'll be because we did it we worked hard to accomplish it and that will be our accomplishment and it will be our level of perfection that we attained of course with the help of Hashem and then it will be perfect and then we'll benefit from the perfect good okay now let me just conclude with the very important point we have a few minutes left so we start off saying that that this is a class about good and everything that God does is for the good so with every with everything we've said we really touched on the surface and there's a lot more to talk about but let me really this important important point that NE NE to at least conclude today's topic comes out that death is good suffering is also part of the good everything that Hashem does is good there's just two kinds of good there's good good you're going to say I'm repeating myself but I'm not there's good good and then there's bad good I know you in the back you how could if it's bad it's bad if it's good it's good how could there be bad good there's good that's externally good and it's internally good then there's good that's externally bad but internally good everything God does whether it's a slap in the face or or a kiss on or a kiss on the face everything that God does whether where it's pushing you away or hugging you it's all good if what's necessary right now to help you reach your Perfection is to push you away then in that pushing you away there's love love is what's motivating that push it's Le the initial trigger of creation Le is is is is initiating and motivating that push it's what the rabbis tell us there's the right and left hand of God the hand of goodness and kindness and the Hand of punishment and uh and severity and strictness and judgment the right hand Embraces and the left hand pushes away and all experience that comes from God is either going to be an experience of overt goodness or overt harshness But ultimately the essence of both are only good that's why and are also only good and this is what we learned from from cabala actually because if the initial moment of creation was in order to do good and even deeper cabala it talks about the highest level of existence adamon this first world which is the highest most pristine level of existence this fifth level of existence that level of existence is only good we talk about in the zor it says that there's no left when there's left and right which means you know and and that system exists on many levels But ultimately when you get so high in creation there stops being left and only right which means that at a certain point there's only and only Mercy Mercy there's no more gor there's no more judgment there's no more punishment on that highest of levels we're talking about that's the level like I said adadon that level of existence actually permeates all the other levels it's the it's the it's the pine it's the Inner Essence and the inner dimension of all of existence every level of existence below that level is only layered on top of it like an onion if you peel an onion and you get to the inner the innermost Port of that onion so every other layer is really only on external to that inner Dimension that the way God created the world that moment of utter goodness that is the Inner Essence of all of existence and it permeates everything anywhere you go you cannot Escape that moment of goodness and that pure Mercy you can't escape it and if that becomes the inner core of all of existence and everything that ever happens so then the ramal can say in a philosophical format that everything God does is only good there's no such thing as bad in the world suffering ultimately is a part of expression of that good just an external negative appearance but it's only only good and so we can conclude and understand in a nice way this what we started saying that come to parro is telling you to reveal the essence of of existence and the purpose of creation and is answering also to moshu why are we all suffering why didn't I just take you out and the stamp of a finger because it's only through the suffering that you're going to even deserve to go out remember the whole purpose of the Exile of Egypt was to purify and rectify the souls of Israel they were Tarn and blemished from from before they were there those Souls were blemished in the from the first sin and other subsequent sins so the whole suffering in Egypt was a rectification for the beautiful glorious Souls of Israel that were tarnished and all of the suffering that we went through in Egypt was only like the using the best detergents and the best bleaches and scrubbing off all of the dirt and by giving us an more intensified level of suffering at the end when he sent mosh MH was confused said why have you done bad to this people it wasn't it was only externally bad that's why the para says the name of God y because Moshe you think it's externally bad I mean you think it's bad it's only external but the essence of what I'm doing now to the Jewish people in their suffering is in order to take them out of Egypt sooner and in order to give them Hari so even though externally looks bad it's really it's really mercy and goodness and kindness and that's how we begin this para mhe Moshe already learned the lesson from the last para it's only good everything that hasem does is only good even the suffering that's initiated by power is good it's just we have to reveal it and the purpose to put my signs in the world is the Revelation that everything that Hashem does is for the good that's why it says here come to par with this in mind and we'll conclude we have a beautiful explanation to what we pray every day three times s a day we say that God should be he should bestow good kindnesses upon us there are two questions on this prayer first of all the word g doesn't mean to give it means to it the word g means payback to pay uh like a like something that someone deserves or something someone has owed so why didn't we just say that God gives good kindness the other question is why is it in the plural it says kindnesses just say God gives good kindness God is no why do you say God is go which means payback or or payment and to him good kindnesses so the answer is that the two kinds of kindness here that are both good are the revealed good and the concealed good and it's all based on Payback it's all based on payment which is the system that this world runs on which is reward and Punishment God had to put us first in this world that has a system of reward and Punishment you get bad if you deserve bad you get good if you deserve good but even all of that good bad is really only to facilitate giving you the ultimate good later and that's the deeper per of according to everything we're saying here is that God pays you back bad or good depending on what you deserve but it's all really good the two kinds of good reveal good and conceal good and all of this is only to facilitate the ultimate good which is coming in the times of mashiah when we will finish all of the fixtion that we need to fix