Why Evil Exists - Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

[Applause] right now as you're listening to me a million different things are happening in this world millions of lives are beginning and millions ending a vast cacophony called life in all its rawness and gentleness is being played out on this ball turning silently in space it all seems so chaotic great evil is going on punished and great goodness is going unrewarded where is [Music] God the basic Credo of Judaism is that God is one if God is one why is this world so full of contradictions to his Oneness so full of conflict in other words if he's One how can evil exist ever since I was a boy I've loved to take photographs one of my great influences was always anel Adams the Doan of American landscape photographers now possibly anel Adam's most iconic photograph is moonrise over Hernandez a few months ago I was glancing through a magazine and I saw again that beautiful photograph a full moon skirting a low Bank of cloud Rising majestically above the Horizon the evening sky dark and brooding my eye traveled down to the caption underneath and I started to read anel Adams wrote because of my unfortunate disregard for the dates of my negatives I've caused considerable dismay amongst photographic historians at the suggestion of Bowman New Hall do David Elmore of the High Altitude Observatory at Boulder Colorado put a computer to work to solve the problem he determined that the exposure was made at approximately 4:05 p.m. on OCT October the 31st 1941 and now that is the official date of this Photograph October 31 1941 I wondered to myself what was happening in Europe when anel Adams was making that photograph October 31st 1941 I Googled that date the answer that came back made the hair on the back of my neck rise on January the 20th 1942 at an idilic Lakeside house in Van near Berlin there was an intramural meeting attended by Hyman and other Nazi leaders Yak sh names be blotted out this is how the report Begins the following took part in the conference of the final solution the endlong of the Jewish question there it was in front of me the final solution I was reading the death warrant of the Jewish people on page four of the vany protocol it says since the mam the rise to power of the Nazi party in January 13th 1933 until the accounting day of October 31st 1941 a total of about 537,500 1st 1941 the day of accounting while anel Adams was busy photographing a moonrise in New Mexico the sun was setting on an entire generation the Germans had drawn a red line under the immigration of the Jews from the Reich there was to be no more immigration the Final Phase had been reached the death sentence of European jury had been sealed and where was God Judaism teaches that God created the world to reveal his Perfection given that God can do anything he wants it's logical that nothing should emerge from this wish except that which is perfect and complete perfect in every way nothing in this world should exhibit any sign of lacking or deficiency there should be no room for evil why should God want evil to exist at all God's Perfection has many facets his kindness his wisdom his Justice God could have chosen to reveal his Perfection through any of these aspects he chose however to reveal his perfection in one way only by revealing his Oneness and his Oneness is uniquely different from any other aspect of his Perfection because amazing as it may seem we can understand it it's a bit like a photograph all the information of the print is carried in the negative even if viewing so to speak the print is beyond human capacity the Oneness of God but the negative defines exactly that positive in the reverse since God chose to reveal his Perfection through his Oneness and we can only perceive that Oneness through its opposite there must exist in this world the opposite of his Oneness namely evil but this is no mere spectator sport God gave the Jewish people the task of eradicating evil from the world or more precisely revealing his Unity by performing a set of spiritual tasks known as the mitzvot every Mitzvah has the power to reveal a little more of God's Oneness in the world it's like a dirty window through which the light cannot penetrate the light itself is in no way diminished by the dirty window it's just that the light can't go through that window God's Oneness is not diminished in any way by the existence of evil it's just AB obscured by it every Mitzvah cleans away a little of the dirt from that window until the light shines undm one day very soon God will show us his utter dominion over all that exists and our perception of that Oneness in its most complete form will come from having been the agents through which God's Oneness was revealed [Music]