{"id":67635,"date":"2019-12-24T09:09:44","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T07:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=67635"},"modified":"2023-07-19T08:27:24","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T05:27:24","slug":"thank-you-god-for-all-the-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/thank-you-god-for-all-the-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Thank You God For All The&#8230; Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[460,384,487,437],"acf":{"old_id":"67635","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37561,"related_cahpter":"379","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"What is the purpose of blessing God for the good and the evil? \r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This chapter contains a verse that might be familiar from the liturgy\u2026. with a twist. Every morning, right after the <em>Barechu<\/em> prayer, Jews who pray from a traditional <em>siddur<\/em> say the blessing, \u201cBlessed are you, God, ruler of the universe, who fashions light and creates darkness, making peace and creating all.\u201d The line is clearly drawn from this chapter of Isaiah, but with a twist. Verse seven of our chapter calls God the creator of evil, not creator of all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The change to the wording comes from the Talmud. The sages, in discussing what blessings we should say before and after the Shema, debate whether to recite the words as they appear in our chapter, or to change to the more appealing \u201ccreator of all.\u201d Spoiler alert: the euphemism wins. The rabbis of the Talmud changed the formulation so that we do not explicitly recall God\u2019s role in evil on a daily basis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Theodicy, the question of why God allows evil to occur, takes an even more sinister twist in this verse, claiming that not only does God permit evil or witness evil, but God actually creates evil. For some, the idea of a God who creates evil is simply too far from their acceptable theology. For others, the idea might seem perfectly natural.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">William James wrote of two kinds of people, the \u201chealthy minded\u201d and the \u201csick souled.\u201d The healthy minded are those who are able to meet every challenge with optimism. The sick-souled are conscious of the evil, and don\u2019t seek to turn from it or transform it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This verse is written for the sick souled, those who cannot help but see evil and know it has its place in the world. To be a person of faith who also believes that God creates evil can be tremendously lonely. Especially in Christian-dominated societies where God\u2019s loving presence dominates the theological dialogue, this verse is a validation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though there is a societal bias in many places towards the healthy minded, both approaches exist in Tanach. One can be a person of faith regardless of how one understands the presence of evil in the world. The rabbis of the Talmud may have opted to refer to evil by euphemism in our daily prayers, but we need not feel obligated to do the same. If we see evil in the world, we should feel welcome, as the prophet Isaiah, to acknowledge it and its place in the world. It is all part of God\u2019s work.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":67636,"id":67636,"title":"is45-evil","filename":"is45-evil.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is45-evil.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/thank-you-god-for-all-the-evil\/is45-evil\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is45-evil","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":67635,"date":"2019-12-24 07:09:19","modified":"2019-12-24 07:09:41","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is45-evil-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is45-evil-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is45-evil-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is45-evil-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is45-evil.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is45-evil.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is45-evil-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is45-evil-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Thank You God For All The... 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