On the Question of Good and Evil: B’Shallach
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
February 7, 2025
In the famous song “Maria” from—no, not West Side Story—but rather from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music, a chorus of nuns ask a good question: “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” The answer—fitting of course for the time—is, marry her off, she’ll be so much happier, more stable and a such a better fit for society!
Not all such dilemmas however are quite so easy to resolve. One of the most difficult questions that humanity has ever posed—to ourselves as well as to God—is, why is there evil in the world? Many answers have been given, from the rational to the irrational. There is no such thing as evil, some would say; it’s all in our mind, a subjective call determined by our culture and upbringing. Nature does what it does naturally. Others propose that the world is random; evil is out there, yes, as rampant as goodness, existing with no specific rhyme or reason. It just is. Another answer, set in religious context, is that the gods are perverse. They are angry, hate-filled and jealous, and unless placated with wine, food or other pleasures, they cause evil to befall even the best among us.
Judaism proposes that good and bad—tov va-ra (see Genesis 2:9)—are indeed part of the natural order of the world as God created it. By eating of the forbidden fruit, humanity simply becomes aware of them and thus is given the ability to choose to follow the one or the other. At the same time, however, the Torah teaches that when we choose tov—goodness and holiness—we become partners with God. Good is holy, the Torah teaches. Bad is not merely wrong; in the Torah’s vocabulary, ra means evil. The rewards of a mitzvah, teach the rabbis, is another mitzvah, leading to even more holiness; the consequences of a sin on the other hand, is to increase evil in the world. The choice is ours to make, each along with its inevitable consequences.
But even this answer is incomplete. A person can be good—even saintly—and yet that doesn’t stop evil from befalling him or her. That, of course, is the premise of the book of Job. The Prophets, then, offer an additional answer to the eternal question of the presence of evil: It is there to purify a person, much as fire can refine metal. The 5th century BCE prophet Malachi declares that God is “like a smelter and purger of silver; and [God] shall purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they shall present offerings in righteousness” (Malachi 3:2-3, Rev. JPS 2023).
The ancient Rabbis go even further. In Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer, a Midrash collection that according to modern scholarship dates back to the 8th century CE, we read that the very Pharaoh who let the Israelites go (in this week’s Torah portion, B’shallach, Exodus 13:17—17:16), the very man who time and again hardens his heart and refuses to heed God’s word, a first-born himself, is spared the tenth plague—the death of the first-born—for a reason and a purpose. According to this midrash, Pharaoh lives another 400 years (!), the length of time it takes him to understand the extent of the evil he had caused. Fleeing Egypt, Pharaoh then becomes the King of Nineveh from the story of Jonah, where he lapses into some of his old ways. However, immediately upon hearing Jonah’s prophecy of doom he orders all Ninevehites (including the animals!) to show remorse, fast, and repent (Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer 43). He had learned his lesson: his prior choices brought about evil, suffering and destruction to the world. Now he was given a second chance. By repenting, he could save his kingdom. And as for Jonah, though at first Jonah was reluctant to fulfill his mission, by finally acquiescing and delivering God’s message he awakens the divine spark that was buried deep within the king.
In light of this midrash, we learn that a spark of holiness can be found in every aspect of God’s Creation, even within evil itself, and it’s up to us to uncover it, even if that means forgiving the injustice and setting aside the evil that was done to us—a challenge that, quite frankly, for me, is difficult to overcome. (For more in this vein of teaching, see BT Gittin 57b).
Evil exists. We are well aware of that. But the explanation that the rabbis offer is that it is there in order to show us the way to repentance. By fixing our own mistakes and/or by repairing the wrongs done by others, we make the world a better place for all.
To a large extent, this answer is fundamental to Jewish thought and theology. It has led us to pursue knowledge, justice, progress and innovation. While difficult to accept, reframing evil as part of God’s Creation helps us explain its ongoing presence in life and gives us strength, purpose and direction. Evil is there to prompt us to acts of goodness and holiness. It enables us to let go of the strong urge within us to seek revenge, to leave behind emotions such as anger and hatred, and to find a more positive, a more constructive way of navigating through life’s turmoil and chaos.
May we all find the strength within us both to see this spark within those who hurt us, and to bolster our own resolve to make the world a better place. It is so that we participate as partners in God’s ongoing, sacred act of Creation.
© 2025 by Boaz D. Heilman
