Thinking about Good and Evil: Jewish Views from Antiquity to Modernity

429 Pages·2021·4.935 MB·English

by  Wayne Allen

Thinking abouT g ood and Evil
University of Nebraska Press
Lincoln
Thinking about
Good and Evil
Jewish Views from
Antiquity to Modernity
Rabbi WaynE allE n
The Jewish Publication Society
Philadelphia
© 2021 by Wayne Allen
All rights reserved. Published by the University of
Nebraska Press as a Jewish Publication Society book.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Allen, Wayne R., author.
Title: Thinking about good and evil: Jewish views
from antiquity to modernity / Rabbi Wayne
Allen, The Jewish Publication Society.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
[2021] | Series: JPS essential Judaism | Includes
bibliographical references and indexes.
Identifiers: lccn 2020034113
isbn 9780827614710 (paperback)
isbn 9780827618664 (epub)
isbn 9780827618671 (mobi)
isbn 9780827618688 (pdf)
Subjects: lcsh: Yetzer hara (Judaism) | Good
and evil— Religious aspects— Judaism.
Classification: lcc bj1401 .a495 2021 | ddc 296.3/118— dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020034113
Set in Merope by Mikala R. Kolander.
Designed by N. Putens.
conTEnTs
Preface .....................................................xi
Acknowledgments .......................................xiii
Introduction ..............................................xv
In This Book ..........................................xvii
Understanding Theodicy .............................xxi
Judaism’s Challenges in Addressing Theodicy ......xxiii
“That Sore That Will Never Heal” ....................xxv
1. good and Evil in ThE biblE and apocRypha ........1
Genesis: The Creation Epic .............................2
Genesis: The Tree of Knowledge of
Good and Evil ........................................... 5
Genesis: Cain and Abel ................................10
Genesis: Abraham’s Intercession on
Behalf of Sodom and the Binding of Isaac ............ 13
Deuteronomy: The Choice of Good or Evil ........... 15
The Prophets ........................................... 17
The Book of Psalms ....................................24
The Book of Proverbs ..................................33
The Book of Job ........................................34
The Book of Ecclesiastes ..............................45
The Book of Daniel ....................................49
The Apocrypha ........................................50
The Book of Enoch ....................................54
Summary ..............................................56
2. Rabbinic appRoachEs To good and Evil ..........59
Thirteen Rabbinic Approaches to Theodicy ..........63
Refine Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Resort to the Inexplicability Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Propose the “Chastisements of Love” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Assume Astral Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Compensate Injustice in the Afterlife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Ascribe Evils to the Trials of the Righteous . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
Assert the Usefulness of the Continued
Existence of the Wicked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
See Early Death as a Benefit to the Righteous . . . . . . . . . . 82
Claim That Prior Assumptions Are
No Longer in Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Interpret the Suffering of the Righteous
as Vicarious Atonement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Recognize Evil as a Universal and
Regular Phenomenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Apply the Concept of “God’s Wrath” to
Explain Suffering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Be Resigned to the Inevitability of Injustice . . . . . . . . . . . .88
The Evil Inclination ....................................89
The Dead Sea Scrolls ..................................95
Philo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Summary .............................................103
3. good and Evil in MEdiEval philosophy .........105
Sa’adiah ...............................................105
Baḥya ..................................................111
Abraham ibn Daud ................................... 114
Maimonides .......................................... 117
Gersonides ............................................130
Crescas ................................................137
Albo ...................................................139
Yosef Ya’avetz .........................................142
Summary .............................................143
4. kabbalah and ThE pRoblEM of Evil ..............145
Sefer Yetzirah ..........................................148
Rabbi Yitzḥak ben Ya’akov ha- Kohen,
Sagi Nahor (the Blind) ................................150
Sefer ha- Bahir .........................................152
Zohar ..................................................157
Rabbi Isaac Luria ......................................166
Summary .............................................169
5. hasidic MasTERs on Evil and suffERing ........ 171
What Is Perceived as Evil Is in Fact Good ............173
There Is Good in Evil .................................173
Evil Does Not Exist ...................................176
Evil Induces Holiness .................................178
Good Is Appreciated Only in Contrast with Evil .....181
Evil Allows for the Attainment of Good ..............182
Evildoers Persist as Good Examples ..................184
On Personal Suffering ................................185
The Suffering of the Collective .......................188
Summary .............................................193
6. EaRly ModERn ThinkERs on good and Evil .....195
Barukh Spinoza .......................................195
Moses Ḥayyim Luzzatto ..............................205
Moses Mendelssohn .................................. 211
Summary .............................................222
7. ModERn ThinkERs on good and Evil .............225
Hermann Cohen ......................................225
Samuel Alexander ....................................230
Martin Buber .........................................232
Mordecai Kaplan ......................................239
Hannah Arendt .......................................245
Eugene Borowitz ......................................248
Neil Gillman ..........................................252
Harold Kushner .......................................256
Martha Nussbaum ....................................263
Judith Plaskow ........................................266
Summary .............................................271
8. ThE spEcial pRoblEM of ThE shoah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .273
Holocaust, Shoah, Ḥurban? ...........................273
Exceptionality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .277
Theological Responses to Exceptionality ............279
Theological Traditionalists ...........................279
Kalonymus Kalman Shapira . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Shlomo Zalman Ehrenreich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .284
Ḥayyim Yisrael Tsimerman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Eliezer Berkovits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Evaluation of the Theological Traditionalists ........291
Radical Revisionists ..................................295
Richard Rubenstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Alexander Donat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Arthur Cohen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Hans Jonas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Evaluation of the Radical Revisionists ...............305
Deflectors .............................................307
Abraham Joshua Heschel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Joseph Soloveitchik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Emil Fackenheim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Robert Gordis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Emmanuel Levinas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Jonathan Sacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Elie Wiesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Evaluation of the Deflectors ..........................320
Summary .............................................321