What is ‘good’?
Hello Rabbi Michi,
There is a lot of talk about God being good and benevolent, ‘God is good to all and His mercy is over all His works,’ the whole purpose in creating the world is ‘to benefit His creatures,’ and I want to understand what is defined as ‘good’?
It is clear that this is not ‘good’ in the material sense, that what is good for us, health, pleasure, livelihood, and so on, does not work out because it is clear that there is a lot of evil and suffering in the world.
So what is good in the spiritual sense? What are the definitions of this good, and can we even know what is good or does it depend only on heavenly calculations, meaning that only God knows what is ‘good’ for a person.
I want to clarify that I am not talking about what is ‘right’ or ‘just’, that this can also be said about suffering and tragedies, that this is what is right and just according to heavenly calculations that we do not know.
Who said that this is the purpose of creation? In my opinion, this is nonsense. After all, if He had not created us, there would have been no need to benefit us. Therefore, in my opinion, it is impossible to say that this is the purpose of creation. It has other purposes, and our task is to promote them (by serving God).
As for evil in the world, I have answered that in several places here on the site, and also in the second book of my trilogy. You can search here: evil in the world, natural evil and human evil, etc.
By the way, the prophet in Faith and Confidence writes that confidence is not in being good, but in being what should be. This is exactly what you wrote at the end, and it also means that it is not true that the goal is benefit in the sense of pleasantness. I do not know, and I do not think anyone knows, what that good is. Certainly not to give a definition of it.
That is, if I understood correctly, then when they say, for example, "Good is for all," do they mean a mysterious and invisible "good" that only God knows what it is?
And by the way, what I wrote about the purpose of the world being God's will to do good is a quote from the Ramachal. He says that "the path of goodness is to do good," and whoever does good wants to do good, and therefore God created us so that He could do good to us.
Quoting Ramchal doesn't mean anything. Ramchal is known. So what?
When we say he is good, we mean it in the simplest sense of good. Just because there is no definition doesn't mean we don't understand what it is.
Good means to bring into existence.
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