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What is Evil?
Discuss (7)Evil is that which has no power of its own. Evil is darkness, a negation of light. Its power is in us, in our fear of it, in that we consider it a "something" worth responding to.
Evil is fostered on every spoonful of worries, every glance of trepidation, every concession we make from our lives to acknowledge its threat -- until it rises brazenly to attack us with our own instruments.
Stoop to conquer Evil and you will only join it in its mud. Against Evil, you must march on the clouds, never looking down, climbing ever higher, until you reach a brilliant, blinding light -- a light that leaves no crevice for darkness to hide.
Against that light, Evil melts in surrender, having fulfilled its purpose of being. For, in the beginning, darkness was made to squeeze out the inner light of the human soul. A light that knows no bounds.
Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe, Rabbi M. M. Schneerson
From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory; words and condensation by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman. To order Rabbi Freeman’s book, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth, click here.
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Brooklyn, NY
In my understanding, it is precisely our dignity that demands we fight evil. It is precisely because we are above evil that we go to fight it and to do what needs to be done. Isn't this why we wrestle with our own yetzer?
Whittier, CA
Fight evil, but do it with dignity. Don't stoop to its level. Don't react in kind. Don't give it any recognition whatsoever. Stay in your place above it while doing what needs to be done to ensure that this evil will have no place left to breathe in this world.
Thornhill, Ontario
Whittier, CA
I have been following DAILY DOSE for a long time and have greatly appreciated the insights.
But today: "Evil is that which has no power of its own." Is the most brilliant definition of evil I have heard in modern lanquage!
also
"Evil is darkness, a negation of light."
Negation 1 a: the action or logical operation of negating or making negative b: a negative statement, judgment, or doctrine ; especially : a logical proposition formed by asserting the falsity of a given proposition — see truth table table
2 a: something that is the absence of something actual : nonentity b: something considered the opposite of something regarded as positive
Evil has no power of its own but the power we of our selves give to it.
Shalom aleichem,
Knoxville, TN
What a medicine this is. Today, I was feeling so beaten down, confronted at each turn by some new obstacle. I was slogging through the mud.
Now, my soul is lifted. I remember who I am. And most importantly, I remember Who is G-d.
I just read Ariel's post and my troubles are not nearly as severe. I don't know what your comments will be, but I would think there is little the person could have done. But what he and his mother can do now, even in the face of this, is another story.
A man was unlocking the door to his own home.
A police car stopped and treated the man as if he were a burglar trying to break in.
His mother came out to protest. The police shoved her against the wall.
The man, concerned for his mother, tried to get up to protect her.
The police shot him. Not fatally. He was seriously injured. His spleen and other internal organs were damaged. But he survives. He was strong and healthy; now he is in ill health, but he survives.
He is suing the city. His entire community is outraged at the way he and his family were treated.
What would you suggest he might have done to march on the clouds and avert the evil? Seriously. This is a real situation. How could his "light" have overcome the evil that was being done to himself and to his mother?