How Would You Define Good?

Autoplay Next

How Would You Define Good?

When we say someone is a good person, what does that mean? How should we define a good time? If we don't clearly define good, do we even know in which direction to head? This is a subject worth tackling! (Part 1 of 3 on “good and evil”)

See Also:	What Is Evil?
Topics:	Good and Evil

By Aryeh Weinstein

Rabbi Aryeh Weinstein is the Director of the Jewish Learning Academy at Lubavitch of Bucks County, Pennsylvania as well as the Rabbi of The Shul at Newtown. Rabbi Weinstein is the host of the Beginning Within podcast and the creator of The Bar Mitzvah Prep School to help Bar Mitzvah boys prepare for their Bar Mitzvah in a meaningful way.

More in this section

3:01
Why We Say Kaddish
5:39
Gas Stations, Greeks, and the Eternal Soul
View All »

Join the Discussion

Sort By:

NewestOldest

2 Comments

Susana Costa Portugal July 8, 2017

hello,

If good is doing (moral, justice); and evil is not doing to stop violence or other bad attitudes,

why do you think the one who created this world is good?

because I see violence, war, pain, diseases, terrorism, natural disasters, abuse of power, and poverty only affecting the poor and fragile in the world.

and when ditators are persecuting people, god doesn´t act against them.
If he is so good he could stop it avoiding collective massacres. Its difficult to believe this god as good (where is moral and justice?). Reply

Aryeh Weinstein Newtown, PA July 10, 2017

in response to Susana Costa:

You are asking one of the most common theological questions which I would hope everyone asks at some point in their life. We usually ask this question from a place of deep compassion and intolerance for evil and injustice. The philosophical answer won't satisfy our emotional question. Yet, we must understand the philosophical answer and if we truly yearn to, we can slowly find some direction with it.
The philosophical answer is in this video. Good is not moral and justice. Good is G-d. This means that on our human level, we may experience things which are immoral and unjust and due to the limits of our intelligence and our limitation of relating to things through intelligence, we struggle deeply with accepting what is coming from the Infinite Source which is far beyond the limiting tools we use to relate to our experiences. Reply