What are Jewish views on evil?

Answer 1

Judaism teaches that HaShem (The Creator) made man with the ability to do both good and bad and the freewill to choose. This is significant in several ways. Without the ability to do both good and bad, the gift of freewill would be pointless, this is also why Jewish teachings state that HaShem always intended for Adam and Chava (Eve) to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It's also important for man to have the option to do evil because as we make mistakes and correct them, we grow as an individual. If we did not have this option, we'd remain stagnant both spiritually and intellectually.

Answer 2

Judaism teaches that we are all born good but with the ability to do both good and bad with the freewill to choose our actions. If a person chooses to do evil, that is their choice and responsibility. No one or thing can cause a person to choose to do evil. There is no 'devil' in Judaism.

Answer 3

God created evil and is its master. He created evil to allow people the great gift of free will to choose between good and evil, to reward them for choosing good and punish them for choosing evil. Not everyone's free will is the same, though. Rabbi Dessler, a significant 20th century Jewish thinker, notes that every person has a different point of free will.

Writes R. Jonathan Rosenblum: "In his Discourse on Free Will, Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler describes how the area of free will differs for each and every person, based on education and other factors, and how it shifts constantly. It is only possible to speak of the exercise of free will, he writes, at that point where a person's apprehension of the truth, i.e., what is right, is in perfect equipoise with a countervailing desire. Precisely at that point, nothing besides the person himself determines the outcome."

Answer 4

Judaism teaches that there is both good and bad in the world. If there wasn't bad in the world, humans wouldn't have the opportunity to choose good over bad. Without this opportunity, humans can't grow spiritually.

Answer 5

It's probably more accurate to say that Judaism teaches that evil comes from the "YEH-tser ha-RAH" ...

the "evil inclination"; that's the appetite and temptation toward wrong that every person has within him.

That's natural, it's how we're constructed, and it's not sinful to feel the inclination. The part that counts is

how you respond to it, and what you decide to do about it. How you control your instinct and inclination is

what makes humans different from every other form of life.

Answer 6

Jews believe that both good and bad exist in the world.