What is Evil?
Evil is an emanation that stems from severity and darkness. When not controlled it is highly destructive; when controlled it can be rather constructive. But controlling evil is a very hard task to undertake and there is only One Who can utterly control it (i.e. One Who knows when and how to make use of it in utter balance with love): its Creator.
God is the creator of all things and as such He created evil (“I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I am the Lord, that does all these things.” Isaiah 45:7) – He, himself, told us that He IS the genesis of evil.
Now, why did the Supreme Form of Love create such a stark emanation?
After much thought on this issue, I came to the conclusion that He created it (not only to generate Balance, but mainly) as a form of discipline. However, souls when occupying a body fail to grasp God’s purpose for evil.
When we were created, the Lord breathed life into our nostrils. This breath of existence bore two impulses that are part of His Essence: good (Yetzer Tov) and evil (Yetzer Ra).
While God uses, in full equilibrium, the evil impulse (i.e. Severity and Darkness) to discipline us; to (with love) show us the result of diverting from his plan; humans when making use of it fail in injecting love into their actions (thus generating a destructive unbalance) and are capable of the most vicious and hideous acts that make us question existence and initiate an obsessive quest for good (that is, we once more create a need for another disequilibrium).
Whenever I recall God’s words “and I create evil” I am reminded that perhaps we should leave this malefic emanation to Him, since He is the only One who Is truly able to implement it and actually grow something out of it. For example, when we transgress before God (be it either by mistreating a fellow human or breaking His basic rules) and He severely teaches us a lesson (i.e. life’s vicissitudes) we find room to grow, to evolve, to turn inward and be in touch with our own spirituality and humanity – this is constructive.
Whereas humans, when in contact with this emanation, they destroy everything around them and within. They secretly want their soul to detach itself from The Soul (i.e. they try relinquishing Love), they allow vanity to take over and, thus, materialize their evil into a whole new creature (only known to them): Demon.
The Devil (not Satan, the Accuser – God’s creation designed to implement His severity) is nothing more than a projection of human evil. A projection that can have devastating effects on others - especially those who are not protected against it (by protection I mean a Light within [i.e. Divine Love] and some artefacts that serve to help building a shield against earthly-based evil).
How many forms of human evil are there?
Quite a few. We have the nasty evil (capable of the most vile of actions: paedophilia, rape, vicious murder); then we have envy (that can lead people to do dreadful things); obsessive jealousy (that can result in murder) and torture.
Is evil really a necessary harm?
For a most interesting perspective, please beam over to LS' place: Here
