But, where and when did rah originate? Well, other than Ar’i who based himself on the Zohar, few ventured to say [1]. In fact, Maimonides even denies that rah exists — that’s to say, he refutes the idea that there is a separate created entity called rah which God went about creating at a certain point.
We’ll explore that, then some of Ramchal’s ideas about this, too, next.
Notes:
[1] R’ Yitzchak Ben Yaakov HaCohen of the 13th Century did speculate about it and based his ideas on 12th Century R’ Eliezer of Worms’ Chochmat HaNephesh. But that is beyond the speculations of this work.
(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org
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