All is not right with the world (3)

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 13^th Century did speculate about it and based his ideas on 12^th 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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AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

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Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

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