We now touch on the whole subject and definition of God — the object of our trust. How exactly are we to understand Him?<\/p>\n
In his Introduction Ibn Pakudah defines God simply as the one who “directs everything”, and the entity from whom “all good and all harm” comes and upon whom “all authority rests”.<\/p>\n
Notice that he doesn\u2019t define Him as the Creator, but that\u2019s because God is more than that, and also because His being the Creator is a given in his eyes: after all, what or whom would there be for Him to direct had He not created the universe, what good or harm would there be, and upon whom would His authority rest had He not created the universe?<\/p>\n
At bottom this comes to an expression of pure and radical monotheism.<\/p>\n
Notice, too, that Ibn Pakudah makes the point of saying that both goodness and<\/em> harm — good and evil — derive from God. This isn\u2019t the point to expand upon this vital though theologically vexing issue, but at bottom it comes to this. Since God created everything, He obviously created evil as well. Others have argued that evil is an entity unto itself or that another god had to have created evil, given that it seems to be absurd to attribute any malevolence whatsoever to God, but that\u2019s not so. God created everything and maintains everything, too, including evil.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll see, though, that this is an inadequate definition of God. We\u2019ll first touch on the problems of the above definition, expand upon it, and then bring it back to trusting in Him in due time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n (c) 2015 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman <\/p>\n AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here<\/a> at a discount.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here<\/a> at a discount as well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRamchal<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We now touch on the whole subject and definition of God — the object of our trust. How exactly are we to understand Him? In his Introduction Ibn Pakudah defines God simply as the one who “directs everything”, and the … Continue reading
\nFeel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org<\/a><\/p>\n