Why only Judaism and Jewish mysticism provide the possibility to be good and not evil
By zevi770 · May 8, 2013
Where does evil come from?
We are born good.
However, it’s not so simple
We are born with the potential for amazing selflessness and amazing selfishness!
All people come from the same slate, so why do some end up holy saints and other evil monsters? and yet, the majority falling in the middle, neither saints nor monsters, but certainly not reaching their potential?!
It’s all quite simple, in fact.
We are born with competing desires.
The first good desire we have, is of course, love and compassion!
The second bad desire that we have, is self-preservation – at all costs
And the third evil desire we have, is superiority; (animals have no ego, hence don’t seek superiority as an end in itself!)
So here we have these desires; so why can only Judaism and Jewish mysticism help us?!
As Benjamin Franklin said, “In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in history; for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility!”
Very well said indeed!
In fact, much of eastern philosophy has striking parallels to Jewish mysticism, but one glaring all-encompassing difference; and that is, while eastern philosophy will state, one can reach a union with God, they don’t realize that as God is infinite hence no matter your union, relatively speaking you are nothing, and God will continuously have you grow!
This simple premise, can you reach a title, a position of prominence!? or are we all infinitely small! climbing an infinitely high ladder? hence, though we have much negativity to overcome, our positivity will, and, by nature, can never be complete!!! only in a state of growth!!!! is the mechanism which Benjamin Franklin so sought – for good reason – to overcome the most vile of human traits, called pride!!
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