What a dualistic view of the world. White and black hats, good and bad guys. A very Western, very Greek way of looking at things, although the concept of a struggle between the forces of light and darkness goes back to ancient Persia. Obi-Wan and Darth Vader echo the ancient concepts of Zoroastrianism.

Judaism sees things a little differently. Acknowledging the existence of evil in the world as separate from G-d would be to deny G-d’s omnipotence. The inexorable conclusion from the premise that G-d is responsible for everything, good and evil, was expressed by the prophet Isaiah (in chapter 45):

It is interesting that when these words were put into the prayer book, the rabbis could not bring themselves to declare G-d the creator of evil – so they changed the wording so it says “I make peace and create everything”.

To be honest, though, I find the idea that good and evil both come from the same source to be oddly comforting. There isn’t some horrible demon out there trying to get us – even Satan, in the Book of Job, is one of G-d’s servants, the “adversary” whose job it is to tempt humans to sin. He is the prosecutor before the Heavenly Court. In the vision of the prophet Zechariah (Chapter 3):

Good and evil are two sides of the same coin. We often ascribe the first to luck, and the latter to something outside of us – there is no way a normal human can understand the mind of a psychopathic killer, and that in itself is a blessing. But in the end, I do not believe in the dualism of these two.

Whether you believe in a personal G-d or some vague “Universe” out there, it forms the light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates evil. The source of all is the same.

What do you think?