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In the book Open Secrets, Rami Shapiro, a rabbi, gets to the heart of the Jewish traditon. It is a collection of letters written to Rabbi Shapiro’s great-grandfather by his mentor and Rabbi. He covers everything about Judaism from the perspective of a mystic: from the Shabat, holy days and Jewish practices, to the nature of God, spirituality, and evil. A few of the topics in the book are discussed in this six-part series. Last week, the discussion was about the nature of God as all. This week, it’s about the nature of evil.

Reb Yerachmiel ben Yisrael, the author’s great-grandfather’s mentor, explains that there are two types of evil: necessary and unnecessary. Under the umbrella of necessary evil, he places events like illness, death, and natural disasters. He considers these part of the natural course of life. In the unnecessary evil bucket, he counts things like war, greed, or theft. In other words, acts that are chosen.

He eventually came to the conclusion that necessary evil wasn’t really evil at all, but they are events that are a part of life. I agree with him in that we are transient expressions of a permanent being and so death is a natural part of life. I also agree that things like death, illness, and natural disasters shouldn’t be classified as evil at all. However, this is as far as I can agree.

What we see as evil is more a manifestation of our disconnection from Spirit. Disconnection is not even the word. It’s more like being unaware of our connection to Spirit. It is not owning up to our true nature as Spirit. We can never escape being Spirit or being connected to It, but we can be unaware of it, most of the times unconsciously.

Then there’s the issue of creating your own reality. Our bodies seem to have a particular timespan, so death, I agree, is a natural occurence. However, illness, to me, does not fall under that umbrella. If we can create our own reality, we can choose health. In additon to all of the practical measures we can take to become healthier and calming techniques like meditation we can use to reduce stress and mental contributors to illness, we can employ the Law of Attraction to manifest health in our lives.

How do you explain evil within the context of creating your own reality through your thoughts? How do explain natural phenomena such as tsunamis or hurricanes? Does evil even exist at all?

In Spirit,
Nneka