Is There Really Evil in the World? – Parshat Vayeira

This may not be politically correct. Even to ask the question presupposes that I have the right to 'judge' another's behavior. Well, we can definitely agree that there are people who have behave in a way that we would want to avoid any direct contact with them. Would you agree to hang out with rapists, pedophiles, serial killers and the like? I'm assuming that the answer would be 'no'. As a therapist, I am in a different position – one of non-judgmentalism and healing – and at that moment I try to see the person sitting opposite me as suffering rather than evil.

With this question still in my mind I open this week's parsha, Parshat Vayeira, and find a description of the people of Sodom. They are knocking on Lot's door asking him to give over his male guests for them to, well, sodomize. When Lot hesitates, they move to break down his door in order to take his guests by force with the intention of raping them.1 These people are showing no respect for other people or their wishes. We get no sense of their using or listening to their conscience to determine if this is an appropriate way to behave. Here is evil. The Torah names it as such in last week's portion.2

If we were playing antonyms, we might say that evil is the opposite of kindness. In doing acts of loving-kindness we ascertain the needs of the person and take action to fill those needs. We live our lives not just to look out for ourselves but also to be aware of the needs of the other.  We rise above who we ae and connect with others and their needs. In Sodom, the people showed no interest in the guests' wishes or desires. On the contrary – they were interested only in their own desires. "They are ruled by base emotions," says Dr. Teria Shantall, "(like hatred, greed, self-aggrandizement and lust for power). They make evil "good" and good "evil".3 Maybe the saddest part of it all is that they are so far away from where they could be if they were only to listen to their voice of conscience.

As a therapist, I am sometimes called upon to work with people who have done deplorable things. There, in the clinic, I am a healer and do my best to help this person regain a sense of self and worth and to help him re-find his conscience. Finding his conscience will help him find a more positive route towards meaning in his own life. For conscience "is that capacity which empowers him to seize the meaning of a situation in its very uniqueness, and in the final analysis meaning is something unique."4 And if he is aware of and connected to his conscience, to the unique need one may have to meet, then he will behave differently.

Each situation has its own meaning and our conscience helps us discern that meaning and help us to decide what the right course of action is, if we listen to it.

The people of Sodom chose to disregard and suppress that voice of conscience and behaved in the manner described in the Torah. We, too, can choose whether to listen to that voice of our conscience. If we do, that will promote the fulfillment of meaning in that situation. Then we will be able to say we truly lived.

Click here for another logoParsha article on Parshat Vayeira

Notes

  1. Bereishit 19:5-9
  2. ibid. 13:13
  3. Teria Shantall, a student of Viktor Frankl - in an email to me re:conscience, 5/16
  4. Viktor Frankl, 'Will to Meaning', p. 18

Have A Great Shabbat!laughing

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