What came first Good or Evil?

Is there such a thing as "evil"? I thought that everything Hashem created was good. we also do not accept the concept of "Original Sin".

What there is evil behaviour among people, but that's it.

Is there a passuk which is usually translated "remove the evil from your midst"?

The scary thing is that there would not be good without evil, as there would not be evil without good.

G-d is the Source of Infinite Light, and "G-d saw light that it is good"; and so if we can figure out what came first - light or darkness, we can figure out what came first - good or evil.

But the question that first requires an answer is "where?"

As we know, there was Infinite light (something physicists call the Higgs field), in which there appeared a point of darkness (something physicists call a singularity) - Tzimtzum happened - into which point the light from around it started to filter.

Darkness is mentioned in Torah before light is created, even if in the same day of Creation. And without that darkness, G-d would not see light that it was good. Prior to the Tzimtzum, there was no good or evil, light or darkness, motion or rest, life or death.

In the world(s) surrounding our universe, there is nothing but the Infinite Light. In our universe, darkness came first, followed immediately by light: nature abhors vacuum.

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Originally posted by rob:
Is there a passuk which is usually translated "remove the evil from your midst"?

Yes rob, "U'viartah Harah Mikirbecha" - ובערת הרע מקרבך - Devarim 22:21

Also the possuk in Tehillim - Soor May'rah vih'ahsay Tov - remove yourself from evil/bad and then it says, "and do good"

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Originally posted by Anonymous Member:
What came first Good or Evil?

Another "what came first" - The chicken or the egg

My rabbi taught that the chicken was created with the ability of making an egg. I think it was a no-brainer from his Torah wisdom.

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there would not be good without evil, as there would not be evil without good.

A surfer on a surf board between waves perceives the wave height as the distance between the bottom of the trough to the top of the peak. Same for a person inside a small boat. However really there is a sea level in the middle, and the amplitude of the wave is only half of the perceived wave height.

Hashem's kindness to us is that we have a world in which our spiritual measure of goodness includes the full wave height, and we can be creditted not only for our absolute goodness compared to neutral, but our relative goodness compared to our world's potential for evil.

This thought I think helps explain the sentiment that in the place of a Baal Teshuva, [not even] a Tzadik can stand.

And to our original thread discussion, we perhaps see that from a higher perspective we have only Hashem's goodness, however manifest in our world in ways which are accurately shown as evil, and away from Hashem's wishes for what we should do.

Quote "
Originally posted by rob:
Is there a passuk which is usually translated "remove the evil from your midst"?


Also the possuk in Tehillim - Soor May'rah vih'ahsay Tov - remove yourself from evil/bad and then it says, "and do good'"
I think he's referring to the Passuk in Chumish "V'Havarta Harah Mikirbecha" by when giving the death penelty to a Rasha.