THE THE LEGEND LEGEND OF OF LILITH LILITH © ©

The Legend of Lilith: The Origins of Evil and the Fall of Man
CHAPTER 3
ORIGINS OF EVIL
Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that change darkness into light, and light into darkness;
that change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter!
“Know that when all of Elohim’s works are each in its place, they are good in this place of their creation, as assigned to
them and predetermined for them; but when they rebel and leave their legitimate places, then they are evil.” Joseph
Gikatilla
U
nlike the Greeks who sought to deny the ultimate reality of evil by designating it as “privation” or lack, or the Gnostics
who acknowledged evil but conceived it as a “second power” independent from and opposed to Elohim, the Ta-
NaK fully acknowledges evil’s reality, and places it within the context of Elohim’s goodness and His plan for creation.
The roots of evil lay embedded in the mystery the oneness of Ayn Sof. 38 “
Ayn Sof is “the One Who has no end” and is the absolute perfection in which there is no distinctions and no differentiations.
It does not reveal Itself in a way that makes knowledge of Its nature possible. It is the finite in creation that reveals
the infinite and it is through creation one can deduce the existence of Ayn Sof. Ayn Sof cannot be the object of religious
thought as It is unrevealed, however, Ayn Sof can be understood through the revelation of Elohim since Nothingness (Ayin
hagamur) is the barrier confronting the human intellectual faculty when it reaches the limits of its capacity.
• Col 1:15-19 Who is the image of the invisible Elohim, first-born of all creation, because in him were the all things
created, those in the heavens, and those upon the earth, those visible, and those invisible, whether thrones, whether
lordships, whether principalities, whether authorities; all things through him, and for him, have been created,
and himself is before all, and the all things in him have consisted. And himself is the head of the body--the assembly--who
is a beginning, a first-born out of the dead, that he might become in all things --himself--first, because
in him it did please all the fullness to tabernacle.
• “ Nothingness is more existent than all the being in the world.” David ben Abraham ha-Lavan
• “ Thou wast the same before the world was created; Thou hast been the same since the world hath been created
;Thou art the same in this world, and Thou wilt be the same in the world to come.” Morning Prayer Service
How does one describe the indescribable? It is impossible. All the devices used have fallen short, because they are merely
representations of reality. Ayn Sof is beyond any human comprehension 39 . There is nothing that we can say meaningfully
about Ayn Sof. We cannot even start a sentence with the word Ayn Sof 40 and complete it with anything meaningful.
We cannot even say that Ayn Sof is “good” because IT totally transcends our very limited concepts concerning good or
evil. The moment we say “G-d is…” the sentence loses its meaning, because Ayn Sof has no limits. Just as a fist cannot
hold a thought neither can the human mind hold the concept of Ayn Sof. No matter how strong we are or how hard we
clench our fist, it cannot hold a thought. This is because a fist exists on one level or plane of reality, and thought resides
on a completely different plane. They are both real, but yet exist in two different realms and there is no way we can reach
into the world of thought and grab hold of one with our fist. And like manner, we cannot comprehend Ayn Sof nor define
IT. The reality of Ayn Sof is beyond the human mind to grasp and it is also beyond all human capacity to withstand. A
38 Ayn Sof is nothingness and yet everything. It is the Absolute indefinable, unknowable Infinite All. Since Its essence is nothingness
prior to creation, then It contains within Itself the roots of evil, nonbeing. Such nonbeing is present in three aspects of Ein Sof-Din
(judgment), Contraction (tzimtzum), and Breakage (shevirah).
39 “Thought cannot ascend higher than its source (Wisdom).Whoever dares to contemplate that to which thought cannot extend or
ascend will suffer one of two consequences; either he will confuse his mind and destroy his body or, because of his mental obsession
to grasp that which he cannot, his soul will ascend and be severed (from the body) and return to her root.” Ezra of Gerona
40 Ayn Sof is what the world calls God.
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