The Definition of ‘Good’

I’ve got a question for you: how do you define ‘good’? I ask this question, because the whole world is apparently full of ‘good’ people who are doing their best to be and do ‘good’ – and yet, the whole world is also full of evil, hate-filled, violent, vindictive, duplicitous, nasty people too, so clearly, some thing, some where, isn’t adding up.

My dictionary defines ‘good’ as the following: “having suitable or desirable qualities: promoting health, welfare or happiness: virtuous: pious: kind: benevolent: well-behaved: not troublesome: of repute: doughty: worthy: commendable: suitable: beneficial: genuine and pleasing.”

We can see from this secular definition that ‘good’ is not a given, it’s a judgement call. If someone is looking out for other people, if they’re kind, and genuine, and sincerely benefiting others (and not just wrapping them up in self-serving ‘favors’ which they will then ruthlessly call in at a future date) – then, according to the secular definition, a person can lay some claim to ‘being good’.

But what happens if I do one good deed a day, and then spend the rest of the time doing horrible, selfish, self-centered, evil things? What if I give my buck to the charity collector, but then park in the disabled parking spot, insult my husband, leave my friend in the lurch, and refuse to give my kid supper to ‘teach them a lesson’, because they didn’t instantly do what I wanted. Am I still ‘good’ then?

Let’s make the question even sharper, by taking it back to Torah. How does the Torah define ‘good’? It’s breathtakingly amazing in its simplicity: ‘good’ is G-d. When a person is trying to do G-d’s will, they are ‘good’. And when, they aren’t trying to do G-d’s will, they aren’t ‘good’.

So then the question is, how do we know what G-d wants from us? Again, the answer is breathtakingly amazing in its simplicity: He gave us a bunch of rules to follow, called the Torah commandments.

Jews have 613, and non-Jews have the 7 Noahide laws. The more a person is trying to do G-d’s will – as set out in the Torah – the more ‘good’ they will genuinely be.

Which brings us to the next question: if a person is doing something ‘good’, but G-d is completely out of the picture, is that still good? If a person is doing something because they themselves believe it’s ‘the right thing to do’, or because they were raised that way, but they are avowed atheists, for example, is that still good?

According to our Torah definition, it can’t be. Why? Because the only real good is G-d. If G-d is divorced from the ‘good’ act, then it’s just something a person is doing to make themselves feel good, or to make themselves feel superior, or to give themselves some concrete ‘proof’ that they really are ‘good people’, so they don’t have to worry about challenging all the ‘bad’ that still exists inside them.

To put it another way, the good deed is not being done to serve G-d; it’s being done to serve their own selfish self-interest.

Which brings us back to where we started: if the world is so full of ‘good’ people apparently doing ‘good’, then why is it also so full of evil?

The answer is that any good that’s done without G-d, is really not ‘good’ at all, because it’s not rooted in holiness. It’s not rooted in humility. And when a person is arrogant – that is, they believe that they are the highest authority in the universe, and they are the last word about whether something is ‘good’ or not – then they can find a rationale for why even the most evil things in the world are ‘good’.

The Nazis were known for their ‘refinement’ and ‘good manners’. Their G-dless definition of ‘good’ was to kill Jews, as fast and as efficiently as possible. Of course, that’s a very extreme example. Most people would never agree that mass murder was ‘good’.

But what about abortions? What about euthanasia? What about all the people that won’t get born, because their parents are running after the ‘good’ things called ‘financial security’ and ‘career success’?

Some cultures think that child abuse is ‘good’; other cultures believe that suicide missions are ‘good’; still others believe that the highest ‘good’ a person can attain in this world is to stick their head in the ground for days at a time and pretend to be some sort of human vegetable.

And who are we to judge????

Our judgement – any human judgement – is completely warped and twisted, unless it’s sincerely rooted in Torah, and genuinely wanting to do G-d’s will.

So how do I know if I’m really a ‘good’ person? Simple: if I regularly go against what I would prefer, to try and do G-d’s will, as set out in the Torah, then there’s a good chance that I’m at least on the right track.

If I only do the things I like, or that I enjoy, or that give me status, or a reputation for being a ‘good person’, or for some other ulterior motive, then I’m probably no-where near being the ‘good person’ I like to pretend I am.

And that is why the world is so full of (apparently) good people, (apparently) trying to do good, and also still so full of lies and evil.