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According to at least one major tradition, Yishma'el repented later in his life. Gen. 25:9 says that after Avraham died, "Yitzchak and Yishmael his sons buried him ..." According to Genesis Rabba as quoted by Rashi there, the order indicates that Yishma'el repented, as he recognized the precedence due his younger but covenentally endowed brother. For some ...

If only good things happened to good people and bad things to bad people then there would be a big limitation on free will. Also, people aren't pure or evil. A vast majority of people have some good traits and actions and some that are not as good, so it is impossible to say one person is good and another bad. Lastly, ultimate reward and punishment are not ...

Welcome to Mi Yodeyah, Frederick. The "average" Jew does not have a symbol for "evil" or the "devil," especially the latter. The "devil" is a Christian innovation shared also by Islam, and which probably owes some of its origins from pagan and other non-Christian sources such as Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism, both of which are dualistic religions. ...

Yeah, we don't name after bad people, unless the name means something nice. (This is on a Rabbi Frand tape.) There are plenty of "Avshalom"s out there today -- while the Biblical Avshalom who committed treason against his father King David wasn't a nice guy, the name -- "father (cause) of peace" is nice. Contrast with a name like "Do'eg", which is both a ...

I think the Chida addresses these issues as well, in (appropriately enough) "Shem haGedolim." It is also interesting that, as far as I know, none of the rabbis in the Mishna/Talmud are named Moshe. In the larger world, of course names go in and out of style, but this is even more so in the Jewish world, where we have strong traditions of naming after ...

According to Rebbe Nachman of Breslev, not only are there no exceptions but it's specifically in the case of a rasha where being dan lechaf zechus is essential: "Know that you must judge all people favorably. This applies even to the worst of people. You must search until you find some little bit of good in them. In that good place inside them, they ...

First of all, it should be clarified that rasha means wicked person (technically just wicked, but it is a substantive ). And asur (assur) means forbidden. As Rabbi Yochanan says (Megillah 28a), it is forbidden for a man to gaze at the "tzelem demus" of a wicked man... Tzelem means image, and demus means likeness. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korchah said that he ...

An explanation from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, according to Chassidus/Kabbalah: נפש הבהמית עיקרו מדות , ואין לו שייכות לשכל (ולכן נקרא... ...(בשם "מלך זקן וכסיל", כיון שאין לו שייכות לשכל אמיתי The animal soul's [the Evil Inclination] essence is emotions, and it has no connection to intellect. (Therefore it is called by the name "king, old, and a fool" ...

1) We do find examples of the foolishness of the Yetzer Hora. (This does not answer your philosophic point.) One example is in his confusion with our blowing of the shofar in Elul, not on Erev Rosh HaShonoh and on Rosh HaShonoh itself as this essay shows, page 10 by Rabbi David Myer “However, our Rabbis teach us that on Erev Rosh Hashanah one is not ...

The Maskil LeDavid quotes the answer of the Mizrachi (brought by @GershonGold). However, he feels this answer is not so good since (In his version of Rashi 25:27) Rashi says that at age 13 Eisav went to houses of idol worship (unlike the version in our Chumashim, that says "Eisav went to worship idols"). If so, it would be hard to say it wasn't public. He ...

Here's an excerpt from the Shaar Bitachon which addresses this: http://dafyomireview.com/article.php?docid=380 If one asks: Behold we see some tzadikim which must work very hard to earn a livelihood while many people who rebel against G-d live a good life in comfort? The answer to this was already addressed by the prophets and the chasidim (extremely ...

Why do good things happen to bad people, so that they can be rewarded in this world for any good they might have done, leaving only punishment in the world to come. As Kind David says (Psalms 92:7-8): ז אִישׁ-בַּעַר, לֹא יֵדָע; וּכְסִיל, לֹא-יָבִין אֶת-זֹאת. 7 A brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this. ח ...

The Alter Rebbe Rabbi Shneur Zalman zt'l explains in ch. 12 of Likuttei Amarim that http://www.chabad.org/dailystudy/tanya.htm that The brain rules over the heart (as it is written in Ra‘aya Mehemna, Parshat Pinchas1) by virtue of its innately created nature. And that is why is it also writting in Koheles(2:13) “Then I saw that wisdom surpasses ...

Maimonides explains the scope rule in his commentary to Avot 1:6 as follows: והוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות - עניינו, שאם יהיה אדם שאינו ידוע לך, לא תדע האם צדיק הוא או רשע, ותראהו עושה מעשה או אומר דבר, שאם יפורש באופן מה הריהו טוב, ואם תפרשהו באופן אחר הרי הוא רע - פרשהו כטוב, ואל תחשוב בו רע. אבל אם היה איש ידוע שהוא צדיק, ומפורסם במעשי הטוב, ונראה לו ...

Rabbi Orlovsky was also troubled by the question. (His bio is here). Here are some extracts from his answer: To understand the question of the rasha and the response, we have to understand that there is a fifth son. The fifth son is the one who doesn’t even come to the Seder. The rasha, for some reason, wants to be at the Seder – he just doesn’t ...

Two thoughts come to mind. First, the Pesukim come directly from the Torah. They instruct us how to answer when we are confronted with a particular question, and these relate to the Mitzvoth of Pesah. The rabbis, however, teach us that the person asking this question is identifiably wicked, which they interpret from the language used, both in the question ...

This question is actually asked by the Yerushalmi (quoted by the Daas Zekeinim in @GershonGold's answer) which answers that at thirteen Esav began to sin but it was not yet public until age fifteen. However, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Likuttey Sichos Chelek 1 pg. 49) questions this, because if so why was it necessary to cut Avraham's life short by five years - ...

wouldn't their disappearance be good for everyone Well, the well-being of everyone is independent of their existence. One's fate is sentenced on Rosh-Hashana, for Tzadik or Rasha, or on Yon Kippur for Beinoni. That sentence applies till next year (with measured dynamics :-) ). (including themselves) If they're doomed for Gehenom, their own sake is ...

There are a couple of things I can point out using Amalek, the prototype of evil names Jews should obliterate: 1) Some people have a tradition nowadays to test a pen by writing the name Amalek on a piece of paper and then scribbling the name out, effectively fulfilling the dictum of 'erasing Amalek' 2) Having said that, as I once read somewhere, it's ...