Are we basically good—or basically evil? It is an ancient argument, and, according to the Torah, even God is of two minds on the subject. In Genesis 1, God looks at all that has been created—including humans—and gives the seal of Divine approval. “And God saw everything that had been made, and behold, it was very good.” One could also cite the earlier verse, “And God created the human being b’tzelem Elohim / in the image of God.” If we are created in the image of God, then we must have Divine Goodness at our cores. However, in Genesis 8, after the debacle of human society that ends in the Great Flood, God reflects on human nature and sighs to Noah: “The devising of the human heart is evil from childhood on.”
The ancient Rabbis see these opposing Divine opinions as clues about the duality of human nature: we have good inside, but we also have the capacity to do evil. They call our innate godliness Yetzer Tov, the Good Inclination, and they call that part of us which wants to make bad decisions Yetzer HaRa, the Evil Inclination. The two are constantly vying for our attention and acquiescence, and our challenge is to encourage our Good Inclination and to subdue or redirect our Evil Inclination. It is a daily endeavor.
Religion and systems of morality offer assistance for this work, teaching us how to focus on good deeds and resist evil. And, religions offer various remedies for those times when we succumb to evil. In Judaism, this is the message of our holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. As the Prophet Ezekiel (18.23) reminds us, “God is slow to anger, ready to forgive. It is not the death of sinners God seeks, but that they should turn from their ways and live.” It is not a matter of being innately good or bad; the challenge for human beings involves making good choices—and repenting when we go wrong.
This old discussion recently popped up in a new MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) TV show. Ms. Marvel tells the story of Kamala Khan, a teenage Muslim girl who lives in Jersey City—and who has just gained superpowers. She and her family are very Muslim and very American, and the show presents a sympathetic and normalized vision of the Muslim American experience. Among the characters in the story is the local Imam, Sheikh Abdullah, a friendly, calm, and wise presence in the lives of his congregants. At one juncture, Kamala is struggling with her abilities, her mission, and whether she is good at heart. She presents her quandary to Sheikh Abdullah, and he gives her this answer: “Good is not what you are. Good is what you do.”
It is a great proverb—and one that I immediately knew I had to preach. However, I was hoping that it had a more glorious origin than a television screenplay—perhaps a Sufi master or a Zen Monk or a Native American Shaman. So, I looked it up and was immediately disappointed. According to the Internet, it comes from The Twilight Series—the one about vampires and werewolves and humans all falling in love with each other—by author Stephenie Meyer. Another internet search brought me back to the original Ms. Marvel comic book and its author, G. Willow Wilson. Ms. Wilson is a Muslim American writer and attributes this wonderful proverb—Good is not what you are; good is what you do— to an unspecified Koranic source she heard from her father.
My search also found a number of similar kinds of quotations—from a variety of sages both ancient and modern, and I gave thanks that God’s wisdom makes its way to humans in many ways—different languages, different religions, and different stories. Why would not God share this wonderful insight with many people? We are created with great potential—with the ability to choose between good and evil. As Sheikh Abdullah counsels, “Good is not what you are; good is what you do.”