The Problem With Doing Good
"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion"
- Abraham LincolnAt the beginning of every Jewish year, in the month of Tishrei, there are 10 days, called "The Holy Days" or "The Terrible Days". During this period, every Jewish believer has to search his soul, ask for forgiveness and repent. At the end of this period, during Yom Kipur (or The Day Of Atonement), the Jewish believers fast and pray in hope to be "signed for life" for the coming year. They hope that the balance between good and bad deed will turn in their favor. Some make sure that it will happen using donations, others by a brutal ritual which I will not describe here.
But the question is, "What is a good deed?". Is there a universal standard for it? The answer is simple: no. You can often find a negative aspect in every good deed, even if it was done selflessly and with the sincerest of intention.
If we started by talking about Judaism, let's talk about religion in general. Following a religion is considered a generally considered a good deed, which help should the believer stay moral. But there are number of questions that should be considered: Which religion? Believing in one religion, almost automatically turns you into a sinner in the other ones. To make matters even worse, religions tend to be very possessive of their believers and they won't allow you to follow more than one at the same time. Some religions go as far as not allowing you to join in, which means that if you weren't born into them, you are doomed from birth. I am a simple man, so I decided to discard belief altogether. If I am condemned to get into all the other religions' hells, than what does it matter if I go into my born religion's hell too? (Actually, the original Judaism has no concept of hell. Oh well, too late for that).
If not religion, how about ideology? Political activists are good people, aren't they? They care about their community, their country, the environment, human rights - the list of possibilities for activism goes on forever. The question is again, which one to choose? I am sure that most members of Hitlejugend felt quite silly when they grew up (that is, those who survived World War II). Same goes for communist parties members, volunteers to the US military during the Vietnam war - again, the list is endless. If I can take one example, I will say that I do not object to the ideology behind Green Peace and PETA, but I do object to their scare tactics. As with religion, I decided not to subscribe to any "ideological package": I simply take the ideas I like from all sides. This way, I may have an opinion about every issue, but it won't necessarily be the obvious one.
Donating to charity for instance, is generally considered a good deed. But is it, really? A crazy Ayn Randian may claim that by donating, you are reducing the beneficiaries' chances to find a proper job. From the other side, an insane socialist will tell you that it is the government's job to help the poor and by donating, you are allowing it to reduce its responsibilities. I am quite sure that a rational economist will say that by donating, you are spreading health, and that small sum of money that you donated will help the beneficiary more it hurts you to give it away. But things seem to be much simpler when you take out the ideologies that surround them.
So it's clear that if we do leave the religious, ideological or political element outside, doing a good deed is about acting in a positive way. Making a donation is a good deed. Volunteering in an animal shelter is a good deed. Helping out in a hospital or in school are good deeds. Helping a friend during a crisis is a good thing. But then come the doubts: "Have I done enough?", "Could I have done things better?", "Which mistakes could have been avoided?". These doubts are common, but they disprove Mr. Lincoln's saying. I probably did good, but my conscious is not clean.
If we started by talking about Judaism, let's talk about religion in general. Following a religion is considered a generally considered a good deed, which help should the believer stay moral. But there are number of questions that should be considered: Which religion? Believing in one religion, almost automatically turns you into a sinner in the other ones. To make matters even worse, religions tend to be very possessive of their believers and they won't allow you to follow more than one at the same time. Some religions go as far as not allowing you to join in, which means that if you weren't born into them, you are doomed from birth. I am a simple man, so I decided to discard belief altogether. If I am condemned to get into all the other religions' hells, than what does it matter if I go into my born religion's hell too? (Actually, the original Judaism has no concept of hell. Oh well, too late for that).
If not religion, how about ideology? Political activists are good people, aren't they? They care about their community, their country, the environment, human rights - the list of possibilities for activism goes on forever. The question is again, which one to choose? I am sure that most members of Hitlejugend felt quite silly when they grew up (that is, those who survived World War II). Same goes for communist parties members, volunteers to the US military during the Vietnam war - again, the list is endless. If I can take one example, I will say that I do not object to the ideology behind Green Peace and PETA, but I do object to their scare tactics. As with religion, I decided not to subscribe to any "ideological package": I simply take the ideas I like from all sides. This way, I may have an opinion about every issue, but it won't necessarily be the obvious one.
Donating to charity for instance, is generally considered a good deed. But is it, really? A crazy Ayn Randian may claim that by donating, you are reducing the beneficiaries' chances to find a proper job. From the other side, an insane socialist will tell you that it is the government's job to help the poor and by donating, you are allowing it to reduce its responsibilities. I am quite sure that a rational economist will say that by donating, you are spreading health, and that small sum of money that you donated will help the beneficiary more it hurts you to give it away. But things seem to be much simpler when you take out the ideologies that surround them.
So it's clear that if we do leave the religious, ideological or political element outside, doing a good deed is about acting in a positive way. Making a donation is a good deed. Volunteering in an animal shelter is a good deed. Helping out in a hospital or in school are good deeds. Helping a friend during a crisis is a good thing. But then come the doubts: "Have I done enough?", "Could I have done things better?", "Which mistakes could have been avoided?". These doubts are common, but they disprove Mr. Lincoln's saying. I probably did good, but my conscious is not clean.
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