I have two friends. One is good, was good, always will be good and cannot but be good. But my other friend is not naturally good. For him to be good is a struggle.
Acting kindly is automatic to my first friend but a challenging tough choice for my other friend.
When they both act kindly, is the quality of their goodness equal? I think we all intuit that although my first friend is truly kind he’s kind of a kind robot. Whereas my other friend’s kindness because it’s a victorious choice it’s a richer type of kindness.
The Torah teaches that when God looked at his creation on the sixth day He remarked that it was “very good”. The Sages tell us that the term “good” correlates to the good inclination but the word “very” correlates to the bad inclination. In other words struggling and overcoming our bad inclination to choose the good is not just good but very good.
Therefore although my naturally good friend is indeed good my friend who battles with his bad inclination and victoriously chooses to the good is “very” good.
Now we’ve all been taught in kindergarten that God is absolutely good. But is God only good or is He also “very” good?
Torah teaches that there’s nothing but God and we’re all a part of Him. What part of Him are we? The part that can be “very” good.
So if God is so good, why is the world so bad? Because a bad world is actually a very good place to manifest the very good part of God.
God created this world to express the part of Himself that is capable of being very good. We are that part when we play that part and victoriously choose the good over bad. There is nothing but God, Good Almighty, and we are the “very” good part of Him.