@David_Jay
I've expressed in another post how what I've learned from you regarding Judaism is very refreshing.
I have some other questions regarding your beleifs. Please do not take them as a challenge of any sort as I'm just curious to learn more about the Jewish faith.
Many have heard of Jehovah's Witnesses explanation of why God permits suffering. I've also googled this question to read about other religions beleifs; Christian sources are always the ones on the first page. I have not been able to personally find a satisfactory answer.
I'm curious as to what the Jewish beleif is on this. Why did God have to create Satan and allow him to continue testing us? Does Satan operate independently? Why could God not have created a universe with free will but without all these tests or the requirement to worship him to live past our earthly bodies expiry date? I would imagine that an omnipotent Creator could have figured out a way to do this. If I were to meet someone on the street and they were polite but didn't want anything to do with me, I would still wish them an eternity of happiness and if I had the power, would still want to bestow eternal life to them. Many answers I've heard in the past say that God doesn't force us to worship him but basically saying "worship me and be my friend; if you do not you will have 80 years of earthly free will if you are lucky but don't count on living forever" is basically forcing worship.