In the not-too-distant past, there were many good, talented Jews who were swept up in the Enlightenment and various revolutionary movements.
Interestingly, however, one who was raised to become a great rabbi and community leader but subsequently abandoned that path in pursuit of secular trends did not become a socialist leader or famed poet, for example.
Instead, such individuals were generally reduced to a confused shell of their original selves, lacking any sense of purpose, and unremarkable by all accounts.
This degenerative process, while indeed destructive for the Jewish nation, was even more so for those who had experienced it.
Any process in which good turns to evil is a doomed affair.
When the doses of life the “good” person funnels to evil exceed a certain limit, an inevitable breaking point is reached.
That person, the source of life for evil, eventually implodes, shattering into insignificant shards.
Following this logic, every victory of evil simultaneously triggers the beginning of its own downfall.
The more powerful and sweeping its victory, the more imminent its demise.
Essentially, embedded within the very nature of evil there exists a barrier preventing it from ever surpassing a certain level, beyond which would commence its own self-destruction.
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz