Anyone with any connection to Israel, world events, or social media has most probably seen one of the horrific videos Hamas has released to the public. It is difficult to grasp the cruelty we have witnessed in these videos, and even more difficult to understand how a human could be proud of perpetrating this violence against another human being. These videos were recorded, edited, and published with pride in the violence they depict. The images have been seared into our memory, their pain has scarred our consciousnesses, and we will forever be traumatized by the viciousness we’ve been exposed to during this war.
King David described the Jewish people by teaching, “There are three distinguishing marks of the Jewish people. They are merciful, they are humble, and they perform acts of kindness.” Jewish values dictate to the Jewish people that they act with mercy and kindness to all people, Jew and Gentile alike. Zionism was built on these same values. The State of Israel didn’t expel its Arab population when it founded its state. Israel accepted the Aabs living in its borders. The descendants of those Arabs now account for over 23% of Israel’s population, almost two and a half million people. Today, Arab-Israeli citizens enjoy equal rights with Jewish-Israelis. The State of Israel looks to be a light unto the nations, and it leads with a moral compass attuned to treating all of its citizens, and even its enemies with kindness.
One of the fundamental principles of Judaism is that all people enjoy freedom of choice. A person that chooses to be good and righteous has the ability to do so, and a person who wishes to destroy themselves by acting in evil and wicked ways can do so as well. Human beings are unique in this regard; animals work on instinct, they aren’t given free choice between good and bad. Animals can’t even decipher between good and bad. It is the human being’s ability to think abstractly, using their intellect to overcome their desire, that allows them to understand the difference between good and bad, and to choose the path they see as most advantageous for them.
It is the ability to choose good and bad that enables human beings to experience pride or regret over their actions. There would be no cause to be proud of an accomplishment if it was beyond the person to decide to try and achieve their goals, and there would be no reason to regret sin if it was beyond a person to stop themselves from their sin. It is due to a person’s ability to decide to do good or bad that humans hold each other responsible for their actions and justice demands a person be rewarded for their good actions and punished for their sins.
A person or a group of people that decide to commit repeated evil acts or evil acts so reprehensible are said to have lost their humanity. This judgment is reserved for the most heinous of acts and the most vile people. Yet no matter how revolting the act and how horrible the person, they are still held responsible for their actions by society. Humans create just societies, and a just society demands that people are punished in relation to their actions. There is no threshold of evil, that if surpassed, exempts a person from punishment because their actions speak of a level of depravity outside the normal bounds of people – and therefore justice.
Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik wrote, “Our faith in man’s goodness should not blind us to the latent demonic in man. Civilized men can become the personification of evil. The thin veneer of social restraint can suddenly be lifted, exposing the ugly, brutish potential of man. Created ‘in the image of G-d,’ man can also assume a satanic identity. He is capable, from time to time, of going berserk, of turning into a monster… Amalek is obviously more than a nomadic tribe. He is more than a particular group, nationality or people. He is Everyman gone berserk, who has shed his Divine image for that of Satan. Any nation which declares that its policy is to destroy the Jewish people is Amalek, for it has emblazoned on its banner the slogan of impassioned hatred.”
It is easy to understand Rabbi Soloveitchik as teaching that when a person continues to sin or commits a horrific sin, they’re no longer human beings because they’ve lost the aspect of themselves that was created in the image of G-d. They can no longer be considered humans and are now considered animals. Many people who have watched the disturbing videos of Hamas attacks are quick to judge the evil men who perpetrated these acts as animals and no longer human.
Although people who call heinous sinners animals don’t mean their characterization this way, nonetheless when they call evil people animals, they excuse their behavior – after all, they are acting on animalistic instinct. An animal acts without free choice, and now the sinner is said to be an animal, devoid of free choice to have decided not to commit these actions. But this isn’t true: an animal’s instincts are designed to protect the animal. When an animal kills, it does so for self-preservation. When a human murders they don’t do it for self-preservation, but out of their evil nature. The Hamas members and the Palestinians that are shown in the videos are people with free choice. They’ve chosen evil and act like barbarians. They could’ve made righteous and just choices like any other person, but they didn’t. They’re evil savages, but make no mistake, they are human beings.
