Pure Evil

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When, based on Masoretic traditions, the Rabbis disapproved of Biblical figures, they pulled no punches in describing the depravity and low character exhibited by those villains. Even when the Torah provides anodyne or seemingly positive descriptions, the Rabbis discern and describe hidden references to deviance and perversion. Lavan kisses his fugitive nephew, Jacob, and the commentators suggest that he was searching for hidden jewelry. Esau arrives from the field, thirsty, hungry, and tired, and the Rabbis suggest that he was exhausted from all the murders he had been committing. Sarah sees Ishmael cavorting (מצחק, a verb that is used quite positively when applied to Abraham and Sarah in the same Torah portion); the commentators suggest that he was seducing the women who came to learn about God from Sarah, and then murdering their husbands if they objected.

And so on.

Since almost the entire book of Genesis is driven by the narrative of how some (but not all) descendants of Terach, Abraham, and Isaac were chosen to become God’s nation and inherit the land of Canaan, this imperative to denigrate the failed pretenders–Lavan, Ishmael, Esau– is understandable. But it is frequently at odds with the plain meaning of the text, and I always found it a bit over the top.

Fortunately for me and my immortal soul, it is a basic tenet of Jewish Biblical exegesis that the Torah may be subject to numerous interpretations, and a somewhat heterodox view of the character of some of the disfavored relatives is not disqualifying. After all, Lavan is also grandfather to the shvatim, Esau shares identical DNA with Jacob and showed great deference to Isaac, and Ishmael is said by some to have repented.

Just as I harbor a smidgen of good will toward these scoundrels, it also goes against the grain for me to utilize excessive disparagement to characterize contemporaries with whom I disagree. I am appalled at the ease with which some Jews label other Jews Nazis or Kapos. I don’t think that judicial reform antagonists are traitors. I shudder when someone refers to Gentiles or minorities with dismissive, offensive Yiddish terminology. And I hesitate to label other people as subhuman or animals.

We Jews know how destructive such labeling can be.

But . . . The events of October 7–the orchestrated barbarism and the bestial pride it generated–have challenged my propensity for moderation in language. The people who perpetrated the atrocities had been indoctrinated in an ideology that effectively distilled the humanity out of them. Given that, how to avoid describing them by any means other than animal imagery? And when the enlightened citizens of the world sought to justify their behavior by reference to “legitimate” grievances, how to avoid characterizing them as antisemitic Nazis?

Yet we are reminded that Abraham pleaded for the lives of the degenerates of Sodom and was bereft at the expulsion of Ishmael. Isaac favored Esau. It is in our nature to try to understand the motivations even of those who are our implacable enemies–perhaps they were misled by a deformed ideology, by a twisted educational system, by economic hardship. Perhaps there is a silent majority comprised of decent people who should not be judged by the excesses of the extreme fringe.

Perhaps we should err on the side of charity?

And then we recall that, for political and ideological reasons, the remains of Hadar Goldin have been held for over a decade and that Hamas is still holding on to his remains to see if it can extract additional concessions. His grieving family, which never paused for a single second in its quest for a proper burial, continued to be tortured by these soulless ghouls in human form.

Consider: Hadar Goldin has been missing since 2014 and Hamas has known the whereabouts of his remains throughout the entire period. To the extent that anyone might want to temporize about their behavior on October 7, their looting of humanitarian aid, their use of human shields, their indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, their misuse of hospitals, schools, and mosques, just remember: they hid the body of Hadar Goldin for more than ten years.

Again, because the horror and depravity is enhanced through repetition, consider:  They hid the remains of of Hadar Goldin for over ten years.

There can be no forgiveness, no excuses, no justification, no acceptance, no comprehension of such naked evil.

Perhaps–undoubtedly–it was presumptuous of me to question the wisdom and imagination of the Biblical commentators. Perhaps they, unfettered by ephemeral notions of universal goodness or situation ethics or relative morality, understood that some of the inimical forces we have faced that opposed our existence and our right to our land are simply evil and that no quarter should be given and no mercy shown in our efforts to extirpate that evil. They understood that the Lavans and Esaus and Ishmaels were not only capable of such abominations, but consumed and defined by them; accordingly, the Rabbis were unwilling to provide excuses for them.

When our representatives, or other interlocutors, negotiate with Hamas, this thought should never, for a single moment, leave their minds: these monsters hid the body of Hadar Goldin for ten years. May God avenge his blood and the torment of his family.