NOTE: This particular post will violate one of my rules for this blog, because it will discuss a "religious" or "spiritual" issue. This blog is based on reason. It tries to go from premises we can all agree on to remind us of truths we have forgotten or intentionally abandoned. The case for America (and Western Civilization broadly) can be easily made without appeals to faith. Having said that, as an aside, here is a theological theory ...
Perverting the three monkeys in the Japanese proverb, Western "sophisticates" see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. Dangerously, they like to believe it doesn't exist.
But what Hamas did this weekend was undeniably evil. We all know it. Turns out there's lots of evil in the world. It has different manifestations and severity, but it exists everywhere.
Regarding this "unsophisticated" topic, I want to describe an even more unsophisticated theory I have wondered about for years:
Is Anti-Semitism the Ultimate Evil?
It seems those who fully dedicate themselves to evil tend to be antisemites. There is so much hatred and depravity in the world, in so many directions. Why does it appear the most horrible evil is always acted out upon the Jewish people? Seems so random.
Could it be that as you willfully go far enough down the evil path you fall under the influence of The Evil One?
Unlike the Rolling Stones, I have no Sympathy for The Devil, but I partly understand his plight. * He hates God. But he can't get to God. If you were pure evil and hated someone with a white-hot hatred, but you couldn't get to them, what might you do? Maybe you harm their children, knowing how much that would hurt them. Satan tries to hurt God by hurting His chosen people - and he seemingly uses those who have struck the Faustian bargain to do it.
Beyond hating God, the Devil wants to dethrone Him. According to the prophet Isaiah, Satan said, "I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God ... I will make myself like the Most High."
How do you dethrone God? How do you avoid the just punishment God has promised to deliver on you? Spoiler Alert: It ain't gonna happen ... but maybe you try this:
You cause God's promises to be broken. Then Satan's prophesied punishment may not come. Then God is no longer God.
How do you do that?
You annihilate God's Chosen People - so the blessings God has promised to them and through them cannot come to pass. As it says in the Passover Haggadah, "in every generation they arise to annihilate us."**
Maybe this helps explain the inexplicable.
*Satan's plight is an analogy for our own. It is ultimately delusional - silly, actually - to rebel against an all-powerful God who has our best interest at heart. But we willfully do it any way.
** A story from an Allison Pearson editorial in The Telegraph on October 10th:
"Several years ago, I was chairing a panel of writers talking about motherhood when an Orthodox Jewish author made an observation I have never forgotten. Twins were not viewed as a blessing in her community, Sally said.
'Why?'
'Because when they come for you, it’s too hard to pick up both of them and run.' The other mums on the panel were stunned into silence. When they come for you, the Jewish mother said, not if.
On Saturday October 7, Itay and Hadar Berdichevsky realised that “they” had come for them. Gunmen were breaking down the door of their house in a kibbutz not far from the border with Gaza.
The couple, both aged 30, placed their 10-month-old twins in a secure place. In their panic and dread, with seconds to spare, the parents locked away their treasures for safekeeping.
Itay and Hadar were murdered by Hamas thugs. Twelve hours later, Israeli soldiers (IDF) found the two babies in their hiding place. They were alive, but they were orphans; the mother and father, who spent their last minutes on earth protecting them, were gone."