It was a typical weekday evening commute, and I was on I-94 between the downtowns at about 5:15 pm. The roadway was a parking lot with each vehicle trudging forward in slow motion, in a manner that was not entirely unlike the un-dead villains in a zombie movie.
With MPR playing to help manage the boredom, I stared straight ahead and carried on, bumper-to-bumper, along the road. Without warning, a little Prius began to move sharply into my lane, its driver apparently noting an opening of a yard-and-a-half or so between my vehicle and the car in front. The Prius’s turn signal was blinking and its driver was clearing going for it. I hit my brakes hard, simultaneously making room and looking warily in my rear-view mirror to see if I was going to get rear-ended. To my relief, the aggressive lane-change resulted in no injuries or damage.
I let out my breath and instinctively laid on the horn for a good three seconds, with an extra toot for good measure. It was not my greatest moment. As I finished sounding the horn, feeling very little satisfaction but having expended my frustration, I noticed the sticker affixed to the center of the Prius’s bumper: God Bless The Whole World. No Exceptions.
Oy. In the midst of my flash of righteous anger, something to which I was reasonably entitled, I received some powerful reminders. My first reaction to the bumper sticker was a cynical “blech” for its saccharin sensibility, but there was no denying that its message was one that resonated deep within me. Even that Prius-driving idiot was a person and a part of creation. Whether the driver was poorly skilled or rude does not change the fact that he or she is worthy of God’s blessing. And mine. My anger receded and I continued the crawl home.
Of course, my inconsequential traffic squabble and flirtation with road rage means nothing in face of eternity. But the thought process that was started by that bumper sticker has stayed with me, and vexed me, as I face the onslaught of recent news.
A Broken World
There is some horrible stuff going on in the world at this moment. In Syria there is a civil war in which innocent non-combatants are getting caught between a repressive regime and rebel fighters. This isn’t merely a political disagreement being acted out militarily and resulting in “collateral damage.” The Syrian government is responsible for indiscriminately killing its own people as it attempts to maintain the upper hand in the conflict.
A Syrian boy looks out the window of his bullet-riddled house in the Khalidiya district of the central Syrian city of Homs, 160 kms north of the capital Damascus, on May 3, 2012.
And then there was the shooting in the Aurora, CO movie theater.
How can we make sense of this evil? I’m not sure that it’s possible, and our Jewish tradition adds complexity to the task.
Pure Souls
The morning prayer service provides us daily reminders of humanity’s relationship to creation. Tradition teaches that between the time that we fall asleep at night and when we awaken in the morning our neshamah, or soul, is taken from us and resides with God. In the prayer Elohai Neshamah we express gratitude for the return of our souls to our bodies:
My God the soul that You implanted within me is pure. You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me; You keep body and soul together. […]
The implications of this prayer are not subtle. First, it applies to everyone. All people are created with a soul. Further, our souls are in the care of the Eternal One – at least for a period of time each day. And we begin every day of our lives with our souls in a state of purity.
What happens to the pure souls of those who enact horrifying, senseless violence?
In God’s Image
In Mishkan T’filah, the siddur of the Reform movement, one of the morning blessings reads:
Praise to You Adonai, our God, Sovereign of the universe, who made me in the image of God.
This blessing states that each person is made in the image of God. What that means precisely is left to lengthy interpretation. But to me, at a minimum, it seems that there is no escaping the fact that every person is created with an aspect of profound holiness.
How is it that people made in the image of God can enact evil? This is an eternal question without an answer.
As the media attempts to make sense of recent tragic events, and ongoing humanitarian crises, there seems to be endless analysis of how those who kill are different from the rest of us. The details of their lives are combed through in a search for clues as to what went wrong, or what signs we should look for to prevent future tragedies.
But most of all, I think we are looking for ways to see them as “other.” Because we cannot rectify the vast distance between their actions, and the pure and holy potential of their existence. And of our existence.
Despite the questions it leaves unanswered, and the discomfort it leaves behind, our tradition insists upon the pure and holy essence of every human being. No exceptions.
Photo: FreedomHouse
If the question cannot be answered under a hypothesis that each person is holy, maybe the hypothesis is wrong. Maybe each of us is just animated, recycled carbon and very few of us are capable of being thoughtful or elevating our behavior on the basis of reflection. By the way, why do you presume that you were “reasonably entitled” to your anger or that the Prius driver was an idiot? From your description, the turn signal was on and the driver was changing lanes. Perhaps they’d had the signal on for some time and your thoughts were elsewhere; perhaps the lane change was required by exigency. Drivers tend to feel irrationally that they “own” the space in front of their cars and typically it is the car asked to yield that acts more aggressively, not the driver seeking to change lanes. Not picking a fight, just trying to be clear-headed.
Thanks for your comment, Max.
For me, Judaism is a comfortable base from which to live and draw meaning from life. I do not believe that we are simply organized organic material existing outside of a holy context. Therefore, I often struggle to make sense of profoundly unholy things that people do. It seems that the Jewish perspective posits that, beyond living ethically, the struggle is largely the point.
Shabbat Shalom!
Mr. Bargeron wrote:
“God Bless the Whole World – No Exceptions”
Does this include Hamas? Hizb’Allah?
That platitude ranks among the other winner: “War is not the answer”.
My response is: What was the question? Einsatzgruppen?
That was one of my favorite take aways from one of my Jewish Ed classes – that each person is holy – or at least has a small seed of something special in them, giving them the ability to be holy. Sometimes I think people stray (sometimes it’s pretty obvious when they do) and perhaps rather than getting angry at them we should be forgiving them, taking a deep breath and treating them gently. Might that yield more positive results down the line? It’s a struggle for sure when tragic things happen – I’m with you when you say “it’s a struggle for sure”. Excellent, thought provoking post!
Nachman & Emily: Thank you for your comments.
Nachman: The answer to your question is yes. I agree that bumper sticker statements and the like can appear to over-simplify important ideas. After all, they are written to be read and comprehended at 40 mph! However, as I wrote in my post I think Jewish tradition backs this statement up.
Emily, I think our human nature sometimes makes it very difficult to acknowledge the intrinsic holiness of a person who acts in a way that promotes evil. I for one, struggle with it. But I think this struggle is one important aspect of tikkun olam. It’s our task.
Mr. Bargeron asserts: “[G-d] Bless the Whole World – No Exceptions”
I asked: “Does this include Hamas?
Mr. Bargeron answers: “Yes”.
I asked: “Hizb’Allah”?
Mr. Bargeron answers: “Yes”.
Are you asserting “bless the whole world – no exceptions” includes the Ustashe, Dr. Mengele, Julius Streicher, Ernst Roehm, Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army, the perpetrators of the two Rwandan genocides, the Imperial Japanese Army units responsible for the Rape of Nanking, the Islamist judges and executioners of Muslim women accused of fornication after being raped, the Taliban who beat and spray acid on girls going to school?
Is this your assertion, Mr. Bargeron?
It is imperative we destroy evil and that will repair the world. Judaism does not bless evil. Here’s some Jewish tradition for you. “Lo ta’amod aldam rey’echuh”: Do not stand idly by while the blood of your fellow is shed.
You, apparently, would bless the Waffen SS, the Einsatzgruppen and the Ukrainian Police Squads that slaughtered Jews. In contrast, I would gladly aim a scoped Moisin-Nagant and kill dozens of those Nazi bastards and stop them from murdering Jews – exacting retributive justice is the subject for another day.
I do not condone the actions that you describe, nor do I condone any behavior that harms another human being.
I assert that Judaism teaches that human beings are created in God’s image, and that our souls are originally pure. This applies to everyone. A person’s actions, even if immoral, cannot change what God has created.
The distance between the holy purity of God’s creation and the evil actions of some people is a deeply troubling mystery that cannot be fully comprehended.
My point is that despite this discomfort, we cannot declare that those who do evil are wholly other than us. We share the common holiness, purity, and promise inherent in God’s creation.
I happen to agree with you, Chris. G-d may not bless the actions of some of his creation, but that is for Him to sort out. It is ours to bless the people, if not the behavior. That is the most likely path to a permanent cessation of the violence. If we try to kill the perpetrators in a physical manner, their relatives will seek vengeance, and violence escalates.
It is perfectly reasonable to stop the violence through other means, and sometimes it is going to be kill to avoid being killed. But to go kill for sport or in a wholesale manner isn’t good. Look what it has gotten those who have done it.
In the Midrash [Psalms 118] it is said that Beruriah was much taken aback when she found her husband, Rabbi Meir, praying for the destruction of an annoying neighbor. She taught him that the Psalm [104:35], “Let the sinners be consumed from the earth, and the wicked shall be no more”, explaining that the verse actually states: “Let sin be consumed from the earth,” adding that “the wicked shall be no more” because they have repented. This means that we should pray for the conversion of the wicked and not their physical destruction since conversion would be an end to wickedness.
This would imply that there is indeed redeemable good in all, regardless of ones current state.
Although IMHO there is significant difference “praying” for someone and “blessing” them.
Mr. Bargeron wrote:
“I do not condone the actions that you describe, nor do I condone any behavior that harms another human being.”
Backing out of “[G-d] bless the whole world, no exceptions” I see. There *are* exceptions. Is that it?
“My point is that despite this discomfort, we cannot declare that those who do evil are wholly other than us. We share the common holiness, purity, and promise inherent in God’s creation.”
*facepalm*
I’m at a loss. I have no idea were people get this stuff from.
Chris, thank you for your post. It has been on my mind the last couple of weeks; how to reconcile evil/violence with holding compassion for all…
Rabbi Latz’s sermon last night on this topic added another reminder for me, when he asked us to think of someone we didn’t like/hated…and how I could so quickly think of one particular person who has done a terrible act (against me personally)…and for him to ask if it was possible to open our hearts…
I have it in me to be hateful, rageful, angry…I don’t want to admit that most days, but felt it very strongly last night.
Making it personal for me, knowing each of us has a story and acknowledging that even “she” has a soul…and is perhaps not awake yet to the hurt she has inflicted…I can find a thread of compassion. Compassion for her struggle, for her unmet needs, for not having learned how to include vs exclude. As Rabbi Latz said, this does not condone behavior or mean I need to forgive, but I’m trying to grasp the importance of the idea you posited for the kind of person I want to be in the world. Maybe, from this place of compassion (albeit stingy right now), I may be better able to take action to repair the world from love rather than fear or anger.
Want to know what “created in the image of G-d means?” It means we have free choice. That just like nothing restricts Him from his actions, we have the ability to do good in this world or bad. When we choose good, we become like Him. When we choose bad, we used the choice that He gave us.