Torah Insight in Painful and Horrific Times

This week’s Insight was written while holding back tears. The pain is unbearable.

The renowned biblical commentator Rashi (Shlomo Yitzchaki 1040-1105) sheds an important and relevant insight into the passage that states that God made man “unique among us, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:22). Rashi explains that the verse teaches that man alone can distinguish between good and evil, a quality animals and beasts do not have.

When animals act viciously this is their nature. However, when human beings, who have freedom of choice, act barbarically they are lower than wild beasts. The barbaric and evil actions of Hamas against Israelis, Jews, and people of other nationalities remind us of how despicable and degraded men become when they reject the gift of being created in the image of God.

May we immediately see peace in Israel and the fulfillment of the prophetic words, “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz

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