We have begun to use the word “evil” in our discussion of America’s actions and policies regarding migrants. Whether an action or policy or attitude is evil is not in the first instance a political question; it is a moral one.
Here are some thoughts about how we might think of evil in the world we experience, and how we might respond to it.
Our tradition features biblical voices that identify and call out evil outside the boundaries of the covenanted people as well as within. (For us, evil is not just a matter of willful, rebellious Jewish transgressions or of Anti-Semitic words and acts from the enemies of the Jews.) God condemns the sinfulness of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18), Nahum rails against Nineveh (e.g. Nahum 3), and Ezekiel prophesies against Tyre (Ezekiel 27ff). Our tradition condemns such dispositions as “envy, lust, and the seeking of honor” (Avot 4:28). These appear to be the same as the qualities associated with “the wicked Balaam” in Avot 5:23, who, together with his disciples, inherits Gehinnom.
Sure, mass murderers are evil. Our tradition seems to be more interested in the kind of thinking that leads to such acts of brutality than in the acts themselves. If we can help people avoid developing destructive patterns of thinking, they will not commit those acts. Evil thoughts are always cooking up new outrages.
American Jews are blessed to live in a republic that has generally allowed us to live as Jews without fear of persecution and whose founding document asserts the dignity of the human, just as Genesis 1 does, even if the country’s practices often have left so much to be desired. Jewish citizens of this land are afforded the opportunity to further the cause of goodness (and militate against evil) both within our communities and in the public spaces of the nation.
Those of us who are American Jews may feel perplexed by an Administration that not only recognizes the Jewish claim to Jerusalem but also valorizes “envy, lust, and the seeking of honor.” Whatever the meaning of the Administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel, the president’s (and now at least some of his men’s/women’s) easy embrace of shamelessness, cruelty, contempt, falsehood, and greed reflects qualities that our prophets and sages were not shy to call “evil.” The heart-wrenching separation of children and parents is only a recent manifestation of that evil, and unlikely the last or worst, Heaven forfend!
Acknowledging that we are experiencing an evil that invites us to make peace with it, adopt it, and teach it to others, does not mean that we must gird our loins for civil war. It does afford us the opportunity to be active disciples of Abraham (Avot 5:23). We read in Psalms, “Turn from evil and do good” (Psalms 34:15): what can we do to further the cause of goodness? There are so many ways, and each of us knows what kind of activities and activism best suit his/her strengths and dispositions.
Here we are, talented, educated, accomplished Jewish leaders in America, at a moment fraught with moral danger: “And who knows, perhaps you have attained a royal position for just such a crisis” (Esther 4:14).
I’ll give Mister Rogers the last word:
“I remember one of my seminary professors saying people who were able to appreciate others—who looked for what was good and healthy and kind—were about as close as you could get to God—to the eternal good. And those people who were always looking for what was bad about themselves and others were really on the side of evil. “That’s what evil wants,” he would say. “Evil wants us to feel so terrible about who we are and who we know, that we’ll look with condemning eyes on anybody who happens to be with us at the moment.” I encourage you to look for the good where you are and embrace it.”
― Fred Rogers, Life's Journeys According to Mister Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way (https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/32106.Fred_Rogers?page=5).