Article published in Perfil Newspaper on Sunday, July, 18th, 2021.
We must format a new world. A world where no one is despised for thinking or being different. Eradicate ideologies that only give rights to people like them and think that those who are not like them must perish.
The attempt
On July 18th, 1994, I was speaking on the phone where I was serving as rabbi at the Yesod Hadat synagogue, on Lavalle and Azcuénaga streets, in the city of Buenos Aires.
Suddenly, the call was cut off, the chair vibrated and I heard a window glass breaking. I thought the light board behind my office had exploded.
I went out into the street. Immediately we found out what had happened: a building had exploded, a few meters from where I was. It was a Jewish institution dedicated mainly to funerals on behalf of the Jewish community, job market and social service: the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA).
The street was covered in thick dust that was falling through the air. And there, under that dust, there were dozens of disengaged people, trying to understand and help, without really knowing how. The first person I recognized was my father – may he rest in peace – who was covering his head as if it were possible to prevent the dense dust from covering him.
Then I found a woman I knew. She was crying, she was desperately looking for her son, who had gone to the detonated institution to pay a fee for his father’s funeral. I tried to calm her down, I accompanied her to a shop, which by then, like all the other shops in the area, had stopped working. I gave her a glass of water while she tried to get information. I knew her son. We had been friends. He was an excellent, dedicated, respectful, and kind young man. He was married and had children. After a few hours we learned that he had died in the explosion.
That was my experience the day of the attack. Then we had more information We learned that the explosion had been caused by a suicide squad with a car bomb sent by a terrorist organization. 85 people died and hundreds were injured.
The attack hit the victims, their families and friends, but also the whole Jewish community, and of course the entire Argentine society and humanity.
How can some humans get so low?
How is it possible that some humans still murder, because of ideas, power, money, land or any other reason?
It is not necessary to be wise to understand the seriousness of murder. It is not necessary to be pious or holy either.
However, for those who do not control their emotional passions and lack common sense and for those whose religious exaltation, instead of making them noble, makes them more aggressive, the Holy Scriptures are clear: killing is the gravest of sins.
Cain murdered his brother Abel because he had differences with him and God condemned him God for this reason. It was the first crime against a neighbor reported in the Bible. It is not a mere historical chronicle, it is a teaching for posterity. The message is strong: we are all the same and we must respect each other in our individuality.
How did we get to this? How is it possible that in the 21st century we have to expand on the seriousness of murder?
Evil is not born, it is made
“God made man straight, but they looked for many perversions” (Ecclesiastes 7:29).
Nobody is born a murderer and nobody becomes a murderer overnight.
The crimes that humans commit develop little by little. Nobody spontaneously wants to murder. It begins by offending those who make us uncomfortable, then we humiliate them, insulte them, discriminate them , until we attack their conscience and their body.
Little by little, a degraded vision of the other is generated within the aggressor’s mind. Hatred creates excuses in the mind of the aggressor that leads him to justify any action against him. He begins to develop a distorted conscience that does not generate guilt before the aggression of another. The neighbor becomes the enemy, the human being ,an inert object.
The Biblical verse that gives an account of the murder of Cain has an interesting revelation:
“And Cain spoke to his brother Abel; and … Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him ”(Genesis 4: 8). The Bible highlights: “and he spoke,” what did he speak about? What did Cain say to Abel?
Before killing him, he attacked him with words,he offended him. That generated the inner psychological context to dehumanize him and thus dare to assassinate him.
Cain was not programmed to kill, but he changed his programming by dehumanizing his brother, by offending him, because of the envy he felt towards him and thus killed him.
What should we do?
There are several actions that must be taken before these crimes, such as do justice, to make it clear that no culprit goes unpunished. But this is not enough. In fact, it is probable that murderers don’t mind dying or being convicted. Furthermore, justice is only in the hands of a few people who may be corrupted or err in their vision.
That is why, I think that we must emphasize an action from the start and that is in everyone’s hands.
It is not enough to fight the consequence, it is also necessary to fight the cause.
Lack of respect , offense, humiliation, discrimination or mockery of those who think or are different is the root cause of these atrocious manifestations.
It is vital to address the prevention of offense, humiliation of others, discrimination and intolerance through education, specific laws and policies.
We must format a new world. A world where no one is despised for thinking or being different. Eradicate ideologies that only give rights to people like them and think that those who are not like them must perish.
If you want to convince others of certain ideas, you must dialogue, argue and explain. When you start ridiculing your ideological opponent, you sow the seeds of destruction.
We should promote the spirit of pluralism so that the new generations are born in an environment of love where – accepting diversity – peace is the only policy and the only group is humanity.
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