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When Good people Do Nothing

On Wednesday, August 21, more than a hundred Jewish institutions across Canada received bomb threats. More emails went on the next day. Thank G-d, the threats were empty. The police responded with alacrity and determined that the buildings were safe. The police continue to investigate to identify the IP address and bring the perpetrators to justice and we wish them every success.

When Good Men Do Nothing
I have often seen the quote attributed to Edmund Burke “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Before writing this article, I fact-checked this attribution and found this was originally said by John Stuart Mill, who said in 1867: “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

However, the general idea has its roots in the Torah, which frequently exhorts us to “eradicate the evil from our midst.”[1] The commentaries point out that evil is like a disease. It begins in one section of the body but if left unchecked, spreads to the rest of the body. If gangrene sets in and you are compassionate to your arm, it can soon spread to your vital organs. If an infection sets in and you don’t destroy the bad bacteria, it can kill you.

Evil is the same. If you leave it unchecked, it grows stronger. What begins as a prank email, soon becomes a real attack. An actual bomb dropped here and there to give the next hate campaign more teeth. Then comes actual blood loss and loss of life. The Torah tells us to check it. Eradicate the evil from your midst when it first raises its ugly head. Don’t wait for it to grow.[2]

If you think this is a Jewish problem, know that it is not. Left unchecked, evil spreads. It begins with Jews, but we are the canary in the coal mine. It never ends with Jews; it goes on to affect others too. When good people do nothing, these good people are next on the list.

Compassion For the Criminal
There is a progressive idea common in many left-leaning communities that criminals must be treated with compassion. Police should respond to domestic assaults by sending trained social workers to mediate. Criminals should not be charged for petty crimes like theft and the like. Rather, the root cause of crime should be addressed by correcting income inequality and ensuring equity of outcome in all things.

The Torah says, eradicate the evil from your midst. Compassion for the criminal is cruelty to the victim. The social worker can’t protect victims who have a gun pointed in their face. When we release criminals without bail and they commit more crimes, we are not compassionate to the criminal. We are cruel to the next victim. Says, the Torah, eradicate the evil from your midst. If evil is not eradicated, it intensifies, it is repeated, and it spreads. Don’t be cruel. Eradicate evil.[3]

The root cause of crime is not inequity, it is easy money. Why should thieves toil to earn money, when they can let you toil and take it from you? If we leave these crimes unchecked, we make the money even easier for them to take and are directly responsible for enabling their next crime. This is not compassion for the criminal. This is cruelty to the next victim.

I imagine the cabal who sent out these emails on August 21 and sat back and laughed as the reports came in from around the country. How they chortled, how they congratulated themselves on punishing the terrible Jews. The root of this crime is their diabolical desire to hurt those they hate. If they are not brought to justice, it will be easier for them to do it next time. That is cruelty to the next victim.

Tolerance Or Weakness
But, you say, rabbi, where is your compassion? Doesn’t religion teach you to be tolerant and forgiving?

To me, the answer is simple. When someone asks you to tolerate their views, they are asking for tolerance, and you should give it even if you disagree with them. But when someone asks you to tolerate their abuse, they are not asking for tolerance. They are asking for weakness. There are surface similarities, but they are O’ so different. Tolerance comes from a place of strength. Weakness is a license for abusers to abuse. There is no license to abuse people and call them intolerant for calling it out.

The Evil in You
You must be wondering why I keep writing “eradicate the evil” rather than “eradicate evil.” It is a good question, but not on me, it is on the Torah. The Torah puts it that way and the commentaries asked why.

They explained that when something is preceded by a definite article, that something is well known to us. “The evil” refers to an evil very familiar to us. The Torah states (Genesis 8:21), “The imagination of the human heart is evil from youth.” Rashi (ad loc.) explains that we have an evil inclination from the time our embryos are formed.

When the Torah says, “eradicate the evil from your midst” it is not just talking about our communities and cities. It is a very personal statement. Eradicate your penchant for evil. This is “the evil” that is very familiar to us because we are all capable of it. It requires supreme moral discipline to avoid it.

Evil comes in many forms. Sometimes it is easily identifiable and often it is disguised. It is easy to eradicate it when we know it is evil, it is much harder when it is disguised as compassion. The Torah comes along and tells us that the temptation to be compassionate toward the criminal is evil in disguise.

The first step toward becoming evil is normalizing it when we see it in others. When we respond to evil with compassion, we normalize it for ourselves. You might think you are motivated by compassion, but the Torah tells you compassion for evil behavior is itself evil. Normalizing evil behavior is an act of evil born of your personal penchant for evil and it breeds more evil.

If we normalize evil, crime, and hatred, it becomes normal for us too. Before long, we normalize the idea that taking from others is acceptable. The Torah has one word for us. Don’t.[4]

Rehabilitation, Not Just Incarceration
Punishing criminals and taking them off the streets is not an end in and of itself. The rate of recidivism is sadly very high. It is not compassionate toward society or the criminals to send them to prison where they become even more hardened criminals.

The objective of incarceration must be rehabilitation. Convicted criminals must receive counselling in prison. They must be taught how to live gainfully and lawfully and how to contribute to society. When they are released, they should be given every opportunity to reintegrate rather than be stigmatized.

This is true compassion for the criminal. Weaning them from a path of crime is compassionate because, in the end, no human can retain their dignity when they resort to evil. Deep down, they don’t feel good about themselves when they hurt or take from others. They just don’t know how to stop. We must help them.

For every thief who commits a crime, there is a thief’s mother who sheds a tear. Let’s give them a fighting chance. Take them off the streets, rehabilitate them, retrain them, and restore their dignity.

[1] Deteronomy, 13:6; 17:7; 19:13; 19:19.

[2] Toras Moshe (Alshich) Deuteronomy 13:6; 17:7.

[3] Rabbi Moshe Ben Nachman, Nachmanides, Deuteronomy 19:13.

[4] Rabbi Chaim Ibn Atar, Or Hachaim, Deuteronomy, 13:6; Toras Moshe (Alshich) Deuteronomy 17:7.