The podcast discusses the emotional and intellectual depth of Israeli society during the ongoing war, exploring the concept of evil and the impact of President Biden's speech. It explores the complexities of evil, distinguishing evil acts from absolute evil, and the challenges in determining when an evil act becomes the embodiment of evil.
17:17
AI Summary
AI Chapters
Episode notes
auto_awesome
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
The podcast explores the emotional and intellectual depth of Israeli society's experience with evil during the current war, highlighting the overwhelming tragedy, war, and fear that come with it.
The hosts reflect on the concept of absolute evil and its profound impact on Israeli society, emphasizing the difficulty in comprehending and living with such a level of evil, stirring a sense of responsibility to eradicate it.
Deep dives
Theme of Evil and its Impact
The podcast delves into the theme of evil and its impact on Israeli society during the current war. The hosts discuss the emotional and intellectual depth of Israeli society's experience, highlighting the overwhelming tragedy, war, and fear that come with it. They express gratitude for President Biden's speech, acknowledging his struggle with the evil and his humanity. They explore the distinction between evil acts and absolute evil, with Hamas' actions being seen as pushing towards the latter. The hosts contemplate the difficulty of comprehending absolute evil and the impact it has on individual and collective responses.
The Notion of Absolute Evil
The hosts reflect on the concept of absolute evil and its place in Judaism. They discuss the Sichra Ahra, or the other side, as a mysterious force that breaks through and erases the divine image in humans, leading to the manifestation of absolute evil. They acknowledge the shock and disorientation caused by encountering absolute evil, which disrupts daily life and violates the normalcy of existence. The hosts emphasize the difficulty in comprehending and living with such a level of evil, stirring a sense of responsibility to eradicate it.
Impact on Israeli Society
The podcast highlights the profound impact of encountering absolute evil on Israeli society. They describe the collective sense of being stunned, with time feeling confused and unreal. Daily life is disrupted, and there is a pervasive feeling of violation. The hosts emphasize that Israeli society has been profoundly shifted and changed by this encounter with absolute evil, leading to mourning, anger, and a determination to progress forward in the face of the violated reality.
The number of fatalities continues to rise. As Israel's new reality of unfathomable horror begins to set in, many took comfort in the latest speech by US President Biden, in which he called the Hamas attack "pure evil". From Jerusalem, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi explore what it means to confront evil. What happens when the behavior of others descends from wrongful to outright evil, and how do we cope with it?