Thought for the Day: We Have Unlimited Potential for Greatness... and Therefore Great Potential for the Opposite

When I was going on job interviews while seeking my current job, I always told the recruiter to explain to the interviewers that I am an Orthodox Jew and we have an ancient custom that members of the opposite sex refrain from social physical contact -- even shaking hands.  They were mostly respectful, though at one site everyone refused to shake my hand; some sort of show of unity, I suppose.  Why are we such fanatics?

There has been much in the news recently about a physician who abused the trust of his position and abused scores of young women and girls.  He is being made to endure facing every victim who chooses to enter her story into the court record before his sentencing.  He complained in a written request to the court that the ordeal of listening to the their testimony is too difficult.  The court -- in, to my mind, a rare show of real justice -- threw out and even mocked his request.  He will endure every minute of every testimony that his victims choose to deliver.  In fact, the judge said that if he passes out from shock, she'll have the EMTs revive him.  (The Mishna Brura in his introduction notes that souls in the next world all have to face their sins and are given the strength to suffer every moment of experiencing how much evil their actions caused.)

I listened to one former victim turned accuser.  Her speech was from the heart.  She spoke little of the actual abuse, but long about what it had  done to her.  She also leveled very frank questions at the organizations that allowed this to happen, their empty promises to make things better, and their lack of empathy for the girls who trusted the system.  There was only one statement she made with which I take issue.  She called the doctor a monster.  I wish he was a monster, but he is not.  He is a human being who perpetrated monstrous acts.

If he were a monster, then we could all excuse ourselves.  "Oh my... what a monster!  I could never do anything so horrible; I'm a regular person!"  The Torah tells us that after the Jews were freed from Mitzrayim, Yisro -- the father-in-law of Moshe Rabbeinu -- "heard" and came to join the new nation.  What did hear?  What events prompted Yisro to flee his life of greatness and to join this new nation with all of it's strange restrictions (such as not shaking hands with women) and (seemingly) onerous responsibilities?  Our sages tell us was inspired by the great miracles that HaShem had wrought and horrified by the despicable attack by Amaleik.

What was so horrifying about the attack?  There is much to say, but for now a single -- woefully relevant -- dimension of the attack will suffice.  Amaleik was bent on destroying any belief in a power greater than themselves.  They didn't kill their victims, the cut of their "bris mila" and threw them heavenward as a mocking gesture to the Creator.  Yisro was horrified that a human being could do that.  Not a monster, a human being.

When we read stories (or see movies) such as "I, Robot", we are distressed about a society that could let our freedoms be curtailed.  On the other hand, we all want those same robots to stop the murderers, robbers, and abusers.  What many fail to see is that we are all capable of murder, robbery, and abuse.  External controls either put us in a prison or allow horrifying abuse.  What's the answer?

בראתי יצר הרע בראתי לו תורה תבלין/I created the Evil Inclination, I created Torah as an antidote for it (Kiddushin 30b).  The Creator has given us unlimited potential; it is our choice to use that potential for great good or the opposite.  One of the greatest evils is to ignore the potential we all have.  Greatness begins with recognizing that and choosing the path to achieving that greatness.