By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel
CHULA VISTA, California — In my opinion, the brilliant 20th century Eric Fromm ranks as one of the greatest psychologists and social prophets of the century. I would also add that Fromm must rank as one of the least appreciated Jewish philosophers of his time as well.
One of Fromm’s greatest theories pertains to two opposite impulses that are struggling for supremacy in the world. He refers to them as necrophilia vs. biophilia. He explains that necrophilia, or the “love of the dead” is an ideation that is attracted to everything that is dead, e.g., corpses, decay, filth, dirt. As an illustration, Fromm mentions how the Nazi concentration camps were dedicated to the industry of death and genocide. Aside from killing the Jew, the Nazi genocide machine aimed to create an atmosphere of filth surrounding the Jew, who seldom ever had the opportunity to bathe. My father once told me that while he was in Auschwitz, he often bathed in the snow to keep his body clean, while the Nazi officers laughed at his behavior. According to Fromm, the goal of necrophilia as political and religious phenomena is to transform everything that is living into death. This culture dedicated to death defined Nazism for the evil scourge it was.
And yet, in our postwar illusions,we never dared to imagine that we would ever see this kind of menace threatening civilization again. It seemed too inconceivable.
But we were wrong—dead wrong.
The continuous attacks on Israelis only proves that the spirit of Nazism is alive and well–even thriving–in the Jihadist world today.
Whereas Nazism always remained a secular political philosophy dedicated to eradicating the world of Jews and other “undesirables,” today’s Jihadist movement poses a far greater threat to all of civilization because the engines that run its campaign of genocide derives from religion itself. Let us be clear: Jihadism is a death-force that aims to destroy life as we know it for the glorification of Allah, who, in this twisted concept, behaves like the bloodthirsty deity of the Bible known as Molech.
In fact, it is impossible to differentiate between the two.
Jihadists love saying, “We love death more than you love life”[1]
The worse part of necrophilia is that the people this philosophy affects makes them totally indifferent to life and even attracted to death.
This would explain why being a martyr for Islam is so important. In the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians have museums celebrating the sacrifice of their human bombs; museums decorated with Israeli body parts across the wall.
Sounds like a museum made for Freddie Kruger.
The culture of Israel in contrast, corresponds to what Fromm calls, biophilia–the love of life, the attraction to everything that lives and grows. Preserving life and preventing death is one form of biophilia. Biophilous tendencies can be much more varied and tend to integrate and unite, to fuse with different and opposite. Biophilia is life that changes, grows, and develops to the changing circumstances of the environment. Fromm believed that for biophilia to emerge, there has to be certain circumstances to enhance its growth, e.g., the absence of injustice, the love of creativity, the presence of freedom, and the spirit to innovate.
Israel’s technological prowess continues to shape the world in new and exciting ways. This past week, Israeli companies announced they have invented a new way to recharge cellphone batteries instantaneously.
Contrast this with the new story about an a Palestinian baby who receives a life-saving bone marrow treatment worth $55,000—paid by an Israeli pediatrician. Most mothers would appreciate someone saving their child’s life, but what does this baby’s mother say? While waiting for her son’s treatment in the Israeli hospital, Raida says that she would be happy to see her son become a “shahid” – an Islamic martyr for Jerusalem. “Like Arafat said? ‘A million shahids (martyrs) for Jerusalem?” asks the journalist Shlomi Eldar. “More than a million. All of us are for Jerusalem. All of our people,” she replies. “All of us, not just a million, we’re all for Jerusalem. Do you understand?”
“Death is a natural thing for us. We’re not afraid to di[e],” Raida continues. From the smallest infant, even younger than Muhammad [her baby son,] to the oldest person, we’d all sacrifice ourselves for Jerusalem. We feel we have the right to it. … It’s heresy to say that Jerusalem isn’t ours.”[2]
In spiritual terms, biophilia encourages people to search for self-awareness, aspirations, and moral growth. Israel continues to develop technologies that improve the fabric of life while the Palestinian culture of death, which worships a god who loves shahids (martyrs) has produced a moral decadence that threatens the peace of humanity.
The time has come for the Palestinians and Israelis to work together and embrace a new paradigm of life that brings prosperity to all of its people.
Instead of putting more pressure to force Israel to give up land to people who are hell bent upon its destruction, we need to put the pressure where it belongs by cutting off aid to the Palestinian government until it ceases its campaign of genocide against Israel and her people.
It is time for our country to do everything in its power to end the Palestinian paradigm of barbarism and savagery instead of rewarding their delinquent behavior with billions of American dollars and moral support. In the meantime, every American Jew ought to be proud of Israel’s commitment to further the culture of life.
Golda Meir said it best, “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”
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[1] See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAOzy2zwyxo
[2] http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/barbara-boland/video-palestinian-mom-wanted-baby-become-martyr
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Rabbi Samuel is spiritual leader at Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista, California. Comments about this story may be placed in the box provided below, or the author may be contacted directly via michael.samuel@sdjewishworld.com
“The time has come for the Palestinians and Israelis to work together and embrace a new paradigm of life that brings prosperity to all of its people.”
There are lots of Palestinians and Israelis working together, in the trenches as it were, to show that coexistence is possible, and indeed is the only thing that works in the long term. The problem with your statement is that Israelis have nothing to do with what actually needs to happen: the shift in Palestinian culture (and the wider Arab Muslim world) toward valuing life and away from worshiping death. This is an internal Muslim issue which, unfortunately, violently affects the broader world.