The real lesson of Evyatar David

It’s an image most of us have seen in Holocaust footage preserved from one of the darkest eras in history. Gaunt skeletons, barely able to pick up a shovel, digging their own graves. It was a thought most of us could not bear, but now history has, sadly repeated itself, as we see it happening again. 

Just a few days ago, pictures emerged of Israeli hostage, Evyatar David, holding a shovel, given to him by his Hamas captors who told him to dig his own grave.

From the looks of Evyatar, it won’t be long before he is ready for it, given that he probably weighs a mere fraction of his normal weight, prior to his being forced to live in the Gaza death tunnels where he has systematically been deprived of food. Reports say that the remaining hostages have lost up to 50% of their body mass.

If ever there was a reminder of utter depravity, this is it!

Anyone who is not shocked by what they saw, needs to ask themselves, why not! For someone to ignore such a heartbreaking visual can only mean one thing. They are deluded and foolishly motivated by something which has taken over their ability to think rationally. 

Whether it stems from a politically-based leaning or a deeply rooted prejudice against Jews, the callous indifference towards the profound suffering endured by Evyatar and the other 19 hostages, cannot go unspoken.

Because if it does, it means that society has learned nothing over the past century.  We are simply doomed to repeat the same tragic events over and over again, without learning the important meaning of how we are sucked into the depths of evil.

Over the past 22 months, each one of us has been fully aware of the atrocities which took place in the southern kibbutz communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip. No one was immune from hearing every minute detail, as the story was well-covered from every media outlet in existence.  

While the world was busy trying to figure out which side was worth supporting, an underground torture chamber was in full operation, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the death camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka.

The only reason that these remaining hostages are alive today, a sheer wonder, is due to the fact that their evil captors know their intrinsic value as bargaining chips, so, every now and then, they throw them a morsel of food, in order to sustain what’s left of their shattered lives.

But in the midst of discussions over whether a genocide is being committed in Gaza, how much food is able to get through to the two million people, who are literally and deliberately trapped in a war zone, unable to flee or the viability of Israel occupying Gaza, one subject has been carefully avoided.

That is the sadistic character of Hamas terrorists who have taken up where the Nazis left off – handing a shovel to emaciated skeletons to dig their own graves. 

Does it get any more depraved than that? We are at a point in modern history where a collective shriek of horror is warranted in order to wake us up from a slothful haze which has kept us indifferent and apathetic to the evil right before our eyes.

Evyatar David represents an indictment against all of humanity. Because if such a thing can happen in our lifetime, then despite all of our great societal accomplishments, no one is advancing. Instead, we are retreating – going backwards into a future which holds no promise.

Once again, the world has spawned a cruel generation, capable of destroying the dignity of God’s creation, in the worst possible way - not only starving them slowly and torturously, but forcing them to participate in their end, by digging their own grave.

It is the ultimate sin against God, by reducing what the Almighty has created for the purpose of life, to become a willing co-conspirator in their own demise. Nothing could be more barbaric than the perversion of forcing someone to take part in their own death.  It is a merciless act of which only a heartless savage is capable.

Unimaginable to anyone with a functioning brain, is that many of today’s young people would choose to side with such amoral sadists, whose capacity for suffering knows no bounds.  

Equally unimaginable is that these Hamas cheerleaders are naïve enough to believe that such brutality will never be coming for them. This new generation is not suspicious enough or even the least bit wary of the type of men who possess so much evil, that it may not eventually come back to bite them too.  

That is the real folly. The belief that one is safe from danger, by championing a deadly cause, is yet another form of digging one’s grave.  Because, in effect, it also comprises a willing cooperation to invite destruction to one’s front door.

If these young people could, for one minute, comprehend the nature of evil and its insatiable appetite, perhaps they would think twice about aligning themselves with demons whose pleasure is derived from the immense suffering of others.

Unfortunately, though, to arrive at such an understanding requires an empathetic heart, which is capable of putting oneself in the position of those who are being persecuted. This means that it is helpful to imagine being on the receiving end of the pain which the enemy has sadistically conjured up. 

There is no simple way to put it, except to say that anyone choosing to side with Hamas, and against Israel, has fallen into a very dark pit of abject evil, preferring inhumanity to humanity and immorality over morality.

This is the real lesson of Evyatar David whose diminishment of his precious young life has been captured in pictures, shouting out the very base nature of sinful man in all of its wickedness. If ever there was a portrait which demanded our attentions, this is it.

We cannot look at Evyatar David without pointing an accusatory finger at ourselves, admitting who we really are without a loving, compassionate God who we never needed more than now.

If we do not fully turn to Him, after seeing what is left of this man, then we will find ourselves in the exact same situation – digging our own graves!