Clarity

by Audrey Lichter

We hear a lot said today about “Moral Clarity” or the lack thereof. I have been thinking about this and wonder if it still means anything. Everyone, it seems, believes that their perspective is the true embodiment of  moral clarity.

Our world is turned upside down, when after the savage attack on October 7th on innocents, we find ourselves defending the ability to root out the perpetrators of these heinous acts. The vicious sickness of antisemitism has once again emerged as the fuel that propels the outrage well beyond the borders of Gaza. Why isn’t the world coming together to hold Hamas accountable for this war where civilians are the front line for their deadly and jihadist ambitions? They broke the truce on October 7th in the most egregious way possible. They took 240 hostages and killed over 1,000 people… where is the Moral Clarity to eradicate them… why does the news and so many  hold Israel to blame?

I fear the danger today is not that we disagree on how to eliminate evil,
but that we can’t figure out as a country what evil is.

That there is no longer moral clarity that we can even agree on. This is a scary and very troubling place to be. This did not happen overnight. We have watched the decay of decency and basic understanding of right and wrong play itself out over a number of years. History has shown us that civilizations decay when they lose their moral compass.

We Jews have been here before, but we are a people of hope. Let the wisdom of our tradition and the strength of our people  guide us through this darkness.