Positive news is very rare these days. We are often bogged down in what feels like an unwinnable conflict, with no easy or logical solution. We have renewed our just battle in defense of our homeland, yet much of the world remains vehemently opposed to our right to exist. Whatever euphoria we felt in the early stages of the war has been replaced by frustration and despair. When and how will this end?

Last week, we received a glimmer of positive news but, like with everything else about this war, it was bittersweet. We recovered the bodies of four hostages, Hy’d, even as 129 remain unaccounted for, most likely still in captivity and exposed to torture and suffering. Recovering the bodies provided relief, a feeling of accomplishment, and some degree of triumph.

On a purely emotional level, recovering the bodies offers closure for the families who have lived through a nightmare of fear, dread, and unresolved trauma. Discovering the fate of their kidnapped family member, even when the outcome is tragic, but leads to a proper burial in Israel, hopefully allows the families who have endured so much anguish to gradually move on from the agony of uncertainty.

There is an additional victory in recovering the bodies of the victims of this massacre. Our subhuman enemies are waging psychological warfare against us. In not providing signs of life, not reporting the conditions of the hostages, and not allowing international bodies to visit, these cold-blooded psychopaths are manipulating our emotions, preying on our fears and anxieties, and fomenting dissent. By recovering the bodies of even a few of the hostages, we prevent these monsters from dishonoring the dead by manipulating the living. Having suffered enough, the victims can be brought to burial where they can rest in peace without their memory being weaponized.

Beyond the emotional and political significance of these operations, there is an important ideological value in recovering the bodies. Our valiant efforts to retrieve them exemplifies the respect we give to human beings, even after their death. Our soldiers risk their lives to recover the bodies of the victims and in some instances, even body parts. Scores of silent heroes expose themselves to horrific images that will forever haunt them as they attempt to identify innocent victims who were murdered in life and desecrated again in death. Many state funerals were conducted for soldiers whose full remains have yet to be retrieved.

All this dedication reflects a core value of our tradition known as tzelem Elokim or the divine image of Man. Belief in tzelem Elokim isn’t just a moral value but a foundational aspect of our belief in G-d. Respect for other human beings is based on four fundamentals of Jewish faith. It took humanity close to 5,000 years to appreciate the divine-like dignity of Man and to structure societies that preserve that dignity. Our enemies are trying to obliterate this religious accomplishment. We will not allow them to.

From One Came Many

Ancient Man could not imagine One Creator responsible for all the diversity of our world. The god of fire could not possibly be the god of water, just as the god of evil must be different than the god of good. Avraham was the first to espouse belief in One G-d and about 2,000 years later, humanity finally comprehended that from One comes many. With this discovery, the first foundation of monotheism settled into the world’s religious consciousness.

Still, humanity struggled to comprehend that the One G-d is also separate and different from the rest of His creations. Nature was too large, and the universe too overwhelming for there to be a G-d who was “above and beyond” the system. With the maturing of monotheism came the understanding that G-d isn’t a physical being; He exists beyond Nature and is fundamentally unlike any part of our reality.

Belief in one G-d who is also different from Nature yields the doctrine of tzelem Elokim. The One G-d who is different from His universe conferred His “differentness” upon one distinctive creature. Similar to G-d, human beings are different from the natural order. Our differentness from Nature expresses itself in our creativity, our free will, our consciousness, emotions, and other human faculties which animals do not possess. Recognizing and respecting the divine-like “differentness” of Man affirms belief that G-d Himself, the One Creator, is also different. Belief in the dignity of Man affirms the basics of religious belief.

This notion regarding the dignity of Man only fully blossomed a little more than 600 years ago, during the Renaissance period, which ignited dramatic improvement in almost every sector of the human condition. Initially, the Renaissance movement was founded on a religious belief in Man as the divine masterpiece, possessing unique potential and worthy of shaping his own destiny. Through his divinely endowed free will and intellectual inquiry, Man was capable of improving his world. This belief in Man inspired the birth of Democracy, the emergence of Capitalism, the scientific revolution, and the drive toward universal education. Our modern world is the spiritual outcome of the Renaissance and its unshakeable and religiously-based belief in the dignity of every human being.

Body And Soul

There is a fourth element that underlies the Jewish tradition of tzelem Elokim. Judaism never endorsed dualism and never divided the world into two opposing forces or principles. We bless G-d for success and for suffering. Similarly, there is no division between our physical bodies and our eternal spiritual souls. Sin isn’t solely a product of our bodily desires, but of an integrated human being who disobeys divine instruction. Both our spiritual souls and our physical bodies possess divine-image. Just as our souls, our bodies are “different” and graced by G-d.

Because of our belief in tzelem Elokim, we treat human bodies with respect and sensitivity, even after the soul has departed from it. Even though life has departed, the body is respected since it once cradled life and radiated with divine majesty. This is why the Torah does not allow a criminal who was executed by the courts to be hung for an extended period. The inevitable bodily decomposition is disrespectful to G-d who conferred dignity upon that body. This is also why we don’t delay burying the dead.

The Slippery Slope

We now face a repulsive culture that indiscriminately rapes and murders, then violates the dead. Though they speak in the name of religion, they are religious impostors. Dehumanizing human beings and defiling their bodies is religious heresy. Poisoned by hatred and infected by murder, this culture has completely abandoned the core beliefs of religion.

Once human dignity is desecrated, a culture will slither down a slippery slope into anarchy. Without dignity, Man isn’t much different from the beasts of the jungle. If Man isn’t different from Nature, perhaps G-d Himself isn’t different. By extension, if G-d is like Nature, perhaps He is “many” just as Nature is many. By defiling human bodies, these religious frauds corrupt the core values of religion which took humanity thousands of years to assemble.

The concept of the dignity of Mankind helped humanity to evolve from a savage world of violence and anarchy into a civilization of dignity and progress. Islamic terrorists threaten to return us to the cruelty and barbarism of that confused, chaotic past.

The respect and sensitivity we pay to the bodies of victims defends the dignity of Mankind and the sanity of the world. As always, we defend what is just and moral. We defend humanity against our demons. They just don’t get it.

Rabbi Moshe Taragin is a rabbi at Yeshivat Har Etzion/Gush, a hesder yeshiva, with smicha from Yeshiva University and a master’s in English literature from the City University of New York. He is the author of “Dark Clouds Above, Faith Below” (Kodesh Press), which provides religious responses to Oct. 7.