This is an amazing bechira story, and powerful reflection of our capacity when we listen to our yetzer tov.

Think about this young man, who has been steeped in evil his whole life. Since birth, he was fed a diet of anti-Semitism, bogus victimhood and a value system that prized him only for his murder/suicide capacity. Every parent, imam, teacher, camp counselor along the way exhorted him to kill innocent Jews. And then came the day of the fulfillment of his life’s mission, what he was instructed to do since day one. He was given his orders and even the supply of bombs with which to wreak havoc.

And yet, despite all of that, an underlying decency and humanity was present even during his impressionable adolescence. He knew the complete message of his total society was immoral, and he did not follow through on his cultural programming. Aside from the fact that a lot of innocent life was spared by that eventuality, I think we can rejoice in his example of a tselem elokim flexing his spiritual muscles and rejecting his lifelong nihilism indoctrination. I hope he’ll grow wiser and make better and better decisions with more maturity, and inspire his cohort to do the same–obviously, provided his less noble “Palestinian” handlers don’t behead him first.