On human nature

In the most recent God Squad column, Rabbi Gellman answers a question from a high school student by explaining that “The basic reason for our failure to see the divine spark in every other person and love our neighbor as we love ourselves is that we are made up of two very different substances . ... Sometimes our angelic nature prevails, and we produce acts of kindness, generosity and love. Other times our animal nature prevails, and we produce acts of jealousy, cruelty, bigotry and violence.”

I find it unfortunate that nonhuman animals get stereotyped in this way. There is clearly no animal on Earth more prone to jealousy, cruelty, bigotry and violence than the human animal. Let’s not blame it on our “animal nature.” It’s our human nature. Our commonality with other animals is more likely to be found in our kindness, generosity and love. No angels need be postulated.

Then Gellman goes on to contradict himself anyway by referring to good and bad wolves. If there are both kinds, then how could the bad stuff in humans be due to our animal nature? Joel Marks

Milford