From the Rabbi's Desk

And similarly, Rabbi Yoḥanan said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “And the one came not near the other all the night” (Exodus 14:20)? The ministering angels wanted to sing their song, for the angels would sing songs to each other, as it states: “And they called out to each other and said” (Isaiah 6:3), but the Holy One, Blessed be He, said: The work of My hands, the Egyptians, are drowning at sea, and you wish to say songs? This indicates that God does not rejoice over the downfall of the wicked. (Talmud Bavli Megilah 10b)

This famous midrash from the Talmud is one I’ve used many times over the years. I recall the night former President Obama announced the death of Osama Bin Laden and the jubilation and parties that were seen on the news. I recall feeling a sense of woe that this was what we, Americans, were capable of doing. I recall feeling a sense that it just didn’t feel right to rejoice when someone was killed. This was not in any way to diminish his evilness and his awfulness, but to reassert my, our, sense of humanity and morality. The death of a dangerous enemy is something to accept as the price of our safety, security and freedom but it’s not something to be celebrated.

Another example of this principle from the Talmud is: “There were these hooligans in Rabbi Meir’s neighborhood who caused him a great deal of anguish. Rabbi Meir prayed for God to have mercy on them, that they should die. Rabbi Meir’s wife, Berurya, said to him: What is your thinking? On what basis do you pray for the death of these hooligans? Do you base yourself on the verse, as it is written: “Let sins cease from the land” (Psalms 104:35), which you interpret to mean that the world would be better if the wicked were destroyed? But is it written, let sinners cease?” (Talmud Bavli Brachot 10a)

This nuanced take on the subject asserts that it’s not the death of evil people we pray for but rather the death of evil. The colloquial of this is “hate the sin not the sinner”. I’m reminded of these lessons as we read the words of Parshat B’Shalach this week. We had been released from our enslavement after more than 400 years. We had begun the process of dealing with our trauma and moving forward. We had begun all of this and suddenly we faced a real existential threat in the shape of the Egyptians chasing us from behind and the Sea of Reeds threatening us in our path. At this moment, God split the sea and we safely crossed to the other side to freedom, while the waters closed back over the Egyptians and killed all of them. This is the basis of the text from Megilah 10b… that the angels upset God for celebrating the demise of the Egyptians. There’s no doubt the Egyptians wished to do us harm. There’s no doubt they were to some degree evil. And there’s no doubt their deaths prevented us from being taken captive and/or to our deaths. All of this is true and yet one thing is of the utmost importance. Our freedom and safety had to be assured and celebrated, but their demise, while it was a necessary part of our security, was something we weren’t allowed to celebrate.

It’s natural human instinct to rejoice when those who seek to harm us are harmed themselves. It’s natural to want to see those who have inflicted pain and suffering on us be pained and made to suffer, but this isn’t a moral or Jewish way to see the world. Our safety and security are number one. People will suffer as collateral damage in our quest to assure our safety and security. It’s imperative we recognize the great importance of this moral value. We’ve all witnessed celebrations in certain areas of the world when Israelis or Americans have been terrorized and murdered over the years. These celebrations are a desecration of God’s name and truly the embodiment of immorality. To celebrate the pain and suffering of another is wrong in a great number of ways. As we sit here in America, the State of Israel continues to be at war with a group of terrorists like no other we’ve ever seen. Hamas is evil incarnate. Each day this war continues, the IDF takes steps towards assuring a better tomorrow at a great cost. The costs are: more than 200 members of the IDF have fallen in action, more than 3,000 IDF soldiers have been injured and 500,000 Israelis have been displaced since the beginning of hostilities. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, and while a significant portion are hostile combatants, the majority aren’t. A high number of Palestinians have also been injured… the costs have been great. What’s of the utmost importance is that while we recognize the obligation of this war, and the necessity of it, we must recognize the cost of the war on both sides. We cannot become callous and immoral and celebrate the losses on the other side. We must maintain our morality and see the loss of life as a tragic necessity to our future.

This coming week I’ll be out of the office. I’m honored to be a part of a group of Jewish leaders from Atlanta to be traveling to Israel to learn, to help and to grow. I thank the Jewish Federation for this opportunity. If you’d like to stay in touch and learn what I’m doing while I’m in Israel, please consider joining the WhatsApp group I started at https://chat.whatsapp.com/FZKBo0Zz5zeDJ1sUycGx02. I’ll be posting updates and responding to comments and questions while I’m there.