Rejoice Not When Your Enemy Falls
There is a worrisome parallel emerging between some segments of the Jewish and Palestinian people — the celebration of death.
On Sept. 17, when the news broke of a massive pager explosion which killed 42 people including 12 civilians, many celebrated. After the Israeli Defense Forces succeeded in killing Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, there was singing and dancing in the Glueck Beit Midrash. On both of these occasions I bit my tongue and refrained from participating. However, when my rabbi triumphantly broke the news that the IDF killed Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, and the crowd cheered, I could no longer maintain silence.
There is no joy or triumph in death, and we must recognize that. It is possible to celebrate the new opportunities for peace presented by the deaths of terrorists and terrorist masterminds, without celebrating the death itself. We can rejoice in the future possibilities of prosperity and life without directly celebrating death.
After the Oct. 7 massacre, videos emerged showing some Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank celebrating the attack and handing out candies. These videos were touted as a symbolic comparison to Osama Bin Laden’s assertion that “we love death as they love life.” However, I learned that on my brother’s Israel program, people handed out candy in celebration of Nasrallah’s death as well.
This is obviously not a direct comparison. While some Jews are celebrating the death of two terrorist masterminds, Osama Bin Laden and some Palestinians were celebrating and venerating the deliberate murder of civilians. The comparison, however, is still eerily troubling.
We are a nation that sings and dances in dire moments and in jubilant ones, from the gas chambers of Auschwitz to the founding of the State of Israel. Yet, there has always been one exception: death of our enemies. Ethics of Our Fathers (4:19) quotes Shmuel haKattan citing the verse in Proverbs, “Rejoice not when your enemy falls.” Rabbi Gil Student explains that a possible reason for Shmuel’s affinity to this verse has to do with his era of early Christian and Jewish conflict.
“Even when heretics who were trying to recruit mainstream Jews to their religion and destroy historical Judaism suffered, we should not rejoice at their downfall,” Student explained. “No person’s suffering," Shmuel haKattan was saying, "no matter how appropriate or deserved — to the point that we prayed for it, should be celebrated.”
The Talmud in Tractate Megillah (10b) records a Midrash which imagines God chastising the angels during the splitting of the sea for beginning to sing God’s praise. “The work of My hands [the Egyptians] are drowning at sea,” God says, “and you wish to sing songs?”
Furthermore, the Tosafot in Tractate Rosh Hashanah (33b) explain that the 100 shofar blasts on Rosh Hashanah are in order to counteract the tears Sisera’s mother shed when waiting in vain for her son to return from battle against the ancient Israelites. Yet on Rosh Hashanah when we ask God for a proper judgment we remember the tears that this ancient warrior’s mother shed due to the Israelites. Certainly, then, we should not celebrate death?
I do not presume to criticize the reactions of individuals directly suffering at the hands of Hamas, but I do refer to those cheering from the sidelines. Yet even those who suffer directly have expressed similar sentiments. Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of Hersh, who was murdered while in Hamas’ captivity, said at the DNC that “there is a surplus of agony on all sides of the tragic conflict in the Middle East. In a competition of pain, there are no winners.”
Death is sometimes a legitimate military objective, and Yahya Sinwar clearly falls into that category. However, we as Jews are called upon to cherish life. We should not celebrate death and suffering, even when necessary, particularly when innocents are unfortunately caught in the cross hairs. “[A]n almost fanatical love of justice…,” in the words of Albert Einstein, “[is] the feature of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.”
As we continue to pray for peace and prosperity in the region we should hope to fulfill the words of Isaiah, “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:4)
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Photo Caption: A memorial in Ashdod for the massacre on Oct. 7
Photo Credit: Maqaf-Ivri / Wikimedia Commons
