Just how happy should we be?
In the event you haven't guessed I'm Jewish.
For a situation like the death of Arafat just how happy is a Jew allowed to be? Jewish case law goes into this in detail:
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, Dean of Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim in the Old City of Jerusalem and Rabbi of Beit El, writes that when considering the injunction not to "rejoice upon the fall of your enemy," it depends who the enemy is:Believe it or not there is more. You can read it at the above url.
"When the Purim story occurred, Mordechai did not act particularly compassionately towards Haman. When the latter cited this verse, Mordechai replied that it did not apply to him. The same with Arafat, who killed many Jews and left many widows, widowers, orphans and suffering wounded... It's true that G-d told the angels not to sing when the Egyptians were drowning in the Red Sea - but the Children of Israel did sing! We, too, are not angels - just as the Rabbi of Pisetzna, Rabbi Kalman Kalonymus Shapira, wrote during the Holocaust: 'Did an angel ever get hit? Did an angel ever get murdered? Did an angel ever get humiliated? We did! In Egypt, the angels didn't suffer - so they don't have to sing [afterwards]. But we did suffer, [and that's why we sang]...' For Arafat we say, 'when the wicked perish, there is jubilation.'"
We handed out chocolates at my house.
Kesher Talk was kind enough to link. They have more on the subject.
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1 comment:
I'm neither Jewish nor Christian, so take this with a large helping of your favorite seasoning. But Rabbi Shappira's (and by extension Rabbi Aviner's) justification for rejoicing the death of another by the reason that we are not angels rings false to me. I think the goal of any religious belief should be the betterment of one's moral outlook. And part of that moral outlook as shown by the injunction not to be happy at another's misfortune. Perhaps the rabbis are pointing out that our humanity means we are not perfect, so we should not be ashamed of imperfect emotions such as the desire for vengeance or this case of schadenfreude. But I think they should also make clear that acceptance should not be the same as encouragement.
I'm also a little surprised that Mordechai can get away with ignoring a stricture, from an Orthodox perspective. I thought the whole point of Orthodox belief was that all the laws and injunctions must be obeyed, period.
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