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Gary Epstein
And now for something completely different . . .

The Other Wolf

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A Cherokee legend recounts a dialogue between a child and his grandfather.  The child has observed different behaviors in adults and inquires as to their origins.  The old man reflects on the question and then responds that there are two wolves engaging in a constant battle within the soul of every person.  One of the wolves is full of hate, anger, cruelty, and hypocrisy.  The other wolf is merciful, kind, loving, forgiving, understanding, humble, serene, and patient. The child asks, “Which wolf prevails?”  and the wise old man answers, “The one you feed.”

It may not yet–and may never–be clear to the rest of the world, but after the depredations of Hamas and its “civilian” supporters on October 7, 2023, and the violent support provided by Hezbollah, the Houthis, and others on October 8 and thereafter, there is no reasonable Israeli who does not understand that our enemies embody only the ideology, values, and character of the evil wolf.  There is no question that our enemies are driven by deeply embedded doctrines of hate, terror, genocide, and antisemitism.  The feeding of that wolf within them begins at infancy, proceeds through a perverted education system and a corrupted religious ethic, and is reinforced throughout every level of a twisted and degenerate society. It appears to be ineradicable and indelible. It is unaffected by ceasefires.

The Houthi flag sets forth the credo of this Iranian-sustained wolf: “Death to the USA, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam.”

Our wolf sings, “Am Yisrael Chai.”  We say “Yachad Nenatzeach”–together we will prevail.  Through intensely challenging times and circumstances, we have demonstrated incredible love, dedication, and purpose.  But are we tough enough to deal with the unrelenting hatred and limitless depravity of our enemies?  Don’t we need to begin hating?

Does the peaceful inner wolf we feed even stand a chance in the face of implacable evil?

We are told that the imperative to extirpate the Amalekites and Midianites is now spiritual, no longer physical.  We are told that we must imitate our God’s more pacific, compassionate characteristics: מה הוא רחום; אף אתה רחום.  Just as God is merciful, so must we be merciful.

One can scan the entire corpus of Jewish prayer and find praise of God, thanks to God, requests for blessings, hope for transcendence and the return to Zion, but barely a single prayer for the demise and defeat of enemies.  There is an outlier paragraph in shemona esrei that is a late addition about punishment to sinners, there is a plea at the Passover seder that God direct his wrath toward someone other than Jews, there is a phrase or two in the Song at the Sea that wishes confusion upon our enemies, but by and large we never pray for the downfall of others.  We pray for good things in nice ways. We are never guided or ruled or motivated by hatred.  A Jewish legend corresponding to the one on the Houthi flag is beyond imagination.

A famous story in the Talmud tells us that a band of barbarians tormented Rabbi Meir, to the point that he prayed for their demise.  His wife, the brilliant Bruriah, tells him that he is mistaken in his action, for the Psalmist prays that sins should end and disappear from the earth–not sinners.  One must pray that the sinners reform, not that they die.

If our strength–our very identity–resides in our compassion and our humanity, how may we ever prevail against the focused hatred and evil of our enemies? They may indiscriminately launch rockets at kindergartens; we must supply them with 3200 calories a day.

I was never taught to hate.  Never.  Not at school.  Not at home.  Not at shul.  Yet, when I read the details of the October 7 massacre,  when I witnessed the mindless, contemptible devastation, when I saw that throng of yelling, raving, hating Hamas supporters surrounding and tormenting those poor girls being released, those innocent angels who had suffered so much at the hands of the barbarians, I confess that I wished that they would all die horrible deaths, disappear from the earth, stop polluting our lives.  Leave us be.

I am no Rabbi Meir, and my prayers do not carry the same weight, but at some point do we not need to sublimate the Bruriah within us, redirect the altruistic, beneficent wolf whom we have fed since our infancy, and just start to hate them with the same venom they display toward us?  Won’t that provide us with the resolve and flexibility to end them, once and for all time?  Shouldn’t fire be fought with fire more fierce?

I know the right answers.  I have imbibed them with mother’s milk, learned them at school, read them in the holy texts.

We hold ourselves to a higher standard.  We must retain our humanity.  We will not surrender our values.  We will not become like them.  We must not become like them.

But sometimes you just want to feed that other wolf.

About the Author
Gary Epstein is a retired teacher and lawyer residing in Modi'in, Israel. He was formerly the Head of the Global Corporate and Securities Department of Greenberg Traurig, an international law firm with an office in Tel Aviv, which he founded and of which he was the first Managing Partner. He and his wife Ahuva are blessed with 18 grandchildren, ka"h, all of whom he believes are well above average. [Update: . . . and, ka"h, one great-grandchild.] He currently does nothing. He believes he does it well.
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