The prophet Isaiah on the massacre in Iran

As Jews and human beings, we have all been terribly disturbed by the news coming out of Iran. While not all the details are fully clear, it seems that at the beginning of the month, in a two day span of time, thousands of protestors were brutally gunned down by the Ayatollah regime. Some estimates seem to suggest that we are talking about 30,000 people or more who have been killed. If so, this might be the largest two-day massacre since over 30,000 Jews (including some of my family members) were killed by the Nazis on Erev Yom Kippur 1941 in Babi Yar.

Yes, Iran is not one of the best friends of the Jewish people. However, many of the people there obviously do not share the same views as the regime. Regardless, the prophet Yeshaya teaches us in two places in his work that we must lament when we hear about the suffering of non-Jews, even if they were not great friends of Israel. In Yeshaya 15:5, while describing the suffering of Moab, he writes, לבי למואב יזעק “”My heart cries out for Moav”. Now, the Moabites were not great friends of the Jewish people. However, their suffering is still taken to heart. Rashi, on the spot, comments that we see that Yeshaya’s conduct is not like the conduct of the Non Jewish prophet Bilam. The latter tried to destroy the Jewish people. However, Yeshaya expresses agony over the suffering of the Nations.

Later on in the sefer, (Yeshaya 21:3) Yeshaya again expresses similar sentiments. While discussing another prophecy of gentile suffering, Yeshaya cries out, “Therefore, my loins are full of anguish, pains have gripped me like the pains of a woman in childbirth. I have been confused from hearing it, terrified from seeing it.” Such are the profound human sentiments of a true prophet of Israel.

On a little bit of a personal  note, I would like to share two anecdotes relating to Iran.

1.) In 1979, in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, my Abba’s first cousin, Yosef Shulian, was arrested and sentenced to death by the Ayatollah regime. Baruch Hashem, his father Yekutiel Shulian, the brother of my Savta, bribed the officials with $60,000 dollars and he was able to get out of jail. About 10 years ago, he moved to Israel. Today, he lives in Rishon Letzion. In the aftermath of recent events, we can appreciate his salvation even more.

2.) In 2007, when I learned in Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, my chavrusa Avraham was an Iranian native who had moved to the US from Iran as a teenager. (By the way, in Ner Yisroel there is a large program of Iranian students with classes in Persian. The current chief Rabbi of Iran, Rav Yehuda Grahmi, is a graduate of this program.) Well, one day when we were in the middle of morning seder, Avraham received a phone call from one of the pay phones in the lobby. When he returned to the Beis Medrash, he told me that he had just spoken to an old non Jewish friend of his from Iran, named Edmond, who had tracked him down and called him by the Yeshiva pay phone. He also mentioned to me, that when he left Iran, many of his Non Jewish friends accompanied him to the airport. Yes, this is just an anecdote. However, it is suggestive of a subgroup (perhaps quite large) of people in Iran who have more of a positive orientation to the Jewish people.

May we see great salvation for the Jewish people and the entire world!

-Ariel