Too much rejoicing over the deaths of our enemies

In recent months, and especially during the last 10 days, there has been much euphoria among much of the Jewish citizens of Israel about the great accomplishments of the Israeli Air Force against Iranian military and nuclear sites. With the attack by the American Air Force Saturday night, on nuclear installations in Iran, the enthusiasm went “ballistic”! The politicians and the pundits were extremely enthusiastic. Prime Minister Netanyahu went wild. He was excited beyond belief.

One must ask: was all this over the top? Should we rejoice in the deaths and destruction of our enemies?

This is a question that bothered Jewish scholars from early on in our history. In a famous commentary in the Talmud, the rabbis were bothered by the singing of a song of victory after the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea when they were chasing the Jewish people as they fled Egypt in the story of the Exodus.  According to this midrash, as the angels are about to begin their songs of joy and praise, they were reprimanded, almost chastised, by God:

 My creations are drowning in the sea and you wish to sing?” From this we learn that the joy of salvation must be tempered by sorrow over the destruction of the enemy, as expressed in Proverbs 24:17: “Do not rejoice in the downfall of your enemy. 

Similarly, on the holiday of Passover, when we recite the 10 plagues and remember them, we dip a finger in the wine cup and drip some wine on the side, with the mention of each plague, to help us minimize our rejoicing and remind us that we should not be too happy when our enemies are killed. Too much rejoicing in the death of our enemies is not healthy, and the Jewish Tradition looks for opportunities, like the Passover seder, to balance our feelings.

According to Professor Daniel Statman, of the University of Haifa,  there is a fundamental question that we Jews have to confront about how to treat one’s enemy:

Do the people on the enemy side have names, faces, families, dreams, etc., which call us to treat them not only as the enemy, but also as human beings whose death is regrettable even when overall permissible? Or are they creatures whose status as human beings is completely reduced to whether or not they are part of a collective that poses a threat to us?

In Statman’s view, this famous midrash quoted above represents one of the most fundamental ideas of morality, namely, that “each human being has irreplaceable value, has dignity, the loss of which should always be a matter of concern.”

These ethical principles are more important today than ever before, during the period of this long war with some of Israel’s most intractable enemies. But they have been largely forgotten by most of the Israeli Jewish public, in my opinion, who appear to have forgotten that the enemies we fight against are also human beings.

Take the war against Hamas in Gaza, for example, which has been going on for more than 20 months. How many people in Israel genuinely care about how many Palestinian human beings are killed, wounded, or starved to death in this long war? Not only does it not bother enough Jews in Israel, most of whom are simply apathetic or self-centered, but too many of them actually rejoice at their suffering and their deaths, especially those on the far-right, whose leaders make outrageous statements all the time, like “they are all Hamas” or “none of them are innocent”, as if they all deserve to die.

Or take the example of the attacks via beepers in Lebanon last summer. There was great rejoicing in Israel over the deaths of so many Lebanese, as if they were all guilty, while in fact many of them were innocent (collateral damage).  Many Israelis get very angry when Palestinians rejoice when Israelis are killed in terrorist incidents. Yet, many of the same Israelis are very happy when Palestinians are killed since “they deserve it.”

Or consider even the case of the “successful” attacks against the Iranians, during which many innocent civilians are killed as well. Hardly anyone in Israel is bothered by this. Iranians are the new Nazis. Their leader is the new Hitler. Therefore, just about anything is permissible, and why should one not rejoice when Nazis are killed. (By the way, some Iranians and many Palestinians think that Israelis are the new Nazis, and feel the same way.)

According to Judaism, every human being is created in the image of God, and every human being has a right to life. The fact that we are in a state of war—some say an existential war—for more than 20 months should not allow us to totally lose our moral compass. We should not rejoice about the death of our enemies, even if we view them as terrible ones. Otherwise, our humanity is being distorted and even destroyed.  On the contrary, we should always be mindful of the wisdom of Proverbs which reminds us to temper our happiness, even when we are the victors in war, as it were.

Do not rejoice in the downfall of your enemy. (Proverbs 24:17)