A few moments after hearing that the United States military had killed Osama bin Laden, I quickly tweeted congratulations to President Obama, the American military, and the American people for having neutralized this monster. I added a second tweet that quoted the Bible, "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles" (Proverbs 24:17). I mentioned that Bin Laden's death was not a cause for celebration or parades but rather a time for thanks and gratitude to G-d that evil had been rooted out and that innocents had been protected via the elimination of a cold-blooded killer intent on murdering the defenseless.
Within minutes my close friend Rosie O'Donnell tweeted to her followers, "Do rabbis condone violence -- war -- murder?"
The exchange between me and Rosie sparked a huge debate over Twitter. It's an important debate and I want to clarify my position as well as offer the Jewish values take on bin Laden's death.
Judaism stands alone as a world religion in its commandment to hate evil. Exhortations to hate all manner of evil abound in the Bible and God declares His detestation of those who visit cruelty on His children. Psalm 97 is emphatic: "You who love G-d must hate evil." Proverbs 8 declares, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil." Amos 5 demands, "Hate the evil and love the good." And Isaiah 5 warns, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil." And concerning the wicked King David declares unequivocally, "I have hated them with a perfect hatred. They are become enemies to me." (Psalm 139) Hatred is a valid emotion, the appropriate moral response, to the human encounter with inhuman cruelty. Mass murderers most elicit our deepest hatred and contempt.
On the other hand, the Bible also says that we are not to celebrate our enemy's demise. We do not dance over the body of a murderer like Osama bin Laden. Indeed, at the Passover Seder we Jews, upon mentioning the Ten Plagues, poor wine out of our glasses ten separate times to demonstrate that we will not raise a glass to the suffering of the Egyptians, even though they were engaged in genocide. Likewise, after the Red Sea split and drowned the Egyptians, Moses and the Jewish people sang 'The Song of the Sea.' Yet, the Talmud says that G-d himself rebuked the Israelites: 'My creatures are drowning in the sea, yet you have now decided to sing about it?'
We wish there never was evil in the world. It would have been far better for there never to have to been a Pharaoh, a Hitler, or an Osama bin Laden. When Hitler blows his brains out in a Berlin bunker we give thanks to G-d that his unspeakable evil has finally come to an end. But who could possibly rejoice after so many innocents have died?
The same is true of 9/11. Three thousand people died. Are we now going to jump for joy that their killer has been brought to justice? No. This is a time to give thanks to G-d and show gratitude. But who can celebrate? Their families are still bereft. They are still missing. American soldiers continue to die in Iraq and Afghanistan. We do not gloat over the triumph over evil because its very existence must forever be mourned.
Many readers wrote to me that on Purim Jews celebrate the death of Haman. Incorrect. We celebrate the deliverance of an innocent people from genocide.
But for those who go further and quote to me Jesus' injunction that we are to love our enemies, I respond that to love murderers is to practice contempt against their victims. Those who do not hate bin Laden have been morally compromised. A member of the Taliban who cuts off a woman's nose and ears or an Al Qaeda terrorist who flies a plane into a building has cast off the image of G-d from their countenance and is no longer our human brother. They deserve not amnesty but abhorrence, not clemency but contempt. And since humans cannot bestow life, neither can they act in the place of G-d and forgive those who take life.
To my Christian brothers and sisters I say, as a Jew who has just completed a book about Jesus that is thoroughly sourced in the New Testament, that Jesus never meant to forgive G-d's enemies. His words are specific. He says to love your enemy. Your enemy is the guy who steals your parking space. G-d's enemies are those blow up airplanes. Likewise, in advocating turning the other cheek Jesus never meant that if someone kills 3000 American citizens you are to allow him to kill 3000 British as well. Rather, Jesus meant to forgive petty slights rather than monstrous evil.
I do not believe in revenge, something the Bible explicitly prohibits. The ancient Jewish understanding of the Biblical injunction of 'an eye for an eye' was always financial restitution for the lost productivity of an eye rather than the barbaric taking of an organ itself. But I do believe in justice, and forgiving murder or loving a terrorist makes a mockery of human love and a shambles of human justice. The human capacity for love is limited enough without us making the reprehensible mistake of directing even a sliver of our heart away from the victims and toward their culprits.
Ecclesiastes expressed it best. There is not just a time to love but also a time to hate. I hate Osama bin Laden but I will not rejoice in his death. It would have been better for the world had he never been born. But once he was, and once he directed his life to unspeakable cruelty, it was necessary for him to be stopped and killed. And for that I give thanks to G-d and the brave soldiers of the American military for making the world a safer, more just, and innocent place.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is the author of 'Judaism for Everyone' and is founder of 'This World: The Values Network', which is now launching 'The American Institute of Jewish Values' to promote universal Jewish teachings in American media and culture. For more information write to info@ThisWorld.US
Follow Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RabbiShmuley
Jim Wallis: How Should We Respond to the Death of Osama Bin Laden?
I don't understand why that is not a time for celebration and parades. Evil has been destroyed and we are all little safer, why not celebrate that?
The small sadness in the death of evildoers is that it had to come to this, but over all we are joyous. Despite the criticism in the Talmud that something was lacking in the Song at the Sea, it is still read every day in Jewish Prayer and is over all considered a good thing.
I think the scripture in Ezekiel 18:21-25 clearly shows God's thinking on this...
http://www.fcnj.com/library/article_cdo/aid/1507393/jewish/Is-It-Okay-to-Celebrate-Bin-Ladens-Death.htm
In summation:
"If we celebrate that Bin Laden was shot and killed, we are stooping to his realm of depravation. Yet if we don’t celebrate the elimination of evil, we demonstrate that we simply don’t care.
We are not angels. An angel, when it sings, is filled with nothing but song. An angel, when it cries, is drowned in its own tears. We are human beings. We can sing joyfully and mourn both at once. We can hate the evil of a person, while appreciating that he is still the work of G‑d’s hands. In this way, the human being, not the angel, is the perfect vessel for the wisdom of Torah."
Curious what your basis for this belief is???
These are not my words, I was merely quoting Rabbi Tzvi Freeman. His words resonated with me and I believe that he found the perfect medium between spirituality and morality in his article.
(Ezekiel 18:21-23)
“‘Now as regards someone wicked, in case he should turn back from all his sins that he has committed and he should actually keep all my statutes and execute justice and righteousness, he will positively keep living.
He will not die.
All his transgressions that he has committed—they will not be remembered against him. For his righteousness that he has done he will keep living.’
“‘Do I take any delight at all in the death of someone wicked,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘[and] not in that he should turn back from his ways and actually keep living?’
(1 Timothy 1:13)
I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who imparted power to me, because he considered me faithful by assigning me to a ministry, although formerly I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent man. Nevertheless, I was shown mercy, because I was ignorant and acted with a lack of faith.
Look at the account of Manasseh, king of Judah (2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33)
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord by worshipping other gods. He got Judah to worship other gods. He even SACRIFICED HIS SONS to these gods. Manasseh "shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end".
And yet, when he humbled himself before the Lord and prayed, the Lord "was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea".
This isn't a mockery of human love. This is our salvation and the standard by which we should love each other.
[[ “‘Now as regards someone wicked, in case he should turn back from all his sins that he has committed and he should actually keep all my statutes and execute justice and righteousness, he will positively keep living.
He will not die.
All his transgressions that he has committed—they will not be remembered against him. For his righteousness that he has done he will keep living.’
“‘Do I take any delight at all in the death of someone wicked,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘[and] not in that he should turn back from his ways and actually keep living?’
“‘Now when someone righteous turns back from his righteousness and actually does injustice; according to all the detestable things that the wicked one has done he keeps doing and he is living, none of all his righteous acts that he has done will be remembered. For his unfaithfulness that he has committed and for his sin with which he has sinned, for them he will die.
“‘And YOU people will certainly say: “The way of Jehovah is not adjusted right.” Hear, please, O house of Israel. Is not my own way adjusted right? Are not the ways of YOU people not adjusted right? ]]
[[ “Son of man, a watchman is what I have made you to the house of Israel, and you must hear from my mouth speech and you must warn them from me.
When I say to someone wicked, ‘You will positively die,’ and you do not actually warn him and speak in order to warn the wicked one from his wicked way to preserve him alive, he being wicked, in his error he will die, but his blood I shall ask back from your own hand.
But as for you, in case you have warned someone wicked and he does not actually turn back from his wickedness and from his wicked way, he himself for his error will die; but as for you, you will have delivered your own soul.
And when someone righteous turns back from his righteousness and actually does injustice and I must put a stumbling block before him, he himself will die because you did not warn him. For his sin he will die, and his righteous acts that he did will not be remembered, but his blood I shall ask back from your own hand.
And as for you, in case you have warned someone righteous that the righteous one should not sin, and he himself does not actually sin, he will without fail keep on living because he had been warned, and you yourself will have delivered your own soul.” ]]
(Saul of Tarsus persecuted/killed MANY Christians - but did so in ignorance. He was forgiven.)
Also Jesus / Christians prayed for those who were killing them. (Again the sins were done in ignorance) (Luke 23:34, Acts 7:60)
These are OBVIOUSLY not "petty slights".
Of course there are some who are defined by God (not by man's organizations/politics) as an enemy of God. These are guilty of the sin against the "holy spirit" - to knowingly/willingly working against God's spirit. (Matthew 12:31-32)
Who will be resurrected? Jesus said that “all those in the memorial tombs will hear his [Jesus’] voice and come out.” (John 5:28, 29) Similarly, Revelation 20:13 says: “The sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Hades gave up those dead in them.” “Hades” refers to the common grave of mankind. The apostle Paul said: “There is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Acts 24:15)
“The righteous” include many people we read about in the Bible who lived before Jesus came to the earth. You might think of Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Ruth, Esther, and many others.
What about all the people who did not serve or obey Jehovah because they never knew about him? These billions of “unrighteous” ones will not be forgotten. They too will be resurrected and given time to learn about the true God and to serve him.
http://www.watchtower.org/e/bh/article_07.htm
Then without knowing it, I began to pray. I didn't know what I was praying to. As this article says, our brains contain our image of goodness we all aspire to, but I just was not strong enough to believe in myself to help me out of that hole. Prayer helped. It calmed me down. When I followed up with the psychiatrist, I was much better and told her I still took the pills. My father didnt object. He believed that he had raised his children to be strong enough to make up their own minds.
He did not believe in heaven. He said that immortality is achieved by being remembered by people. He had his reasons for not believing. I have my reasons for believing. We respected one another. Go with what helps you do your personal best.
Jesus’ counsel to love one’s enemies is in full harmony with the spirit of the Hebrew Scriptures. (Mt 5:44) (Job 31:29) (Ex 23:4, 5) (Pr 24:17, 18; 25:21).
The idea that enemies were to be hated was one of the things added to God’s law by the [some] Jewish teachers of tradition. Since the Law directed that the Israelites love their neighbors (Le 19:18), these teachers inferred that this implied hating their enemies. “Friend” and “neighbor” came to be viewed as applying exclusively to Jews, whereas all others were considered to be natural enemies. In the light of their traditional understanding of “neighbor” and in view of tradition that fostered enmity toward the Gentiles, it can readily be seen why they added the unauthorized words “and hate your enemy” to the statement in God’s law.—Mt 5:43.
A Christian is under obligation to love his enemies, that is, those who make themselves personal enemies. Such love (Gr, a‧ga′pe) is not sentimentality, based on mere personal attachment, as is usually thought of, but is a moral or social love based on principle, duty, and propriety, sincerely seeking the other’s good according to what is right. A‧ga′pe (love) transcends personal enmities, never allowing these to cause one to abandon right principles and to retaliate in kind. Even to those who persecute him, doing so in ignorance, the Christian will even pray for such that their eyes might be opened to see the truth concerning God.—Mt 5:44.
[Under certain conditions and at certain times it is proper to hate. “There is - a time to love and a time to hate.” (Ec 3:1, 8) (Mal 1:2, 3) But this cannot be attributed to any arbitrariness on God’s part. God also hates lofty eyes, a false tongue, hands that are shedding innocent blood, a heart fabricating hurtful schemes, feet that are in a hurry to run to badness, a false witness, anyone sending forth contentions among brothers, in fact, everyone and everything standing in complete opposition to Jehovah and his righteous laws. Pr 6:16-19; De 16:22; Isa 61:8; Zec 8:17; Mal 2:16
A World Without Hatred
For hatred to disappear on a worldwide scale, entrenched attitudes of millions of people must change. In other words, the banishing of hatred requires the creation of a society in which people learn to love by helping one another, a society where people forget all the animosity caused by prejudice, nationalism, racism, and tribalism.
God’s Kingdom is the definitive solution for achieving a world without hatred, where there will not even be evil to hate. Described in the Bible as “new heavens,” this heavenly government will guarantee a world free from injustice. It will rule over “a new earth,” or new society of people who will have been educated to love one another. (2 Peter 3:13; Isaiah 54:13,11:9) ]
- Watchtower 95 6/15 p. 8 An End to Hatred Worldwide
http://www.watchtower.org/e/bh/article_08.htm
Are you accusing Jewish scholars of forging their own scripture?
Please note the difference between the Law - given to Moses from God...
VS
The oral traditions that were added, amended, interpreted etc...
This is why Jesus had a hard time with the Pharisees - he said that their TRADITION sometimes negated the law (diametrically opposed) or over-stepped (made unreasonable or profound restrictions but still in line with the original law).
(Matthew 15:1-6)
[[ Then there came to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes, saying:
“Why is it your disciples overstep the tradition of the men of former times? For example, they do not wash their hands when about to eat a meal.”
In reply he said to them: “Why is it YOU also overstep the commandment of God because of YOUR tradition?
For example, God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Let him that reviles father or mother end up in death.’ But YOU say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother: “Whatever I have by which you might get benefit from me is a gift dedicated to God,” he must not honor his father at all.’ And so YOU have made the word of God invalid because of YOUR tradition. ]]
GOOD RELIGION PROMOTES - Respect for God’s Word
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20090801/article_04.htm
Hate speech, in many cases, is proven to be equivalent to murder. Worse than a dangerous teaching is acting out a dangerous false teaching.
People say things all of the time and they often do not know the consequences of what they are saying.
Today we can see the result of what a father's teaching is capable of doing, after thousands of lives have been lost, including the life of his son that he taught.
Here is a great scripture referenced in a post above:
(Ezekiel 3:17-21)
[[ “Son of man, a watchman is what I have made you to the house of Israel, and you must hear from my mouth speech and you must warn them from me.
When I say to someone wicked, ‘You will positively die,’ and you do not actually warn him and speak in order to warn the wicked one from his wicked way to preserve him alive, he being wicked, in his error he will die, but his blood I shall ask back from your own hand. ]]
Note - that if the "watchmen" did not sound a loving warning to his "neighbor" - he would be responsible and share in the blood-guilt...
Or just really tired of hating anything or anyone. Hate takes too much darn energy.
I have to disagree with the rabbi here. So we can only forgive and love those who don't harm us? What does stealing a parking space mean... NOTHING! Not only was Jesus not talking about trivial things like parking spaces, forgiving someone for a small thing is easy to do. It is the monstrous acts that are harder to forgive, and which Jesus was talking about. How can a rabbi, a teacher of the law, not grasp this basic concept? Jesus didn't mean that verse the way you interpret it. If he did, he would have intentionally distinguished between those two types of evils. I'm sorry rabbi, but you are way off on this! Just because we forgive someone doesn't mean we can't enact justice against them. You seem think if someone is forgiven, they don't get the consequences of their actions. This is completely erroneous.
"Our Enemy" :
Jesus and his followers prayed for those who murdered him/them (NOTE - this is not an argument about a parking space). The reason was because the perpetrators "do not know what they do"... (Luke 23:34, also Acts 7:60)
"God's Enemies" : The only sin that is unforgivable is the sin against the "holy spirit" - that is to knowingly/willingly working against God's plan and power. (Matthew 12:31-32)
Thus people who are really concerned with God's view of the people on the earth and what is "good" and what is "bad" that these TRUE BELIEVERS should be worried about
A- learning what God's will is and then
B- teaching others about the truth of God's Word AND NOT concern themselves with political strife, nationalism, vengeance etc..
I guess I don't get the conundrum.
At first it is an odd sensation, you don't often get to react positively to the loss of a human life.
But long can that possibly last?
After you tell yourself: OBL could have been a ghandi for his cause... he could have been a great guerilla general for his cause as during the Afghan-soviet war. He could have been a master saboteur, even attacked purely military targets....
instead, he chose to attack the softest, least defensive innocent targets, in violation of his religion.
That should clear any doubt right up.
Hate adds unneeded emotion to every situation, leads to rash actions, collective punishment and collateral damage. Study your enemy. Disengage from him emotionally. Put him under glass and understand his motives and behavior in great detail as if he were an insect. Dehumanize him in as rational a way possible. Then, act— to reform, subdue, neutralize or destroy him. Act like a surgeon, not a barbarian.
Afterwards, rejoice.
The celebration response is innate, instinctual, and as old as Man himself. It is a return to a state of humanity, marking the end of "war mode" and a return to "peace mode." You need the celebration to trigger the "swords into plowshares" and "time to move on with our lives" emotions.
because I am involved in Mankinde;
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
John Donne-English Poet
Too much evil remains in the world to rejoice.
Yes one should (ideally) feel pain that in order to remove evil one of God's creatures had to be destroyed, but one should also rejoice at the removal of some evil.