"We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot ever forgive them for forcing us to kill their children" -- attributed to Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, circa 1972.
Although extolled as an example of sublime morality, this infamous Declaration was -- in reality -- one of the most morally-corruptive declarations ever purportedly uttered by a leader of the Jewish people. It reveals utter ignorance of a Jewish polity's priorities, and it demonstrates that which our Talmudic-era Sages referred to as the "Mercy of Fools", as exemplified by the ancient Judaic adage that:
"He who is merciful unto the Cruel will eventually be cruel unto the Merciful"
(Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:16)
This misguided Declaration comprises two interrelated concepts:
(1) We should forgive our enemies, and not avenge ourselves upon them, in retaliation for their continuous attempts to annihilate us; and
(2) We should feel regret that, in order to defend ourselves, we sometimes have to kill our enemies.
Both concepts proceed from the truism that, even though our enemies seek to destroy us, they -- like the Jewish people -- are still human beings created "b'tzelem Elohim" (meaning: "in the Image of God" -- Genesis 1:27). Yet, this self-evident truth is morally irrelevant. For, the determinative issue is, and will always be:
What has a particular human being, in the exercise of his Free Will, chosen to do with the "Image" that God has implanted within his soul?
If he chooses to use this "Image" to perpetrate Evil by participating in a war of genocide against the Jewish people, then he desecrates the Gift that God has given him, and he forfeits his life in compensation therefor. As the Torah relates:
"HaShem saw that the wickedness of Man was great upon the Earth, and that every product of the thoughts of his heart was but evil always. And HaShem reconsidered having made Man on Earth, and He had heartfelt sadness. And HaShem said, 'I will blot out Man whom I created from the face of the ground -- from man to animal, to creeping things, and to birds of the sky; for I have reconsidered My having made them. ... Now the Earth had become corrupt before God; and the Earth had become filled with violence. And God saw the Earth and behold it was corrupted, for all Flesh had corrupted its way upon the Earth. God said to Noah, 'The end of all Flesh has come before Me, for the Earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I am about to destroy them from the Earth. Make for yourself an Ark of gopher wood; make the Ark with compartments, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you should make it -- 300 cubits the length of the Ark; 50 cubits its width; and 30 cubits its height. A window shall you make for the Ark, and to a cubit finish it from above. Put the entrance of the Ark in its side; make it with bottom, second and thirds decks. And as for Me -- Behold, I am about to bring the Flood waters upon the Earth to destroy all Flesh in which there is a breath of life from under the Heavens; everything that is in the Earth shall expire."
(Genesis 6:5-17)
After affording Humanity 120 years to repent of its Evil -- per Rabbi Salomon de Troyes, famously known to the Jewish World as Rashi (being the acronym for Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, b. 1040 - d. 1105) on Genesis 6:3 -- God destroyed the entire (non-aquatic) antediluvian World, save for Noah and his family (and the animals permitted to enter the Ark), on account of the Evil that it continued to perpetrate utilizing God's Image.
Clearly, God does not forgive unrepentant Evildoers, nor does He regret that He is forced to kill them in order to defend His Image and thereby sanctify His Name. He regrets only that, among those to whom he has given His Gift, there are some who have desecrated that Gift by using it for Evil rather than for Good.
What, then, might account for the confused value system represented by the critiqued Declaration? Unfortunately, most Jews, being infused with the "morality" of the gentile nations, have come to believe that traits and situations such as Kindness, Mercy, Love, Forgiveness and Peace are inherently and absolutely Good and that traits and situations such as Cruelty, Harshness, Hatred, Revenge and War are inherently and absolutely Evil. But Man's "morality" is not God's Morality. As the Prophet Isaiah, speaking in God's Name, declares concerning God's Morality:
"'For, My Thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My Ways -- the Word of HaShem. As high as are the Heavens above the Earth, so are My Ways high above your ways, and My Thoughts [high] above your thoughts.'"
(Isaiah 55:8-9)
As is stated in Ecclesiastes:
"Everything has its season, and there is a time for everything under the Heavens: A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot the planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to wreck and a time to build. A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to wail and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to shun embraces. A time to seek and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to discard. A time to rend and a time to mend; a time to be silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace. What gain, then, has the worker by his toil? I have observed the task with which God has given the sons of humankind to be concerned: He made everything beautiful in its time; He has also put an enigma into their minds so that humankind cannot comprehend what God has done from Beginning to End."
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-11)
According to God's Moral Code, traits and situations such as Kindness, Cruelty, Mercy, Hardship, Love, Hatred, Forgiveness, Revenge, Peace and War are, in themselves, neither Good nor Evil but, instead, Neutral. It is only the specific circumstances in which, and the particular motivation with which, a particular trait is exhibited or a particular situation is initiated that determines whether such a trait or situation is Good, thereby creating a Kiddush HaShem (Sanctification of God's Name), or Evil, thereby creating a Chillul HaShem (Desecration of God's Name). For example, Revenge is a holy obligation, and its implementation is a Kiddush HaShem under the proper circumstances. Consequently, the God of Israel describes Himself as a God of Vengeance, and He identifies His Exercise of Vengeance with His Imposition of Judgment against Evildoers:
"HaShem is a Zealous and Vengeful God; HaShem is Vengeful and full of Wrath; HaShem is Vengeful to His adversaries and reserves Hostility for His enemies. HaShem is slow to Anger, but He has great Power and He will not absolve [Evil]."
(Nahum 1:2-3); and
"The righteous man shall rejoice when he sees Vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the Wicked. And Mankind shall say, ‘Truly there is a reward for the Righteous. Truly there is a God Who judges on Earth.’"
(Psalms 58:11-12).
Also, with respect to the foreordained Egyptian Exile, although Exodus-era Egypt is merely fulfilling a role assigned to it by the God of Israel (see Genesis 15:13-16), He purposefully strengthens the resolve of its evil Pharaoh only so that He may exercise a horrific Vengeance against it as punishment for its enslavement of the Jewish people:
"HaShem said to Moses, 'When you go to return to Egypt, see all the wonders that I have put in your hand, and perform them before Pharaoh; but I shall strengthen his heart, and he will not send out the people. You shall say to Pharaoh, "So said HaShem, 'My First-born Son is Israel. So I have said to you: Send out My Son that he may serve Me, but you have refused to send him out; behold! -- I shall kill your first-born son.'"'"
(Exodus 4:21-23)
Furthermore, God commands that Israel take revenge upon its genocidal enemies, which, by definition, also constitute God's enemies:
"HaShem spoke to Moses, saying, 'Take vengeance for the Children of Israel against the Midianites …'", but: "Moses spoke to the people, saying, '… inflict HaShem’s Vengeance against Midian.'"
(Numbers 31:2-3)
In fact, God even demands that the gentile nations praise the Jewish people on account of the Vengeance to which these nations will be subjected during the End of Days:
"O nations: Sing the praises of His People, for He will avenge the blood of His Servants; He will bring retribution upon His adversaries, and He will appease His Land [and] His People."
(Deuteronomy 32:43)
Finally, prophesying about the End of Days, the Prophet Isaiah, describing the Vengeance that God will wreak upon the nations who have persecuted the Jewish people, declares:
"He donned Righteousness like armor and a helmet of Salvation on His Head; and He donned garments of Vengeance as His Attire and clothed Himself in Zealousness like a coat. Just as there were [previous] Retributions [against His enemies], so shall He [now] repay Wrath to His enemies, Retribution to His adversaries; He will pay Retribution [even] to the distant lands. From the West they will fear the Name of HaShem, and from the rising of the sun [they will fear] His Glory; for [their] travail will come like a river; the Spirit of HaShem will gnaw at them."
(Isaiah 59:17-19)
However, just as a trait such as Revenge may be Good, a trait such as Mercy may be Evil. This is so because Mercy is holy and its implementation is a Kiddush HaShem only under the proper circumstances. If the circumstances are improper, then the application of Mercy becomes a great sin which creates a Chillul HaShem. No better example of the wrongful application of Mercy can be found than the chronicle of the downfall of Saul, Israel's first monarch. Although ordered by God to destroy all of the Amalekites as revenge for their earlier unprovoked attacks against Israel, King Saul nevertheless spared its ruler, King Agag, y’mach sh’mo (cursed be his name), because Saul had pity on the defeated King. When the Prophet Samuel learned of this, he (at the instruction of God), stripped Saul of his crown. As the Hebrew Bible relates:
"Saul struck down Amalek, from Havilah to the approach to Shur, which is alongside Egypt. He captured Agag, king of Amalek, alive, and the entire people he destroyed by the edge of the sword. Saul, as well as the people, took pity on Agag, on the best of the sheep, the cattle, the fatted bulls, the fatted sheep, and on all that was good; and they were not willing to destroy them; but the inferior and wretched livestock, that they did destroy. The Word of HaShem then came to Samuel, saying, 'I have reconsidered My having made Saul king, for he has turned away from Me and has not fulfilled My Word!' Samuel was aggrieved [by this] and he cried out to HaShem the entire night. Samuel arose early in the morning to meet Saul. It had been told to Samuel, saying, 'Saul came to the Carmel and set up for himself a place [for an alter]. He turned and descended to Gilgal.' When Samuel came to Saul, Saul said to him, 'Blessed are you to HaShem! I have fulfilled the Word of HaShem.' Samuel said, 'And what is this sound of the sheep in my ears and the sound of the cattle that I hear?' Saul said, 'I have brought them [into captivity] from the Amalekite, for the people took pity on the best of the sheep and cattle in order to bring them as offerings to HaShem, your God, but we have destroyed the remainder.' Samuel said to Saul, 'Desist, and I shall tell you what HaShem spoke to me last night.' He [Saul] said to him, 'Speak.' Samuel said, 'Although you may be small in your own eyes, you are [nonetheless] the head of the tribes of Israel; and HaShem has anointed you to be king over Israel. HaShem sent you on the way, and He said, "Go, destroy the sinners, Amalek, and wage war with him until you have exterminated him." Why did you not obey the Voice of HaShem? You rushed after the spoils, and you did was Evil in the Eyes of HaShem.' Saul said to Samuel, 'But I did heed the Voice of HaShem, and I did walk the path on which HaShem sent me! I brought [into captivity] Agag, king of Amalek, and I destroyed Amalek! The people took sheep and cattle from the spoils -- the best of that which was to be destroyed -- in order to bring offerings to HaShem, your God, in Gilgal.' Samuel said, 'Does HaShem delight in elevation-offerings and feast-offerings [as much] as in obedience to the Voice of HaShem? Behold! -- to obey is better than a choice offering, to be attentive [is better] than the fat of rams. For rebelliousness is like the sin of sorcery, and verbosity is like the iniquity of idolatry. Because you have rejected the Word of God, He has rejected you as king!' Saul said to Samuel, 'I have sinned, for I have transgressed the Word of HaShem and your word, for I feared the people, and I hearkened to their voice. But now, please forgive my sin and return with me, and I will prostrate myself to HaShem.' Samuel said to Saul, 'I will not return with you, for you have rejected the Word of HaShem, and HaShem has rejected you from being king over Israel!' Samuel then turned away to leave, but he [Saul] grabbed the hem of his [Samuel’s] tunic, and it tore. Samuel said to him, 'HaShem has torn the kingship of Israel from upon you this day, and has given it to your fellow who is better than you. Moreover, the Eternal One of Israel does not lie and does not relent, for He is not a human that He should relent.' He [Saul] said, 'I have sinned. Now, please honor me in the presence of the elders of my people and in the presence of Israel; return with me, and I shall prostrate myself to HaShem, your God.' So Samuel returned after Saul, and Saul prostrated himself before HaShem. Samuel then said, 'Bring me Agag, king of Amalek.' And Agag went to him submissively. And Agag said, 'Surely, the bitterness of death has passed.' And Samuel said, 'As your sword made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.' And Samuel cut Agag into pieces before HaShem in Gilgal. Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his home at Gibeath-shaul. Samuel never again saw Saul until the day of his [Samuel's] death, for Samuel mourned over Saul, but HaShem had reconsidered His having made Saul king over Israel."
(I Samuel 15:7-35)
If God's Reaction to the substitution by Saul of his judgment for God's Judgment seems overly harsh, then please consider the following consequences for the Jewish people of Saul's misplaced mercy. Prior to his execution by the Prophet Samuel, King Agag, y'mach sh'mo, was able to sire children, and one of his descendants, Haman the Agagite (see Esther 3:1), y'mach sh'mo, almost succeeded in annihilating all of the Jews residing throughout the vast empire of 6th Century BCE Persia. In fact, the narrow avoidance of this catastrophe is commemorated annually as the Jewish holiday of Purim. The story of King Saul demonstrates the grave Sin of not taking Revenge upon an Enemy of the Jewish people and, instead, repaying the Enemy's Harshness and Cruelty with Mercy and Kindness.
Our Sages, shuddering at the consequences of misplaced mercy, have emphasized that it is a great Sin for Israel to show mercy to those who seek to kill or maim Jews, declaring:
"'When you go out to the battle against your enemies ...' (Deuteronomy 20:1). What is meant by 'against your enemies'? God said, 'Confront them as enemies. Just as they show you no mercy, so should you not show them any mercy.'"
(Tanchuma, Shoftim 15); and
"You are going to war against your enemies, and not against your brethren. It is not [the Hebrew tribe of] Judah against [the Hebrew tribe of] Simeon, or [the Hebrew tribe of] Simeon against [the Hebrew tribe of] Judah such that if you fall captive they will have mercy on you. ... It is against your enemies that you are waging war. If you fall into their hands, they will show you no mercy."
(Sifri, Shoftim 192)
Furthermore, our Sages teach that, when we kill Evildoers, we are doing a double kindness, saying:
"The death of the Evildoers is beneficial to them and beneficial to the World. The death of the Righteous is bad for them and bad for the World."
(Sanhedrin 71b)
We can understand why it is good for the World to rid itself of an Evildoer who oppresses the Innocent, but why is this also good for the Evildoer? The answer is that by dispatching the Evildoer from this World, we are actually doing him a kindness, because we are preventing him from committing further Evil, and we are thereby mercifully saving his soul from further descending into Depravity. This is precisely the reason why God removed Enoch from the antediluvian World. As the Torah relates:
"And Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, for God had taken him."
(Genesis 5:24).
Our Sages explain that:
"Enoch was a hypocrite -- sometimes Righteous and sometimes Evil. God said, 'Let Me remove him while he is still Righteous.'"
(Bereshit Rabbah 25:1)
However, doesn’t the wartime episode during which the Prophet Elisha spared the lives of captured Aramean soldiers establish the contrary paradigm, namely, that captured enemies -- even those who participate in a campaign to annihilate the Jewish people -- must be treated, not only with mercy, but also with generosity? Well, no. As the Hebrew Bible relates:
"While the king of Aram was waging war against Israel, he took counsel with his officers and said, 'I will encamp in an anonymous place.' But the man of God [i.e., the Prophet Elisha] sent word to the king of Israel, 'Take care not to pass through that place, for the Arameans are encamped there.' So, the king of Israel sent word to the [inhabitants of the] place of which the man of God had told him. Several times he [i.e., the king of Israel] alerted [the inhabitants of] such a place, and took precautions there. Greatly agitated about this matter, the king of Aram summoned his officers and said to them, 'Tell me! Who of us is on the side of the king of Israel?' And one of the officers said [to the king], 'No one, my lord king. Elisha, that prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.' The king said, 'Go and see where he is, so that I can send for and seize him.' It was reported to him [i.e., the king of Aram] that he [i.e., Elisha] was in Dothan. So, he sent horses and chariots there, and a strong force. They arrived at night and encircled the town [of Dothan]. When the attendant of the man of God [i.e., Elisha] rose early and went outside, he saw a force with horses and chariots surrounding the town. His young attendant said to him, 'Alas, master, what shall we do?' And he [i.e., Elisha] responded, 'Have no fear. There is more with us than with them.' Then Elisha prayed: 'HaShem, open his [i.e., Elisha’s attendant’s] eyes and let him see.' And HaShem opened the young attendant’s eyes and he saw the hills all around Elisha covered with horses and chariots of fire. They [i.e., the Arameans] came down [from the hills] against him [i.e., Elisha], and Elisha prayed to HaShem: 'Please strike this people with a blinding light.' And they [i.e., the Arameans] were struck with a blinding light, as Elisha had asked. Elisha said to them [i.e., the Arameans], 'This is not the road [to Dothan], and that is not the town [of Dothan]. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man that you are seeking to find.' And he [i.e., Elisha] led them to Samaria. When they entered Samaria, Elisha said, 'HaShem, open the eyes of these men so that they may see.' HaShem opened their eyes, and they saw that they were inside Samaria. When the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, 'Father, shall I strike them down?' He [i.e., Elisha] said, 'No, do not. Did you take them captive with your sword and bow that you would strike them down? Rather, set food and drink before them, and let them eat and drink and return to their master [i.e., the king of Aram].' So, he [i.e., the king of Israel] prepared a lavish feast for them and, after they had eaten and drunk, he let them go, and they returned to their master [i.e., the king of Aram]. And the Aramean bands stopped invading the Land of Israel [temporarily]."
(II Kings 6:8-23)
Several salient factors distinguish Aram’s periodic wars against the northern kingdom of Israel from a military campaign to annihilate the Jewish people. Firstly, in its wars against Israel, Aram sought only to render Israel a client kingdom of Aram; and, at other times, Aram sought and received cooperation, including military cooperation, from Israel (see II Kings 5:1-17; and II Kings 16:5, as also reported in Isaiah 7:1). Secondly, in the foregoing wartime episode, Aram did not seek to murder the Prophet Elisha. Rather, Aram sent its soldiers to Dothan with instructions only to abduct Elisha (in order to neutralize the military advantage that his prophetic abilities were conferring upon Israel). Thirdly, in the foregoing wartime episode, Elisha emphasized to the king of Israel that those Aramean soldiers were not captured by the king’s army, but by him alone. Consequently, he -- and only he -- had the right to determine whether they should live or die, which decision was accepted and implemented by the king of Israel. Fourthly, as the Prophet Elisha, in his role as successor to the Prophet Elijah, knew that God intended to use Aram to periodically punish Israel for its continuing sinfulness (see I Kings 19:15-18; and II Kings 8:7-13), he felt obligated to show mercy and generosity to the Aramean soldiers that he had captured. Lastly, Elisha’s decision is rendered more comprehensible in light of the fact that, while the king of Aram had sought only to abduct him, the mercurial king of Israel would later seek to murder him (see II Kings 6:31-32). In conclusion, the foregoing wartime episode is sui generis. At most, it provides a paradigm only for the treatment of captured enemies who do not seek the wholesale annihilation of the Jewish people.
Clearly, a Jewish leader who shows mercy to a genocidal Enemy of the Jewish people is being neither merciful to the Jewish people nor to the soul of their Enemy. On the contrary, such a Jewish leader inflicts cruelty both upon his own people and upon the soul of their Enemy. This is why our Sages referred to the exhibition of Mercy under such circumstances as the "Mercy of Fools".
Now addressing the true import of the critiqued Declaration: Hypothetically, would anyone (even Golda Meir) suggest that, as a human expression of Godly Mercy, survivors of the Holocaust should have forgiven Adolf Hitler and his Nazi hordes for torturing and gassing their children at Auschwitz and other death camps, and, at the same time, should have also regretted that the Allies, in order to defeat Nazi Germany, were forced, not only to kill German soldiers, but, as well, to destroy Dresden and other German cities, thereby inflicting massive casualties upon Nazi Germany's civilian population? The answer is NO -- and not only because this hypothetical query concerns Nazis, who constituted Evil Incarnate. After all, there is no essential difference between the Nazi masses and the Islamo-fascist masses in their raw hatred of the Jewish people; there is only a difference, to date, in their success rate in annihilating Jews. However, it is distressing that many Jews who would dismiss, as morally perverse, a proposal of forgiveness and regret towards the Nazis, would applaud, as the epitome of righteousness, the infinitely more dangerous immorality embodied in the critiqued Declaration. Why more dangerous? -- that is self-evident: The Nazis were Yesterday's Enemy, but the Islamo-fascists are Today's Enemy. While, since the end of World War II, not a single Jew has been murdered by the Nazis, during this very same period tens of thousands of Jews have been murdered and maimed -- and continue to be murdered and maimed -- by Islamo-fascists.
Yet, aren’t the Islamo-fascist enemies of the Jewish State ordinary human
beings who share with the Jewish people the universal aspiration to
create a stable and prosperous existence for themselves and their
families? Well, yes. Consequently, doesn’t logic dictate that
Israel should view its enemies through the lens of that shared aspiration? And doesn’t logic further dictate that, if
offered territorial concessions and economic incentives, these
enemies will accept a compromise with the Jewish people that facilitates
the realization of that shared aspiration for both Jews and Arabs? Well, no and no. That is
because, although these enemies, like all human beings, do indeed aspire to a stable
and prosperous existence for themselves and their families, they also hate
the Jewish people, and consequently aspire to annihilate them. In prioritizing their Jew-hatred over
their aspiration for a stable and prosperous existence, the
Jewish State’s enemies have chosen a perpetual war over an enduring
peace. Consequently, it has always
been a Grand Delusion to believe that, because the Jewish State’s
enemies aspire to the same bright future for themselves and their
families as do the Jewish people, these enemies would be willing to abandon
their genocidal campaign against the Jewish people in exchange
for a negotiated mixture of territorial concessions and economic
incentives. In light of the foregoing, it would be suicidal for
the Jewish State to do anything which assists its enemies in achieving their genocidal
objectives (such as ceding to them a sovereign territorial base in
the Land of Israel).
Finally, the secular founders of present-day Israel dreamed of creating a "normal" State which would be just like the Gentile States that comprised the remainder of the World. From their perspective, this meant a Jewish nation-state with minimal Judaic influence. However, regardless of one's view of Judaic law, it is simply not normal -- even from a secular humanist perspective -- for any nation, including the renascent Jewish State, to forgive its enemies for seeking to destroy it, and to simultaneously feel guilty for defending against, and achieving victory over, them.
If the Prime Minister had not been so ignorant of Judaic law she might have, instead, proudly declared her absolute obligation, as a Jewish leader, to protect Jewish lives without regard to the consequences, as is required by the Torah:
"... You shall not stand aside while your fellow's blood is shed -- I am HaShem. ... You shall love your fellow as yourself -- I am HaShem."
(Leviticus 19:16-18),
meaning that a Jew, especially a leader of the Jewish people, is obligated to fearlessly and tenaciously act to protect his fellow Jew's life to the same extent that he would so act to protect his own life.
Lastly, the Prime Minister might have also quoted the prescient statement of Rabbi Bonastruc ça Porta, famously known to the Jewish World as Ramban (being the acronym for Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, also known as Nachmanides, b. 1194 - d. 1270) on Deuteronomy 7:16 that:
"Through the Mercy of Fools all Justice is
lost."
© Mark Rosenblit