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<a href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2007/07/compassion-for-our-enemies.shtml">Compassion for Our Enemies</a>
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<span>Posted:</span> 25 Jul 2007 01:07 PM CDT</p>
<div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><p style="text-align: justify">We have a <font style="font-style: italic">minhag</font> to pour out 16 drops of wine, once at each mention of a <font style="font-style: italic">makah</font> that befell the Egyptians. The earliest mention of this custom is in the Maharil (according to R’ Joseph Tabory, on Avodah), who says the reason is that we are promised “any distress which I placed upon the Egyptians I will not place upon you”. As the cup of wine represents Jewish redemption, thus the drops are us asking Hashem to spare us these troubles and send them to our enemies. It is also documented in numerous places that those who remove the wine with their index finger are commemorating the Egyptian mages’ description of the plagues, “it is the ‘Finger’ of G-d”.The most common reason we pass around, however, is that we’re diminishing our joy out of compassion for the suffering of other human beings, even the Egyptians. This reason is relatively new, but it is found in such authoritative locations as the <font style="font-style: italic">hagaddah </font>of R’ SZ Aurbach and appears as a “<font style="font-style: italic">yeish lomar</font>” (it could be said) in that of R Elyashiv (pg 106, “<font style="font-style: italic">dam va’eish</font>“).</p>
<p>So the question arose on both Avodah and soc.culture.jewish.moderated whether the value of compassion for our enemies is authentically Jewish, and more relevant for those who saw the references to these <font style="font-style: italic">hagados</font>, the origin and history of it.</p>
<p>The search seems to center on the question of why we say <font style="font-style: italic">Chatzi Hallel</font> (an incomplete <em>Hallel</em>; hereafter CH) on the 7th day of Pesach.</p>
<p>The <em>gemara </em>(Eirukhin 10b) gives the reason that from the second day onward, the <font style="font-style: italic">qorban</font> for that day was the same as the one before. The days of <em>Pesach </em>lack a newness that those of <em>Sukkos </em>have, and therefore there is CH on all but the first day of <em>Pesach</em>, but full <em>Hallel </em>on every day of <em>Sukkos</em>.</p>
<p>The Pesiqta deRav Kahane (Mandelbaum Edition, siman 29, 189a) gives us a different reason. It tells the story of the angels singing/reciting poetry at the crossing of the Red Sea, which was on the 7th day of Pesach, and Hashem stopping them saying “<font style="font-style: italic">Ma’asei ‘Yadai’ tov’im bayam, va’atem omerim shirah</font> — the work of My ‘Hands’ is drowning in the sea, and you say <font style="font-style: italic">shirah</font>?”</p>
<p>The Jews, on the other hand, sang “<em><span class="ubernym uttInitialism" onmouseover="domTT_activate(this, event, 'content', 'avodah zarah' );"><abbr class="uttInitialism">Az</abbr></span> Yashir</em>” unimpeded. It would seem to me therefore that we were allowed to rejoice, but there is a limit or a sadness mixed into that joy.</p>
<p>This is <font style="font-style: italic">midrash</font> is quoted by the Midrash Harninu and the Yalqut Shim’oni (the Perishah points you to Parashas Emor, <font style="font-style: italic">remez </font>566).</p>
<p>The Midrash Harninu or the Shibolei haLeqet (our only source for the Midrash Harninu) associate this <em>midrash </em>with “<font style="font-style: italic">binfol</font>“. This is despite the fact that the <em>pasuq </em>of “<font style="font-style: italic">binfol</font>” would literally mean not rejoicing at all, and here it’s being used to argue for ambivalence — merging the joy of the <em>neis </em>with the sorrow of what was necessary to be done to the Mitzriyim.</p>
<p>The Beis Yoseif (O”Ch 490:4, “<em>Kol</em>“) cited the <em>gemara</em>, then quotes the Shibolei haLeqet as a second reason.</p>
<p>The topic of CH was discussed in a <a href="http://www.ou.org/publications/ja/5760spring/legalease.pdf">column in Jewish Action by R’ Ari Z Zivitofsky</a>. Here are some of the sources he identified.</p>
<p>The Taz gives this diminution of joy as the reason for CH on the 7th day (OC 490:3), as does the Chavos Ya’ir (225).</p>
<p>The Kaf haChaim (O”Ch 685:29) brings down the Yafeh haLeiv (3:3) use this <font style="font-style: italic">midrash </font>to establish the idea that we mourn the downfall of our enemy in order to explain why there is no <font style="font-style: italic">berakhah </font>on Parashas Zakhor (remembering the requirement to destroy Amaleiq).</p>
<p>R’ Aharon Kotler (Mishnas R’ Aharon vol III pg 3) says that the <em>gemara</em>’s reason for CH (that the <font style="font-style: italic">qorbanos </font>are the same as for the previous day) is meant to address only chol hamo’ed, and our medrash is the primary reason for the 7th day of <em>Pesach</em>.</p>
<p>Which exhausted what I found on CH and R’ Zivitofsky’s column.</p>
<p>Back on Avodah, R’ Jacob Farkas found the <font style="font-style: italic">Meshekh Chokhmah</font> (Shemos 12:16 “<font style="font-style: italic">uveyom</font>“), who uses “<font style="font-style: italic">binfol</font>” and our medrash as an argument for disassociating Purim and Chanukah from their military victories. We celbrate our salvation, not their downfall. He also cites R’ Shelomo Alkabetz (Manos haLeivi 9:20 “<font style="font-style: italic">Vayikhtov Mordekha</font>“) who writes that because “HQVH does not rejoice in the downfall of the evil”, we too should not rejoice at their downfall — imitatio dei. We therefore celebrate Purim only for our deliverance.</p>
<p>R’ Dov Kay points us to the Netziv’s into to HaEimeq Davar, Bereishis. He defines “Seifer haYesharim” as the book about those who showed concern even for the wicked, that this quality is what defines being yashar. He holds up Avraham’s atittude toward the people of Sedom as an example for us to follow.</p>
<p>So, regardless of whether this is <font style="font-style: italic">the</font> reason for CH on Pesach day 7 or for spilling wine at the <font style="font-style: italic">seider</font>, or just a lesson one can learn post-facto from one or both of these, I think we have succeeded in well establishing the Jewishness of the idea that we have compassion for the death of even evil people.</p>
<p>(In an <a href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/noach62.shtml" title="Noach 5762" target="_blank">earlier <em>devar Torah</em></a> I suggest that this mixture of emotions is a necessary element before an event is called a “<em>yeshu’ah</em>” in Tanakh. That it is in common between Noach getting saved, and why the rainbow is a mixed message, why Lot’s wife was punished for turning back when she was saved, and our case of the <em>mal’akhim</em> at Yam Suf, who had no right to sing praises since people had died and it wasn’t they who were saved.)</p>
<p>Similarly, this recognition of the role of ambivalence is found in the <font style="font-style: italic">halakhah</font> that someone who is left a large inheritence must say both the <font style="font-style: italic">berakhah</font> of “<font style="font-style: italic">Dayan emes</font>“, mourning the death, and “<font style="font-style: italic">hatov vehameitiv</font>” on becoming wealthy.</p>
<p>Here, the balance must be struck between two verses: “when your enemy falls do not rejoice” (Mishlei 24:17) and “with the destruction of evil there are shouts of happiness” (11:10). The Zohar writes that the happiness is only when the destruction is to cure the evil, and therefore comes with their atonement. When they die because they are <font style="font-style: italic">oyevim</font>, enemies, who need to be eliminated to save the good rather than in the right time for their own sake, there is no joy. The <font style="font-style: italic">gemara</font>’s resolution (Sanherin 39b) is that while Hashem does not rejoice, He does call upon man to rejoice. However the Maharsha relates this back to the story of “the work of My “Hands’ is drowning…” One should rejoice at being the beneficiary of G-d’s good, even while recognizing the loss necessary for you to obtain that.</p>
<p>One can’t say it’s an assimilated liberal or Christian value that was brought in through liberal Judaisms, or promoted by kiruv workers who want a more palatable Judaism to sell.</p>
<p>So why doesn’t “<font style="font-style: italic">mi shemeracheim al ha’achzarim… — </font>one who is merciful to the cruel will in the end be cruel to the merciful” apply? Perhaps it is because we aren’t talking about ignoring the very real need for their destruction. Unlike Sha’ul, who inappropriately saved Agag, we are not saying the Mitzriyim should have been spared. Rather, that it’s sad that things had come to this.</p>
<p>Someone who r”l needs to have a leg amputated should have it removed. He’ll mourn its loss and the loss of everything he could have done with it, but will still give his okay for its removal. “<em>Mi shemeracheim</em>” is the doctor who lets the patient die because he had pity on the leg.</p><div class="feedflare">
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