[Avodah] Binfol oyivkha al tismach?

[Micha Berger]

An interesting perspective from R' Tzvi Freeman, over on Chabad.org
<http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1507393/jewish/Is-It-Okay-to-Celebrate-Bin-Ladens-Death.htm>
(or <http://bit.ly/iAdtqg>). He opens by noting the contrasting
pesuqim in Mishlei (binfol oyivkha vs. ba'avod resha'im) and continues:

    The Talmud mirrors the tension. We find: "When the wicked perish
    from the world, good comes to the world, as the verse states,
    'When the wicked perish, there is joyful song.'"[3]

    ... while in the same volume, the Talmud has already told us, "When
    the Egyptians were drowning in the Sea of Reeds, the angels wanted
    to sing. G-d said to them, 'The work of My hands is drowning in the
    sea, and you want to sing?'" [4]

    We aren't the first to note these paradoxes and more. Now is not the
    time to list every resolution suggested. Instead, let's get straight
    to the heart of the matter:
...
    Simple: Because they are "the work of My hands." For this, they are
    magnificent. And a terrible loss.

    As another prophet put it, "As I live, says the L-rd G-d, I do not
    wish for the death of the wicked, but for the wicked to repent of
    his way so that he may live." [5]

    For the same reason, Solomon tells you not to rejoice over the fall
    of your enemy. If that's the reason you are celebrating -- because he
    is your enemy, that you have been vindicated in a personal battle --
    then how are you better than him? His wickedness was self-serving,
    as is your joy.

    But to rejoice over the diminishment of evil in the world, that we
    have done something of our part to clean up the mess, that there
    has been justice -- what could be more noble?

    That, after all, was the sin of Bin Laden: He recognized G-d. He was
    a deeply religious man...
                                  The sin of Bin Laden was to refuse to
    recognize the divine image within every human being, to deny the
    value G-d Himself places upon "the work of My hands." To Bin Laden,
    this world was an ugly, dark place, constructed only so that it
    could be obliterated in some final apocalypse, and he was ready to
    help it on its way. With that sin, all his worship and religiosity
    was rendered decrepit evil.

    So there's the irony of it all, the depth and beauty that lies in
    the tension of our Torah: 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.

    Sources:
    See Maharsha on Sanhedrin 39b; Midrash Shmuel 4:22.

    FOOTNOTES
...
    3. Sanhedrin 113b.
    4. Sanhedrin 39b.
    5. Ezekiel 33:11.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 15th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        2 weeks and 1 day in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Chesed sheb'Tifferes: What is the Chesed in
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            harmony?