Parshas Vayeira 5784
“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.” So said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his comments on the atrocities committed against Israel on October 7. And by no means is he alone. Scores of people have called upon the world to consider the context in which the Simchas Torah pogrom took place.
You know what? Let’s roll with that.
With the arrival of Yitzchak on the scene, Yishmael finds himself in Sarah’s crosshairs. She sees Yishmael behaving in a way that will negatively influence her own son, and insists that Yishmael be ousted from her tent. What does the Torah say about Yishmael’s behavior? Metzacheik—he laughed.
What’s so terrible about laughter? Isn’t Yitzchak himself—that prized child of Sarah—himself named for laughter? Wasn’t “Yitzchak” the name chosen by G-d himself for the boy, after Avraham laughed upon hearing the news that Sarah would indeed conceive and give birth?
Why is laughter ok for Avraham, but not for Yishmael? This is the sort of unfairness that Queen Rania of Jordan might label a “glaring double standard!”
The answer is that laughter doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Laughter can be menacing, taunting, maniacal. Or it can be sweet, innocent, thoughtful.
Yishmael’s laughter is laughter of mockery. It’s laughter that occurs in the context of the seriousness of Avraham’s home and makes light of the values that were on display there. Indeed, Chazal connect the term metzachek—Yishmael’s laughter—to other instances of the term used in connection with idolatry, murder, and immorality. Yishmael’s laughter undermines all that Avraham does in the service of G-d.
Avraham’s laughter is not dismissive of G-d, but of the physical world that is so easily bent at His will. Avraham’s laughter is the laughter that happens at the end of a good joke, when the punchline makes you realize you’ve been looking at things all wrong until now. It’s the startling realization that what I thought I knew is misinformed—a woman can have a baby at the age of 90—so long as G-d wills it.
Avraham and Yishmael both laugh, but they are worlds apart.
The IDF and Hamas both kill. But they are worlds apart.
What separates them? Yes, Mr. Secretary-General, how right you are. Context.
Hamas kills indiscriminately and without warning. In a context of kidnapping and parading victims through the streets. Of raping and pillaging and torturing its victims. Of sadistic taunting and proud phone calls back home letting Mommy and Daddy know how many Jews I killed today. Not military targets or terrorists. Jews.
And all of that provides the context in which the IDF kills. Having identified pure evil and vowing to expunge it from the earth. In providing fair warning for non-military citizens to move to safe zones away from the fighting. In identifying specific targets and eliminating them. In uprooting evil without feeling the need to violate evil’s wife and daughter, behead evil’s children, or mutilate evil’s body just for kicks.
In the midst of the Cold War, William Buckley once responded to suggestions that the US and USSR employed similar practices. He said, “To say that we and the Soviets are to be compared is to say that the man who pushes an old lady into the way of an oncoming bus, and the man who pushes an old lady out of the way of an oncoming bus, are both people who push old ladies around.” (Hat tip—Phil Dolitsky)
Most behavior cannot be identified as good or evil when examined under a microscope. Fair judgement comes from pulling back and appreciating the broader context in which that behavior is demonstrated. The assessment of that context and resulting judgment is a moral imperative.
Is a laugh profane or pure? Horrific or holy? The Torah insists that it depends on the context.
Torture and mutilation are not rendered acceptable acts by the claim that another nation is living in your land. But torture and mutilation do provide context that make war against those who committed them called for, reasonable, and moral—even when war by its nature assures collateral damage in the loss of innocent lives.
No, Queen Rania, there’s no glaring double standard. Like a stopped clock twice a day, the Secretary General is actually correct. The attacks by Hamas did not occur in a vacuum. They occurred in a context of barbarism and sadism and depravity. Don’t confuse their bullets for ours. To do so would be laughable.