Menachem Mirski
Rabbi Mirski’s Response to the October 7th Mass Murder
Though I walk through a valley of deepest darkness, I fear no harm, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me. (Psalms 23:4)
This verse is one of the oldest expressions of the idea that the absence of fear is a fundamental source of spiritual and psychological strength. This strength is particularly important in all turbulent times, including the times we live today. We have more expressions of the same concept of strength in our tradition. One of them is to be found in the story that describes Moses’ calling as a spiritual and political leader (Exodus 4) where God commands him to grasp the snake by the tail which will turn it to a rod again. Moses needs to overcome fear to be fit to be the leader of his people. Another great rendition of the same idea is to be found in the work of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, Likutei Moharan, commonly known to us as a song Kol haolam kulo:
וְדַע, שֶׁהָאָדָם צָרִיךְ לַעֲבֹר עַל גֶּשֶׁר צַר מְאֹד מְאֹד, וְהַכְּלָל וְהָעִקָּר – שֶׁלֹּא יִתְפַּחֵד כְּלָל:
Know, too! A person must cross a very, very narrow bridge. The main rule is: Do not frighten yourself (yitpached) at all!
There are, however, sources that present a different approach to the phenomenon of human fear, like Proverbs 28:14:
Happy is the person who is always afraid, But one who hardens their heart falls into misfortune.
These sources, however, pertain to a different kind of fear – fear of God, as it is explained in Psalm 111:10: The beginning of wisdom is yirat Hashem (fear of God); all who practice it gain sound understanding. Praise of God is everlasting. Both, Biblical (i.e. Deuteronomy 10:12) and Talmudic sources (Berachot 33b), with its famous saying Everything is in the hands of Heaven, except for fear of Heaven (yirat shamayim), define the existence of ‘the second type’ of fear – fear of God – and teach us that we have choice in all these matters – a choice what to fear and what to fear not.
If we have this choice, there are 4 possible combinations, two of them are particularly relevant to our situation. Hamas neither fears the world nor God. It is a position of wicked, evil people. We are commanded to fear God only and not to fear the world. This is a position of righteous people and it is, in my opinion, the spiritual motto we should follow in our difficult times. Not to fear the world means not only not to fear Hamas but any other human groups we can think of. ‘Not to fear’ does not mean to dismiss or disregard as not serious. It means to admit the danger but not to become frightened or terrorized by it.
The unspeakable evil done to us on Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah/October 7th and on the following days was the greatest realization of our nightmares since the Holocaust. The laws of logic describe reasonings that are always reliable, regardless of any psychological phenomena like our beliefs, feelings or desires. One of the things the laws of logic state is that whatever happened to become real is possible to happen again. It tells us something about the state of reality that surrounds us. We were all surprised by what happened to us, nobody expected that to happen. It was therefore a ‘reality check’ for us.
Holocaust was the ultimate proof – and this was a reminder – that the objective, absolute evil exists. The main streams of post-war Western philosophy, despite being shocked by the atrocities of war, not only failed to admit that fact but actively suppressed it, promoting various forms of moral relativism. It happened because they expanded the definition of what ‘being human’ is, to also include the darkest side of human-human experience. This was, in my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes of post WWII Western philosophy. Thus, what happened to us on October 7th should be an intellectual wake up call for the ultimate revision of philosophies we teach to future generations and fundamental dismissal of concepts that reject the notions of objective good and evil that try to explain all the social phenomena through the lens of only one, relative notion: power. These doctrines mislead us morally by frequently and arbitrarily placing virtues where there are none. This repetition of the Holocaust experience made me realize that it would have been better if post-war Western philosophy had gone in a different direction in terms of what ‘being human’ means. The concept I would propose can be summarized in a very simple motto: If you dehumanize other people, you at the same time dehumanize yourself. As a result of that you are heading towards losing your God given human rights and drifting towards losing your place among the nations of the world.
Lack of the fear of the world, if not accompanied by experience, knowledge and wisdom, may lead to recklessness and thus getting involved in risk that we may not be able to handle. Therefore, our lack of fear needs to be accompanied by those three, not compromised by ‘mere feeling’. But I strongly believe that the State of Israel has a sufficient number of competent people in their leadership to act sobrely, rationally and responsibly, utilizing all relevant Jewish statehood experience as well as relevant Jewish wisdom of the past. Being equipped with that we shall not fear anyone besides God.
Rabbi Mirski
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