No Joy When Your Foe Falls
Prv. 24:15
What is the moral response to the death of a despot?
When tyrants fall and regimes topple - can we bless the relief but not descend into a hateful gloating - even if the tyrant tried to harm us as well as many other people?
This question that today is the news headline was of interest to the writers of Wisdom as well, and shows up in today’s chapter which is all about resilience - and the capacity for radical empathy.
Humans, for the most part, are incredibly resilient.
By the time we each turn five years old, we fall down and get up again without much of a fuss, about 20,000 times, with relative agility. At least that’s what my chiropractor told me.
Falling down and rising up again, physically and mentally, is how we humans make it through life’s complications, as best as we can.
How to handle falling down - and how to help each other cope and hope through fallouts, even with the ones we do not love or like - is what today’s wisdom has to offer.
As the vicious war continues to rage and ravage the lives and hopes of Israelis and Palestinians, and as political tensions and ideological differences split us up and further polarize us everywhere - these life lessons feel critical.
It’s about the cultivation of resilience, self-restraint, and empathy.
And even though the classic division between good guys and bad guys is still present here, as is often the case in Proverbs and in our lives - we are instructed to aspire higher and not to be limited to the loyalties we’ve been trained to adhere to:
כִּ֤י שֶׁ֨בַע ׀ יִפּ֣וֹל צַדִּ֣יק וָקָ֑ם וּ֝רְשָׁעִ֗ים יִכָּשְׁל֥וּ בְרָעָֽה׃ בִּנְפֹ֣ל א֭וֹיִבְךָ אַל־תִּשְׂמָ֑ח וּ֝בִכָּשְׁל֗וֹ אַל־יָגֵ֥ל לִבֶּֽךָ׃
Seven times a righteous person falls and rises up again,
While the wicked are tripped by even one misfortune.
If your enemies fall, do not exult;
If they trip, let your heart not rejoice,
Prv. 24:15
Seven is a mythic number and must mean here that throughout one’s life, whether one leads a righteous life or not - we will stumble, fail, fall and falter. With luck, support, stamina and purpose - we will rise again.
It’s good to remember this for the next time we find ourselves face down in the dirt.
The second verse that warns us against gloating and forbids our celebration when our enemies fall - is another important moral highroad we are told to aspire to and maintain.
It’s ok to celebrate our wins - when the people we believe in win elections, the ideologies that we cherish flourish or our favorite athlete takes home the gold. But it’s not OK to celebrate when those we don’t support become the losers. That’s when we who yearn for wisdom’s ways, must practice self-restraint and discipline, against the odds.
If we are the kind of righteous people who need the fall of those who we consider enemies in order to justify our choices -- something must be wrong, petty and problematic. A truly good and righteous person, Wisdom tells us here - needs no proof or validation or the pain of others to support their choice and claim. Nothing but empathy will get us beyond whatever sorrow to pave the path for better days - for us and those on the other side of the fence. So yes, when the team you really do not like loses to yours, or the politician you abhor is out of office, or a brutal army held back - we are allowed to smile and exhale with relief. But not to gloat.
Our ancient wisdom sources understood this moral call and it shows up in many ways, not always popular or followed by the people.
The 16th Century Jewish legal code Beit Yosef written by Rabbi Joseph Karo is considered one of the building blocks of contemporary Jewish practice. In one of its sections, Karo quotes earlier opinions to justify the custom for only reciting only a partial selection of the psalms of praise during the the week of Passover:
“The reason we do not recite the entire Hallel section of Praise during the days of Passover is because although the Israelites found freedom, the Egyptians drowned in the sea, and it is written in Proverbs: “Do not celebrate when your enemy falls.”
This remarkable reminder to nurture and cultivate self-restraint and empathy for the fallen fortunes of the people who have been our oppressors is at the heart of our moral tradition and needs to apply today more than ever. Despite the difficult trauma, pain and rage, and against the tides of tragic triumphalism -what will it look like if our culture adopted this wisdom as a golden rule, right there with ‘love everybody as you want to be loved yourself”?
We are invited to keep trying, every time we fail and fall, and aspire higher, and try again and again and again and again and again and again, and again.
Sevenfold and more. May tyrants give way to hopeful new leadership and better days for all.
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