How Can We Prove Jewish People Value Life and Peace?
Dear Jew in the City,
Too much of the world believes that Jews are bloodthirsty baby killers. What Jewish sources are there to show that we value life, peace, and righteousness?
Sincerely,
Shira
Dear Shira,
Thanks for your question. There’s only one such source, and it’s called the Torah. As Pirkei Avos says regarding the Torah, “Turn it over and turn it over because everything is in it” (5:22).
Where does it say we value life? One such place is Deuteronomy 30:19, which explicitly exhorts us, “choose life.”
Where does it say we value peace? I refer you to the ultimate Divine blessing in Numbers 6:26: “May Hashem turn His (metaphorical) face towards you and give you peace.”
Where does it say we value righteousness? That’s easy; Deuteronomy 16:20 tells us, “Righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue.”
You didn’t ask, but we also value truth; Exodus 23:7 commands, “Distance yourself from a false matter.”
Of course, I could give you more on these. For example, the Jerusalem Talmud informs us that saving another person’s life is equivalent to saving an entire world (Sanhedrin 4:9). The very last Mishna in Shas says that no vessel is sufficient to contain God’s blessing other than peace (Uktzin 3:12). The Talmud in Baba Metzia (49a) interprets a verse about having “righteous” (i.e., accurate) measures to prohibit stating something that doesn’t reflect how we truly feel. The importance of life, peace and righteousness is all over the place.
Here’s where I get cynical. Knowing this might make you feel better, but you already know that we’re not baby killers. The people who are calling us baby killers don’t care what it says in the Torah or the Talmud any more than they care that Israel tells civilians to evacuate buildings being targeted, but Hamas tells those same civilians to ignore Israeli “propaganda” and stay put. They know; they don’t care.
If you try to approach antisemitic detractors with Biblical verses or Talmudic dicta about life, peace, etc., they are likely to reply with verses about Jews being obligated to destroy Amalek and the seven Canaanite nations. Of course, they are either unaware or they willfully ignore the details of Jewish warfare, including such rules as extending an offer of peace before a siege, leaving an escape route, and not attacking noncombatants. (And yes, the offer of peace even applies to Amalek; see Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Melachim u’Milchamos chapter 6.) You could tell them, but again, they won’t care.
But that makes no difference. We value life, so Israel will continue fighting wars in a manner intended to minimize civilian casualties. We value peace, so Israel will continue to try to free Gaza from the grasp of Hamas terrorists. We value righteousness, so Israel will continue to do the right thing no matter how haters will spin things. Finally, as I mentioned, we value truth, so we will continue to tell it like it is, even though we know that many just don’t care. These are the values in which we believe, so we simply can’t do otherwise.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Jack Abramowitz
Educational Correspondent
Follow Ask Rabbi Jack on YouTube
If you found this content meaningful and want to help further our mission through our Keter, Makom, and Tikun branches, please consider becoming a Change Maker today.
Related posts
2 comments
Sort by
When a little Jewish boy turns three, his father wraps him in a Talit and carries him to the rebbe, the preschool Torah teacher. The rebbe puts honey on each letter of the Aleph Bet, the Hebrew alphabet, and as the child reads each letter, he licks the honey. We’re teaching the little boy that Torah is sweet. It’s delicious.
When a little religious Arab boy turns five, he gets a gun and he’s told, Kill the Jews and you will be a Shahid. We will worship you.
Jews worship life. Israel is the most life-loving, kind, giving country in the world. The world pays it back by criticizing its every move while it strains every breath it draws to survive.
My friend’s father was a partisan during the Holocaust. He couldn’t tell his daughter about when he killed a Nazi because “Ich hab gehargen a mench”, I killed a human being. The Germans had murdered virtually every member of his immediate and extended family but he couldn’t think about when he killed a human being. That’s a Jew. The Arabs know this and play on it.
You know the Central Park Five?
What do you think their mothers did when they found out what their sons did?
I’ll tell you what they did.
They cried themselves to sleep.
Do you know what Palestinian mothers do when their sons blow up babies and chop off people’s heads?
They have pizza parties.
The give out free meat pizzas and celebrate.
These are some of the sickest, most evil people in the world.
Don’t believe me?
Go visit.
Oh, you don’t want to?
Why not?
They’re just good people who were so persecuted, right?
But you don’t want to hang out in their homes, their neighborhoods, right?
That’s weird.
Oh, you mean you don’t want your head chopped off.
That’s so selfish of you!
Don’t you know it’s not their fault?????