Sanhedrin 49a, the Daf Yomi studied on the day that Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu became the first foreign leader to meet with President Trump 47, teaches some fundamental lessons of particular relevance to the topics discussed by these two leaders.
The opening line on this page is seemingly counter-intuitive: “Be the one who is cursed and not the one who curses.” On the surface, it would seem to be the other way around. The reasoning behind this advice is that in some instances people — especially politicians — attempt to hide their insecurities by alleging that their opponents have the faults that they have, so that curses eventually redound upon the people who attempt to thrust them on others. God and most good mortals focus on bringing blessings to the world, not curses. Jewish history can actually be encapsulated in the ways Jews have brought blessings to the world—from Moses on Mount Sinai to the disproportionate numbers of Jewish Nobel prize winners. And thoughJews have suffered from curses more than just about all other religious groups, on the whole they have survived their oppressors from time immemorial. The hate emanating from Hamas and their sympathizers all over the world seems to be in the process of being overcome by the Jews in Israel and around the world, as censorship is peeled back and the truth continues to come out. People who put their energy into negativity are not as likely to be as successful and happy as people who focus on positivity and getting good things done.
On this same daf 49, a Biblical figure named Yoav was initially held accountable for his otherwise-legitimate revenge killing of Abner who had killed Asael in self-defense instead of just incapacitating him. The catch is, however, that a self-defender has to be pretty certain — actually, absolutely certain — that he or she has the skill, the strength, the time, the timeliness, the coordination, and, let’s face it, the help of God, to incapacitate the aggressor without killing him or her, since when a life is at stake, there is no room for error or a split-second mistake in calculations. If self-defenders can’t be sure they will be able to merely incapacitate a limb needed to kill, they must absolutely neutralize the enemy.
There are those today — and ever since October 7 -— who argue that the Israelis overreacted to the Hamas massacres and kidnappings and could have achieved their objectives by just wounding the haters of Hamas. It should be clear, however, that just wounding the haters of Hamas would not only have been unrealistic, but would not have been enough to stop them from continuing to launch rockets into densely populated areas or to release the hostages. “Mowing the lawn” would have just allowed the grass to grow another day, except that grass is harmless but rocket launchers are not
The Talmud –— and history — have generally looked kindly at Yoav overall, whose decision in the instance discussed above was ultimately deemed justified. Later on the same page (49), Rabbi Abba bar Kahana opined, “Were it not for [King] David, who was engaged in Torah learning, Yoav would not have been successful in battle, and were it not for Yoav’s skills as a warrior, [King] David would not have been able to study the Torah” — and, we might add, to write part of it! See Samuel II 8:15-16..
This is all most relevant as we contemplate the importance and essential role of Torah study as well as of military heroism, though arguments can be made on both sides: King David was able to excel in both areas. But to paraphrase Senator Lloyd Benson addressing Senator Dan Quayle in the great debate of 1988 (“You, sir, are no Jack Kennedy”), not many of us (none, actually) can compare to King David, though many may strive to emulate him, each in his/her own way(s).
The writer has participated in his share of arguments – in court and out – but thankfully never cursed an adversary or a judge, no matter how richly many of them may have earned such a reaction.
