Torah Truth

I feel a need to respond to this because I know that this report surely creates confusions in every Jewish mind:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133368

In short this news article explains how an Israeli medic treated a terrorist that threw rocks at innocent Jews–one of which was the medic’s own child. During the medic’s procedure on the terrorist, a neighbor told her that this same terrorist had almost hit her child. Nevertheless, the medic continued treating the arab, feeling that it was her duty to do so.

Question: is this really the right morality? Should we treat an enemy with love and compassion?

People experience confusions from this story in two ways: one is of those who are morally aligned with the dominant principles established by the modern world – that tolerance and compassion prevails over anything, and another one by those who feel that such tolerance towards evil is wrong and they struggle to reconcile with the religious ideas of kindness and compassion and professional duties which are not supposed to be tied to political views.

What does God say about this matter?

“You shall not have pity on …” then goes a description of the evil deeds which are many throughout Torah. This phrase is repeated many times whenever context implies that there may be individuals who will feel compassion or tolerance towards the evildoer (mainly the possible compassion towards other Jews or even relatives).

Although the word of God should be sufficient for those who consider themselves religious, still, even for them according to Maimonides it is important to understand the purpose of the mitzvah (commandment) to be able to rightly perform it. “One cannot rightly perform the Law without understanding its purpose” (Guide for the Perplexed, Rambam)
The common sense meaning is simple. Taking as an example the context of this news report, it is like this:
If a doctor acts with compassion towards the evildoer (the terrorist), he strengthens and encourages the evil in the Land of Israel:

Now let’s go down to the basics of the common sense.

The terrorist, treated with compassion, will learn only these lessons:
1. He was right in attacking Jews
2. God Himself is protecting him to show that he (the arab) is doing right thing in the eyes of his God (Allah)
3. The Jews don’t have a choice, and HAVE to take good care of him because of the above (God protects him).
4. Jews are doomed … because of all of the above.

And what is the Torah’s attitude  towards the deed of the doctor in this story?
1.  Doctor chooses not to discriminate between right and wrong, between goodness and evil in the Land of Israel. Doctor refuses to apply his/her intelligence to choose the right action. The perceived “duty-based blindness” is nothing else but blindness of common sense intelligence to make decisions at critical times. Self imposed blindness is a refusal to know and follow the Will of the Creator.
The reason? Appeasement of the currently dominant mainstream morality of what is “moral”, which in turn is a result of the appeasement of the goyim world at large …
2. Refusal to make critical decisions in this case is equal to irresponsibility for the innocent victims of the on-going and future arab attacks on Jews, including this doctor’s own children…
3. Lack of love for his/her own children and his/her own nation as a whole.

And here are simple Torah Lessons for Dummies:
1. (This is really for dummies): There is goodness and evil in the world.  As in “I put life and death before you, choose life“
2. Everyone must recognize right from wrong, goodness from evil, and act on behalf of goodness within the range of available opportunities.
3. Refusal to make a stand on behalf of goodness when opportunity comes is equivalent to allowing evil.
4. Acting with compassion towards evil is equivalent to the absence of compassion towards the good and innocent.

So yes, compassion must be practiced, but only according to the Torah (which means : with common sense).

In the name of Torah,
Benzion