Rabbi Gordis, thank you for this it's pieces like this that make IFTI what it is and why I subscribe. Sadly, most of those who are not subscribers are the ones who need it the most.
"Michael Walzer’s statement (“the attacks … came when the operatives were not operating; they had not been mobilized and they were not militarily engaged.”) is so fatuous that it deserves nothing but satire. Fortunately two of the greatest satirists in the English language have already done it. Gilbert and Sullivan in the Pirates of Penzance commented on the Victorian tendency to sentimentalize criminals in "When a Felon's Not Engaged in His Employment
Any fair reading of the laws of war holds that whether he is (at the moment) fighting or not, he is still a combatant and is "fair game". Walzer and people of his ilk think that they can make the rules to be what they want them to be. That's not how it works.
If you have not yet read or heard of Rabbi Hanna Yerushalmi’s two books of poetry written since October 7th, you must! Hanna manages to capture the poignancy of everyday life and the complexity of feelings that those of us who love Israel so fiercely continue to feel as we go about our lives in this twisted upside down world.
What a masterful summary of what so many of us are thinking. It touches all of the needed points.
In Israel even a traffic jam can produce something meaningful
Rabbi Gordis, thank you for this it's pieces like this that make IFTI what it is and why I subscribe. Sadly, most of those who are not subscribers are the ones who need it the most.
"Michael Walzer’s statement (“the attacks … came when the operatives were not operating; they had not been mobilized and they were not militarily engaged.”) is so fatuous that it deserves nothing but satire. Fortunately two of the greatest satirists in the English language have already done it. Gilbert and Sullivan in the Pirates of Penzance commented on the Victorian tendency to sentimentalize criminals in "When a Felon's Not Engaged in His Employment
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzSTTTCOHr4
Sergeant:
When a felon’s not engaged in his employment –
Or maturing his felonious little plans –
His capacity for innocent enjoyment –
Is just as great as any honest man’s –
Our feelings we with difficulty smother –
When constabulary duty’s to be done –
Ah, take one consideration with another –
A policeman’s lot is not a happy one.
When the enterprising burglar’s not a-burgling –
When the cut-throat isn’t occupied in crime –
He loves to hear the little brook a-gurgling –
And listen to the merry village chime –
When the coster’s finished jumping on his mother –
He loves to lie a-basking in the sun –
Ah, take one consideration with another –
A policeman’s lot is not a happy one.
Any fair reading of the laws of war holds that whether he is (at the moment) fighting or not, he is still a combatant and is "fair game". Walzer and people of his ilk think that they can make the rules to be what they want them to be. That's not how it works.
If you have not yet read or heard of Rabbi Hanna Yerushalmi’s two books of poetry written since October 7th, you must! Hanna manages to capture the poignancy of everyday life and the complexity of feelings that those of us who love Israel so fiercely continue to feel as we go about our lives in this twisted upside down world.
https://a.co/d/8sfb9BW