“If you save just one life, it is as though you have saved the whole world.” I’ve been informed of this, more than once. I understand the concept, really, I do. And it’s not that I am always totally uncaring or always lack compassion. I have some from time to time, if the occasion calls for it.
The problem stems from the difference in the issues and people I think are deserving of compassion. The country seems to be so divided, and the folks on the other side of the fence have several public outlets showing sad children, grandma being thrown off a cliff in a wheelchair and any other issue you care to throw into the mix. But I have my own ideas of who I feel compassion towards, and perhaps I’m not alone in this. So I thought I might share a few thoughts on some people I think are forgotten and deserve the consideration of compassion.
“He Who is Compassionate to the Cruel Will Ultimately Become Cruel to the Compassionate”
This notion, that displaying an attitude of mercy towards the wicked who deserve severe punishment involves acting cruelly towards the general public, can be found in the words of Maimonides in his book The Guide of the Perplexed. In reference to the verse (Exodus 21:14), “If a person willfully schemes to kill his neighbor – he shall be (even) taken from my altar and put to death”, Maimonides writes that the wicked and calculating person (who killed intentionally and was sentenced to death) – if he seeks sanctuary among us, we must not provide him with asylum and not have mercy upon him…because compassion towards the wicked – is cruelty to all beings.
Actually that whole article is well worth reading.
It seems that the whole world right now has it upside down. The world has confused “fair” with “reality” and “compassion” with “justice” or “mercy”.
I’m pretty sure our readers of TZP are familiar with the case of Elor Azariya. The Israeli soldier who shot a Arab terrorist who had not yet been checked by sappers to see if he had bomb. The terrorist had just stabbed a solider. His goals were not questioned, he wanted to kill Israelis. Elor entered prison this week. The judges refused to stay his prison entry until it was determined whether or not he would receive a pardon. It seems interested parties torpedoed the attempt to forestall his entry into the prison system. For him, the IDF brass and judges had no compassion. For the arab terrorist, tears all around.
Compare the judges response to a 14 year old terrorist who went on a stabbing spree with his cousin in October of 2015 in Jerusalem. I can tell you סכין means “knife”, you may want to know that.
So guess what? The judges have decided to have compassion on the terrorist.
However, the judges decided that in view of his young age and in light of his rehabilitation efforts, his sentence should be shortened from 12 years to 9-and-a-half years in prison.
The soldier protecting his fellow soldiers and the citizens, no. We must prove to the world (who is going to hate our guts anyway) that we will eat our own with relish, and possibly BBQ sauce to prove how moral we are. The terrorist who stabbed people, well, compassion we must have for the “poor disadvantaged youth” taking a page straight from CNN and MSLSD.
Not surprisingly to me anyway, Yosef Haim Twito, who was one of the victims of the “misguided youth” <<<that there is leftist speak for terrorist, is angry. For some reason he feels this is the wrong direction.
“The judges of the court gave a tailwind to terror,” Twito said of the judges, who decided to shorten the punishment imposed on the terrorist by two-and a-half years.
“From the beginning of the affair, the State Prosecutor’s Office showed incredible incompetence when it did not ask the maximum sentence, but at the same time I was surprised to discover that the Supreme Court justices decided to ease the already-lenient punishment.”
“It is regrettable that Judge David Mintz, who wrote the verdict, chose to ease the punishment because a prison stay may have undesirable consequences for [the terrorist] – I ask what about the undesirable consequences for me? What about the trauma I went through? The damage caused me for my entire life?”
“Israel has become a haven for terrorists,” Twito said. “The judges of the court unfortunately do not understand that easing the punishment of terrorists is a judgment that gives a tailwind to terror.”
Yes, yes, I believe they are.
But Israel is far from the only country to suffer from this form of compassionate suicide. In France a new phenomena is taking place. Muslim that scream “Allah’s snackbar” and charge at people with guns, knives, trucks or hardened stale french bread are terrorists. Unless the victims is Jewish. Then suddenly the Muslim is “mentally ill”, not in fact, a terrorist. If a Jew is killed because they are Jewish, no worries, the poor dear was mentally ill, didn’t know what he was doing don’t you understand? We must be compassionate. That one is well worth reading as well.
And America and Canada? George Zimmerman and Darren Wilson? One a neighborhood watch person, and unpaid volunteer and the other a professional law enforcement officer. No matter what you think of either man, or their job, I think one thing that has not been successfully challenged is they were both attacked by a criminal. Criminals of which the media rushed to show cherubic pictures of when they were twelve, before the gang tats and gold teeth. Had the criminals not chosen to attack, nothing would have happened. But they did, and the media fanned the flames of “victimhood” for the aggressors. For the two men just living their lives and doing what they were suppose to be doing there was no compassion. For the people who had their business and homes burned down in the peaceful protests there was no compassion, for the firefighters shot at, the cops attacked the people attacked for their skin color, there was no compassion.
Shannon T.Watts and Bloomers, Rosie O’Crazy and all the other anti-gun people that tell us “people will be safer without guns”.
Campus rape survivor: Carrying gun would have prevented attack
Susan Gratia Hupp, because one can never watch this video too much
She lost both her parents because she had been disarmed by politicians. So which class of people is it that will be safer if no one has guns? Oh, the criminals? Yes, yes, it will be much safer for them. Misguided youth, hate crime, profiling, it’s their culture, whatever, they attacked an easy target. For law abiding citizens just eating lunch or going to school? Not so much, no compassion for them.
The poor undocumented (unvetted) refugees. They just came here for a better life, they were escaping________. Of course we must provide, food, shelter, obamacare, schooling, clothing, transportation, obamaphones and allow them to live with dignity! And I have a feeling Canada had been looking down her nose at US a bit smugly as we elected that horrible bigot because we hate people different from us. See, I have paid attention to how the left views and talks about U.S. unwashed masses. Except now the poor refugees and heading for Canada. They are self-deporting.
A surge of migrants tests Canada’s welcome
CAQ calls for tighter borders, hardline approach to asylum seekers
And that’s the thing, no matter what country. The United States, Canada, or Bugscuffle, TX, the immigrants have to be fed, housed, given medical care and toilet paper. Who pays for this? They don’t work, they don’t have transportation, many of the recent ones don’t speak English and have no desire to assimilate and have stated clearly they will not. Which ones? Who knows. But the more of them you have the more it costs to take care of them. Who pays for it? The average John or Jane Doe, just trying to live their lives, raise their kids and potty train their dog. They probably drive an older car, can’t afford private school for their kids and eating out at McDonald’s every third week is a treat. You know why? Because they try to live within their means. And now it’s even harder because some politician with half baked social justice compassionate dreams of a legacy has mandated “we” will show compassion to ____________. Never mind the immigrant has no plans of working, assimilating or even respecting the host countries culture. Have you checked out the rape and crime stats in Sweden and Germany lately?
So, arab terrorist, criminal, illegal un-vetted immigrate, these are to be shown compassion by judges, the media, and society. Who gets none of this compassion? The people just trying their best to live their lives, do their jobs, run a business, go to school or walk down the street in Jerusalem. The people left defenseless by politicians with taxpayer funded bodyguards. For these people there seems to be no compassion.
Am I being judgmental? Yes, yes I am. I feel these are the people deserving of compassion, and more than compassion, they deserve justice. And because of this stance I am regarded as hard-hearted and unsympathetic? Ok.
I agree and understand what Maimonides was saying. When we are kind and show mercy to those that have harmed or intended to, we harm the very people deserving of the compassion and kindness. Those who were just going about their lives doing the next right thing.
Shabbat Shalom.
שבת שלום