Violence Begets Violence

Reporting from Cairo and Tehran - In a brazen attack on Iran's military elite, a suicide bomber today killed five Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and 26 others at a gathering of tribal leaders.

It is a Jewish custom that when hearing of a person’s death to say, Barauch Dayan HaEmet/God is the True Judge–judgment passes from the earth to the heaven. While on the earth human judgment is skewed by issues of security and money but in heaven only truth passes the test.

It is said in the Talmud–Book of Law that Shamai, the venerated elder who argued with Hillel, was standing by the river when he saw a human skull float by; he said to the skull: you drown because you had caused another to drown and he who drown you will also be drown. Violence begets violence–this is true throughout the world.

There are gematria attached to this incident: 26 the Name of God, the five severities, the 31 kingdoms of Caanan–but, it seems cruel to reduce any life to a number. The Cabala explains how creation is an ever-expanding formula, but the human being is different because we are made of names and through the name the soul is conveyed.

In the Torah, one of the 613 Commandments to the Jewish People is not to rejoice in the defeat of your enemy.