In light
of the news of the deterioration of his condition,
we
resending this talk which was given 8 years ago:
Praying
for Ariel Sharon
[Talk
given in the Yeshiva when Ariel Sharon had two Strokes]
Question:
Should we pray for Ariel Sharon to live or die?
Answer:
Perhaps we should leave it up to Hashem. How does He decide? Alone.
1.The
Middle Path – Pray for him to Repent
What
should we do in complex situations like this one? One can certainly pray that Ariel Sharon no
longer serve as Prime Minister. You do
not need to pray that he dies, you should leave this to Hashem. It is preferable, however, to take the middle
path, and pray that Ariel Sharon repents.
It says in the Gemara in Yoma, "Those who are insulted but do not
insult back, who hear themselves slandered but do not respond, who act with
love and rejoice in suffering, of them the Tanach says, ‘Those who love Him are
like the sun rising with all its might’ (Shoftim 5:31), and keep it in one’s
heart" (Yoma 23a). Rashi explains the phrase "keep it in one’s
heart" that if someone else comes to exact revenge against the person who
wronged you, you should remain silent. The Ein Yaakov says that if Hashem
decides to punish him, you should remain silent. If Hashem wants to punish him
- fine, but we should not take revenge, bear a grudge or hate. A person is not obligated to act this way, it
is an act of piety. Let Hashem conduct a
Divine accounting. King David, who was
among the most humble, forgave his enemies and said, "When they are sick,
my clothing is sackcloth" (Tehillim 35:13). He was sick because his enemies were
sick. This is also an act of piety. We also see in Tachanun that is says,
"May all of my enemies be shamed and utterly confounded, they will repent
and be shamed for an instant." An
instant is enough. You do not need to
shame them, having them shamed for a short time suffices. Again, one is not obligated to be so
benevolent, but it is an act of piety.
The Gemara in Berachot records that Rabbi Meir prayed for the death of
certain lawless men in his neighborhood who caused him trouble. Beruriah, his
wife, asked, how can you pray for such a thing? It says in Tehillim,
"Sinners will cease from the earth, and the wicked will be no more" (Tehillim
104:35), which she explains, when sins cease from the earth, because sinners
repent, sin will no longer exist. She then suggests that Rabbi Meir pray for
these sinners repent instead. He does, and they repent (Berachot 10a). We learn that it is preferable to take a
middle path: Pray for him to repent. A
person can also be happy when the wicked fall, he does not have to pray for a
recovery. They can rely on the verses,
"When the wicked perish, there is joy" (Mishlei 11:10) and "And
joy went through the camp" (Melachim 1 22:36 and see Sanhedrin 39b and
Megillah 10b). He can also pray for a
full recovery based on the verse, "When your enemy falls, do not
rejoice" (Mishei 24:17 and see Megillah 16a). In the book "Ye'arot Devash," Rabbi
Yonatan Eybeschutz writes that you can pray for an evil Jew to recover since he
is still part of the Nation of Israel (Ye'arot Devash p. 15). It is, preferable, however to take the middle
path and pray for him to repent.
2.
Ariel Sharon – A Complex Man
This
is a complex issue because Ariel Sharon has both a positive side and a negative
side. On the positive side, he was responsible for building many settlements in
Yehudah and Shomron, he had great success in the Yom Kippur War and he bought a
house in the so-called Muslim quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. On the
negative side, he expelled the Jews of Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron and
destroyed the communities. Even when he expelled Jews, though, he thought he
was doing something good, either because he was afraid of the demographic
threat or of the Americans. At the same
time he was doing that, he was also fighting against our enemies. Rabin also thought he was doing something
good, and in reality he hardly did anything.
Sharon did do something. It is
complex. During the Yom Kippur War, he
certainly saved us, but when he received orders, he would disregard them. His commanding officer said: I command you to
do this. He responded and everyone
heard: I'll piss on you. Our Rabbi, Rav
Tzvi Yehudah Kook, said to Arik Sharon: Guard your tongue. What is this?
This is how you speak to your commanding officer?! The negative side, however, does not nullify
the positive side. The Talmud in Berachot says that Yochanan the Cohain Gadol
served for eighty years as the Cohain Gadol and then became a
"Tzeduke" (Sadducee - who denied the Oral Torah of our Rabbis)
(Berachot 29a). Although he became evil in the end, the many merits he had were
not canceled out. Thus, the question regarding Ariel Sharon is complex.
3.
Do not Dictate to Hashem
We
do not tell Hashem what to do. We always
pray in the general. When we recite the prayer "Refa’enu - Heal us"
in the Shemoneh Esrei, we do not instruct Hashem how to heal us, which medicine
or therapy to use. We leave it up to
Him. We do not enter into details, but pray in general. We do not tell Hashem
what to do. There was once a man who had no livelihood. He came to a Chasidic Rebbe and told him: I
bought a lottery ticket. The Rebbe said:
I'll pray that you win the jackpot. The
man got cold feet, however, since the ticket was so expensive and he sold
it. The ticket won. The Rebbe took this as a rebuke from Heaven
for the way that he acted and he went to his Rebbe and told him that he was
leaving the Rabbinate. His Rebbe told
him: No, no, but don't dictate to Hashem how to solve problems. We pray in general. We do not have to pray for Sharon to die, we
do not get involved with the details.
4.
What do we Tell the Community to do?
There
is an organization called Tzohar (Rabbis of Religious-Zionist who promote
Jewish identity). There are four leading
Rabbis who often sign pronouncements to encourage people to do certain things
and these Rabbis represent a wide spectrum of the community. They are: Rav
Aharon Lichtenstein (Rosh Yeshiva of Har Etzion), Rav Yaakov Ariel (Chief Rabbi
of Ramat Gan), Rav Chaim Drukman (Rosh Yeshiva of Ohr Etzion) and me. They
wanted to put out a pronouncement that people should pray for Ariel Sharon to
heal. I said that I would not sign this, but would be willing to sign a
document calling to pray that Ariel Sharon be able to repent (In the end, no
pronouncement was made).
5.
How should School act?
Schools
ask me: What should we do? I said, if
you pray that he should recover, half of the parents will kill you, and if you
pray that he should not recover, the other half will kill you. This is
therefore an issue of "piku'ach nefesh – saving a life" – for the
administration, the teachers and the parents.
One does not have to give a ruling on every matter. In matters like this, our Rabbi, Rav Tzvi
Yehudah, would often times not say, "Do this," but would analyze the
issue. I told the schools: Every student
should pray for what they wish. Tell
them that we have a few minutes and everyone should pray for what they
wish. I have received over a hundred
text messages asking this question, I already have a prepared answer in my cell
phone. Praiseworthy is the Nation who
asks such questions! People are not
asking about how to make more money or how to be more beautiful, but how to
pray correctly. Praiseworthy is this
Nation!
6.
Summary
There
are therefore opinions on both sides.
One who wants to pray that he recovers should do so. One who wants to pray the opposite should do
so. One who does not want to pray at all
can do so. I recommend praying that he
repents – this is always good and fits with all opinions. All of the followers of Rav Ovadiah Yosef who
are going out into the street to pray with self-sacrifice for his recovery do
not need this discussion – they have their Rabbi. In sum: Every person should pray for what he
wants as long as it is for the sake of Heaven, and what I said – this is the
middle path.
