Is Celebrating Beep Beep Moral?

And is it Jewish?

Following the extraordinary operations last week with the beepers and the walkie-talkies, attributed by (almost) everyone to the Mossad/IDF, there was much celebration in Israel. In at least one yeshiva, there was dancing. The jokes and memes were endless.

Some people were bothered by this. Is it consistent with Judaism to react in such a way? Does it not say in Proverbs that one should not rejoice in the downfall of one’s enemy? Is it not said that God protested the angels singing over the drowning of Pharaoh’s army? What happened to basic morality? Was there not an innocent young girl who was killed?

Such objections and concerns are deeply misplaced.

Yes, it is does say in Proverbs that one should not rejoice over the downfall of one’s enemy. However, a few chapters earlier, it says that there is rejoicing when a wicked person is destroyed. This contradiction is very easy to resolve. When your personal enemy, such as someone who you believe has unfairly taken advantage of you, gets cancer, don’t take pleasure in that. But when an objectively evil person, like a terrorist who is trying to kill everyone in your family, is neutralized, it’s certainly appropriate to rejoice.

Yes, there is a statement that God did not want the angels to rejoice when his creations met their end. But there’s certainly not a hint that the Children of Israel should not have rejoiced. And we recite it every day in our prayers.

And have we forgotten about Purim? Of course we celebrate when those who are trying to kill us are vanquished. It’s natural and it’s human and it’s Jewish.

But what about the innocent girl who was killed? How can we rejoice when there were innocents who were killed as collateral damage?

The answer is that it’s a matter of perspective, which in turn relates to a simple matter of math.

The hostage rescue at Entebbe is celebrated as a fabulous victory. This is even though three hostages were killed in the crossfire and another killed in hospital. Because there were 106 hostages altogether. To have rescued 102 out of 106 is extraordinary and worthy of celebration. It doesn’t mean that we’re not sad about those who were killed. It means that the dominant emotion is overwhelmingly one of happiness.

There are tens of thousands of Hezbollah fighters who are sworn to Israel’s destruction. They have an active plan ready to invade the Galilee for an October 7th-type attack. They have been firing rockets and have already killed about fifty people in Israel and have driven tens of thousands from their home.

Furthermore, any normal military confrontation would involve enormous losses - of soldiers and civilians on both sides.

In two extraordinary acts, Israel managed to take thousands of these terrorists out of action, with zero cost to Israeli soldiers and civilians, and with absolutely minimal number of civilian casualties in Lebanon. So yes, it would be frankly bizarre to be focusing on a handful of innocents were were harmed rather than on the thousands of terrorists who were successfully neutralized, and furthermore in a way that involved far, far less innocent casualties than would normally occur.

And let’s also remember that people who live outside of Israel and are not personally under the fears and stresses that Israelis are under, and who get their information and imagery from the media, are not necessarily in the best position to weigh things up correctly.

(Some are not celebrating for a different reason - because they are concerned as to what the fallout will be. That’s a different matter. Personally I think that (A) dramatically weakening an army with which we are almost certain to have a war can only be a good thing, and (B) we can celebrate small victories and mourn tragedies if and when they happen. But, again, that’s a different issue than whether it is moral to celebrate.)

So yes, I’m celebrating and I’m proud of it. May all our operations be so successful!