But It Is MY
Ox!
January 19, 1990 - 22
Teveth 5750
Once upon a
time, there was a man who owned several beautiful oxen. They were strong and well-mannered and just a
delight. He had a neighbor, however, who
was a bad man and very jealous of the beautiful oxen, because the bad man’s
oxen were ugly and ill-tempered. And the
jealousy of the bad man gave him no rest, so that one day he deliberately let
his ill-tempered oxen into the field where the beautiful oxen were grazing and
they gored one of them, killing it. The
owner of the dead ox was angry at this terrible and deliberate outrage that, in
the middle of the night, he entered the field where the ill-tempered oxen were
and killed one of them.
The neighboring
villagers and cattle people were very moral and ethical people and they were
aghast at the man who had taken revenge on the ill-tempered ox and its bad
owner. Their leader, Mr. Morality, was
especially indignant. “What you did was
very immoral,” he told the poor man.
“You cannot sink to his level.
And you cannot enter someone else’s field even if there is a dangerous
ox there. You cannot take the law into
your own hands.”
In vain did the
poor fellow protest that someone had to teach the bad fellow a lesson and that
unless that were done, he would do it again.
Nothing helped. Mr. Morality was
adamantly ethical: “You do not take the law into your own hands; you do not
enter other people’s property; you do not sink to his level.” And with that, Mr. Morality and his merry
band of ethical cattlemen walked off, heads high and breasts filled with a
sweet sense of righteousness.
The poor man
was so beaten that he could not bear the thought of continuing as before. He was so depressed that he decided to sell
the rest of his beautiful oxen to anyone who would buy them. To be sure, there
was no lack of buyers and, in the end, it was Mr. Morality himself who offered
the highest price. Beaming, he took
possession of the beautiful, quiet, well-mannered and delightful oxen.
But the change
in ownership had not changed the way the bad man felt. Every time he would see the beautiful oxen,
he was blinded by jealousy and envy. And
so, one night, when he could no longer contain his jealousy, he sent his ugly
and ill-tempered oxen into the field of Mr. Morality and they again killed one
of the beautiful oxen.
When Mr.
Morality heard of what had happened, his anger knew no bounds. And without a second thought, he took a
number of his merry ethical friends, entered the field of the bad man and
killed not one, but two of his oxen.
When
the
original owner of the oxen heard of this, he hurried over to Mr.
Morality. “I do not understand. What did you do? When I did the same
thing, you told me that
one does not take the law into one’s own hands; one does not enter other
people’s fields and one does not sink to their level. What happened
now?”
Mr. Morality
looked with pity on the poor, uncomprehending man. “I see that you really don’t understand, poor
fellow. Let me explain. There is a difference between you going into
his field and my going into his field.
In your case, you really should not have done such a thing. In this case, it was my ox…”
I wallow in
glee over events in Panama and Romania.
O, Panama! O, Romania! I watch as
the United States troops go into someone else’s field, invade a foreign country
with 25,000 troops, shoot up its capital city, kill some 70 Panamanians, and
install their own government.
And then I
remember Israel’s invasion of Lebanon after years of attacks on Jewish towns
from that country; after scores of Jews were murdered by attacks launched from
that land; after life was made a living hell for the Jews of Kiryat Shmona, one
third of whom fled the city. And I
remember Israeli troops reaching Beirut and installing their Lebanese as
President in order to put an end to murder and attacks upon Jews.
And I remember
Messrs. Morality! ALL of them! President Reagan, Vice-President Bush, the
State Department, the Defense Department and all the merry, ethical Americans
(and British and French and, and, and, ad infinitum. Ad nauseum). How they condemned and how
they railed and how they moralized and how they ethicalized! Merrily.
“You do not sink to the level of the PLO. You do not enter someone else’s field
(land). You do not take the law into
your own hands.” Messrs. Morality, Post
Office Box One Million, Washington, DC.
And so now
there is Panama. And should any
simple-minded type ask President Morality, High-minded Bush of morality, why he
did everything he told Israel it should not do – he would give a sympathetic
nod to the poor simpleton who really does not understand, and the answer would
be: But it is my ox…
I remember
Israeli troops entering the field of Lebanon to capture a Moslem Sheikh who was
leader of a group of Moslem Shiite thugs holding Israelis as hostages; and
President Morality and his merry ethical State Department cattlemen with their
shouts of condemnation! And now I see
the same moralists invading the field of Panama to try and catch a thug named
Noriega because he deals in drugs that harm Americans and because he tweaks
America’s nose. And I finally understand
the difference and can even hear President Morality say it: But it is my ox…
And I remember
the outcry by all the Democrats and anti-Racist equality types demanding that
William Nakash be extradited from Israel to France and rising up in righteous
indignation over the thought that just because someone is a Jew, he should not
be extradited. After all, all human
beings are equal and being Jewish is no reason to refuse to hand him over to
strangers. And what would the world say
to any such tribalism! And then I read
that under Panamanian, law, a Panamanian cannot be extradited to a foreign
county and I understand the difference: But it is my ox…
I watch as, in
Romania, the dictator is captured and he and his wife are shot in secret trial,
with summary justice dealt out within less than two days and no appeal allowed. And I know that Israel did not give the death
penalty to any murdering terrorists and goes through elaborate procedures of
“justice” in order that terrorists sit and eat and drink at our expense until
they are exchanged for hostages. And I
know what the outcry from Romania and other ethical nations would be if Israel
would do to murdering terrorists what Romania did to its former President. But I have already learned the difference;
THIS IS MY OX…
And having said
all that, I do not – as so many professors and intellectual doers on the right
– merely weep, complain and wring my soul. I have no intention of wasting a
precious few moments of my finite life in the House of Eternal Kvetching,
in which so many of the right-wing spend their lives. The lesson for me in this morality lesson of
Whose Ox is gored? Is not that there are hypocrites in this world. Boker
Tov! Good morning! There are
hypocrites in the world! Surprise…
For me, the
only lesson here is that there is, indeed, a difference. Not the one that the moralists of hypocrisy
give, but the objective and eternally true one of divine Torah Law. There is a difference, the one that cannot be
grasped unless one has knowledge and sense.
In the words of the rabbis, “Im ein da’at havdala minayin?” “If one has no knowledge, how can he
differentiate?”
The lesson is
that there is objective good and objective evil, objective truth and objective
falsehood, and the same action taken against the one is good while the
same act done against the other is wrong and evil. Yes, it is good and right and a mitzvah
to go into Panama to eliminate the slime named Noriega and yes, how much more
so was it right and a mitzvah to enter Lebanon and eliminate the PLO and
other Moslem terrorist swine. And yes,
it was wrong and evil for the Russians to do exactly the same in Afghanistan
and for the Chinese to invade Tibet.
Yes, the German bombing of Coventry and London is not the same as the
Allied bombing of German cities and yes, the hanging of evil criminals is good
and that of decent people, bad, and anyone who does not understand this havdala,
differentiation, needs a good grounding in knowledge. Divine knowledge. Torah knowledge.
Until then, at
the very least, let the Jew learn the simple message of normal gentiles who –
when their basic interests are threatened – do not hesitate to enter strange
fields and to kill evil oxen. It is time
the Jew learned there is nothing for which to apologize or retreat when his
people are killed and his interest threatened.
It is time that he learned to tell President Morality and any other
merry ethical type: “But it is my ox
and no one touches it; understand?”
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