Just after hearing that the United States military had killed Osama bin Laden, I quickly tweeted congratulations to President Barack Obama, the American military, and the American people for having neutralised this monster.
I added a second tweet that quoted the Bible: "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles." (Proverbs 24:17)
Judaism stands alone as a world religion in its commandment to hate evil. Exhortations to hate all manner of evil abound in the Bible and God declares His detestation of those who visit cruelty on His children. Hatred is a valid emotion, the appropriate moral response, to inhuman cruelty. Mass murderers most elicit our deepest hatred and contempt.
On the other hand, the Bible also says that we are not to celebrate our enemy's demise. We do not dance over the body of a murderer like Osama bin Laden. Indeed, at the Passover Seder we Jews, upon mentioning the Ten Plagues, poor wine out of our glasses ten separate times to demonstrate that we will not raise a glass to the suffering of the Egyptians, even though they were engaged in genocide.
