Thursday, April 17, 2025

 A Passover Message to President Putin: Stop This Blood Libel by Rav Shalom C. Spira

       Shulchan Arukh Orach Chaim 472:11 declares that there is a mitzvah to prefer the use of red wine for the Seder.(*) However, Mishnah Berurah (§38) cautions that in a society afflicted with the canard of blood libels, white wine should be substituted.

      Unfortunately, it is Russian President Vladimir Putin who appears to be the exponent of a blood libel this Passover, continuing to attack Ukraine on the claim that he seeks to de-Nazify it. Alas, the actual Nazis are in the Hamas headquarters of Gaza [as explained at <https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-call-for-hamas-to-surrender-by-rabbi.html>] and not in Ukraine. To that effect, it is Putin himself who risks being branded as a Nazi, since his attack on Ukraine is potentially contrary to the Noahide Code, as argued at <https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-cri-de-coeur-for-russian-army-to_30.html>. Indeed, the manner in which Putin hijacked the democratic machinery of Russia to become its dictator seems reminiscent of Hitler's self-promotional technique in the Weimar Republic.
      The Mishnah, Pesachim 49a teaches us that if a Jew on Passover Eve is occupied with a mitzvah enterprise such as the Pesach sacrifice, circumcision or a betrothal meal, and he suddenly realizes that he forgot to liquidate chametz from his home, then [provided he has enough time to go home for chametz liquidation and then return to his mitzvah enterprise] he must go home. However, continues the Mishnah, if the same Jew is occupied with saving a human life from an attacking army, an overflowing river, bandits, a conflagration or an avalanche, then [even if he has enough time to go home for chametz liquidation and then return to his mitzvah enterprise] he is obligated to continue forward without first going home, and the prohibition against owning chametz will have to be meagerly satisfied by nullifying the chametz in his heart. [According to Torah law, mere nullification of chametz in the heart is sufficient, as per the Gemara, Pesachim 4b. There are certain exceptions to this principle, such as where the Jew accepted custodial responsibility for someone else's chametz, or where it is past the hour on Passover Eve when chametz becomes forbidden in benefit, beyond the scope of this essay. The requirement to actually liquidate the chametz is generally rabbinic in nature. The rabbis suspended the latter obligation when the Jew in question is embarked upon a piku'ach nefesh sortie.] Clearly, what this Mishnah underscores is that as important as the liquidation of chametz may be in the context of celebrating Passover, saving lives from an attacking army spiritually trumps that value. And so, President Putin should abort his invasion of Ukraine this Passover. 
      Furthermore, the Mishnah compares saving lives from an attacking army to saving lives from an avalanche. The latter fact pattern, detailed in a parallel Mishnah of Yoma 83a [and the ensuing Gemara, Yoma 85a with its attendant commentaries], yields the potential conclusion that there is a mitzvah to medically treat a brain dead patient. It is for this very reason that my father heroically gave his life in sanctification of the Name of Heaven by refusing a heart transplant, as I eulogized three months ago at <https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-eulogy-for-my-father-bt-av-shalom-c.html>. The heroism of my father ought to inspire President Putin: If my father was so concerned about one life being snuffed out by a cardiac harvest that he categorically refused the medical procedure, then how much more so should President Putin be concerned about the myriads of lives in Ukraine that are at stake.
      The above clarion call for President Putin to abort his invasion of Ukraine should be carefully distinguished from the absolute halakhic prohibition against intermarriage between a Jewish gentleman and a Noahide lady. As Rema to Shulchan Arukh Even ha-Ezer 16:2 rules, a Jewish gentleman must forfeit his life in sanctification of the Name of Heaven rather than marry a Noahide lady. Obviously, then, the personal behaviour of Volodymyr Zelensky is completely unacceptable. However, that problem can be resolved without necessarily killing the other human beings in Ukraine. [See also Chazon Ish, Yoreh De'ah 2:16, final paragraph, that heretics in the contemporary era should be brought to repentance in a diplomatic manner "as far as our hand reaches" (be-mah she-yadeinu maga'at).]

(*) = The preference of red wine over white wine also occurs in an entirely separate context which by remarkable coincidence was featured in the Daf Yomi this past Passover Eve. Namely, Tosafot to Makkot 4a, s.v. amar, observe that a sea-submerged barrel of white wine will wreak havoc with an immerser's attempt to purify himself there, since the white wine is visually indistinguishable from seawater. By contrast, continue Tosafot, red wine suffers from no such difficulty, since the presence of wine (that would interfere with valid immersion) optically announces itself. [And see the Haggadah of the Gra, s.v. Rabbi Eliezer omer, for a fascinating suggestion how to conceptually unite the Seder with the laws of sea immersion.]
      
Rabbi Spira works as the Editor of Manuscripts and Grants at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, a Pavilion of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Canada

1 comment :

  1. In an ever-changing world, a venal and mendacious Russian tyrant cuddling up to lying Arab leaders to attack Israel is actually a comforting thing. That, at least, hasn't changed.

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