Sanctity of Life & Desecration of Death

The Cemetery Entrance by Caspar David Friedrich

What a week! Since last Tuesday, a lot has happened: a political promise has been fulfilled, the fulfilment of another political promise has been announced and a criminal authoritarian has been killed.

The Sanctity of Life

Gilad Shalit was released a week ago (on the 18th of October). PM Netanyahu had vowed to bring him home and he did. He put Gilad’s life in first place, period. But what interests me the most, right now, is the symbolism behind the whole event: Gilad Shalit was released on a Tuesday – in Judaism, Tuesdays are auspicious days. Gilad was freed from captivity on the 18th – the number 18, in Judaism, is the numeric value of Chai (Life). And if we add October to the equation, the 10th month of the Solar calendar; we will have the number 10 that corresponds to the Wheel = moving forward, new beginnings, expansion, big break-through. Is it all a big “coincidence”?

In Judaism, Life is more valuable than gold, silver or even diamonds; simply because Life was created by El-Shaddai and therefore it is every Jew’s duty to respect, value and sanctify it.

President Obama announced, last week, that the US will withdraw all of its soldiers from Iraq until the end of the year. Now, many theories have arisen to justify this decision: some say it is because the Iraqis, inspired by the Iranians, will not extend US soldiers’ immunity from prosecution; others say it is to save money the US so desperately needs; others utter the move is intended to draw liberal votes...I tend to think it is something more complex than that, however I’ll go in a different direction.

President Obama’s announcement can be viewed as a way of Life preservation. Violence is growing in Iraq and since this country seems to be associating itself with Iran, it would be most likely that violence would soon turn toward US soldiers; therefore it could be said the US is anticipating itself and preserving the Life of those who fight to keep the lives of not only US citizens, but of all citizens in the world, safe.

The Desecration of Death

Muammar Gaddafi is dead. I won’t pretend that I feel sorry for his demise, because I do not. However, I do not rejoice over it either.

Gaddafi was a murderous authoritarian who bitterly failed his people. The NTC claims to be different than the previous regime, but when the time came to prove their inclination for the rule of law, they failed by allowing their “soldiers” to execute Gaddafi on the same day they captured him. I did not enjoy witnessing them treating Gaddafi’s dead body with that amount of disrespect. By doing so, the NTC proved to have little respect for Life and even less for Death.

The Libyan utter disrespect for a dead body reminded me of the disrespect the Congolese showed for the dead body of Laurent Kabila (in 2001); the lack of respect the Angolans showed for the corpse of Jonas Savimbi (in 2002); and the disrespect the Muslims in the Middle East show when they use dead bodies for propaganda purposes.

G-d exhaled life into flesh and it became Man. G-d inhaled life from flesh and it became Soul. Thus, Life and Death are extremely sacred...