Daf Yomi: Gedalia And The Lesson To Heed Warnings
By Rabbi Aaron I. Reichel, Esq.
The road to Gehinnom is paved with good intentions. This is an adage that should be on the mind of well-intended leaders and negotiators who sometimes give their less ethical counterparts the benefit of the doubt.
Although Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, was the most famous person who bore this name, it was a different Ishmael who affected the lives of observant Jews for millennia, to this day. That was Ishmael benNetaniah, who assassinated Gedaliah ben Achikom (Kings II: 25: 25; Jeremiah 41:2) and “all the Jews who were with him” (Ibid Kings II; Jeremiah 41:3) in a murderous rampage that is commemorated throughout the ages as the basis for Tzom Gedaliah, the Fast of Gedaliah, that takes place the day after Rosh Hashanah every year.
And yet, two days after the assassination, Ishmael murdered another group of Jews and threw them into a pit (Jeremiah 41: 4-7). Curiously, the Book of Jeremiah says that Ishmael killed this second group of Jews “b’yad Gedaliah,” which has been translated as “because of Gedaliah” (Jeremiah 41: 9) or “by the side of Gedaliah” or “in the wake of Gedaliah’s murder.”
The Gemara in the daf yomi that was recently studied (Shavuot 20) refers to the Fast of Gedaliah, but the Gemara in Niddah (61) discusses the assassination of Gedaliah (and the murders of the people who were with him) in more detail, asking “Did Gedaliah kill this second group of Jews, who were then thrown into a pit? (Jeremiah 41:4-7). Or did Ishmael kill them?” The Gemara answers that since Gedaliah should have been concerned based on the advice of Yochanan, son of Kareah, the verse blames Gedaliah as though he had personally killed this second group of Jewish men. This can’t be more fully understood without reading the relevant passages in the book of Jeremiah, which recounts that Yochanan, and “all the captains that were with him” warned Gedaliah that the King of Amon has sent Ishmael to kill him (Jeremiah 40: 13-14).
In an amazing act of heroism, Yochanan secretly offered Gedaliah to preemptively and secretly kill Ishmael to prevent him from killing Gedaliah, and thereby prevent all of Gedaliah’s followers from being scattered. But Gedaliah dissuaded Yochanan from doing this: “For you speak falsely of Ishmael” (Jeremiah40:16). Perhaps the key takeaway is what Gedaliah did not say.
Though warned that he was about to be murdered, Gedaliah didn’t take any precautions to ascertain whether the rumor was true, and he didn’t take any precautions to protect himself in the event it was, as it turned out to be.
Rava articulated the lesson that should be learned from this chain of events. Regarding the prohibition against listening to malicious speech, one is still required to be concerned and try to ascertain whether it is grounded in truth. There is a famous proverb on giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, “Hevei dan et kol ha’adam l’kaf zechut,” (Pirkei Avot 1:6). Nevertheless, there is also a famous expression that my late father, of blessed memory, used to repeat: Kabdayhu v’chashdayhu (Kallah Rabbati 9), which means to honor respectfully, but to be simultaneously on guard, or in the words of the late President Ronald Reagan, “Trust, but verify.”
The negotiations that are going on now with Hamas and the Iranians are based in part on trusting those who have proven themselves untrustworthy in the past, to put it mildly. The leaders of Israel should learn the lessons of Gedaliah and act preemptively and decisively without waiting for the day after Rosh Hashanah. n
Rabbi Aaron I. Reichel, Esq., is a New York attorney, a foundation administrator, an author, and a former editor whose books he authored, edited, and/or supplemented include biographies of Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein (The Maverick Rabbi), Harry Fischel (founder of Machon Harry Fischel and central participant in many other institutions), and Chief Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen (also a war hero and Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem), plus an inspirational book on baseball, “Step Up to the Plate.”
