And if you are Secretary of Defense, stop calling yourself “Secretary of War.” Stop glorifying it. Don’t revel in killing thousands at the push of a button. Don’t make fun of your enemies, much less your allies, even less the people whose job is to uncover truths in the fog of battle. This is a serious business.

Don’t pretend this is fun, especially if you are then going to pretend that you are pious, that you are doing it all in the name of God.

US News is calling this  “The Meme War.” Anne Applebaum is condemning “the war’s memefication.” What are they responding to?  The series of viral TikTok videos being produced by the White House.

It’s all just a video game to them. In his piece, Olivier Knox of US News demonstrates how they actually “spliced real-world explosions with video game footage to exult over the destruction in the language of Internet memes.”

So one early clip blended images from actual strikes with footage from “Call of Duty,” and another spliced scenes from “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,” while another edited “Nintendo Wii Sports” into scenes of explosions.

And then there’s the more-is-more video the White House posted that draws on “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Braveheart,” “Better Call Saul,” the “Halo” games, “John Wick,” “Superman,” “Transformers” and “Deadpool,” among others. It ends with the “Flawless Victory” message players get from the “Mortal Kombat” franchise when they win a round without sustaining any damage.

And then there’s the more-is-more video the White House posted that draws on “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Braveheart,” “Better Call Saul,” the “Halo” games, “John Wick,” “Superman,” “Transformers” and “Deadpool,” among others. It ends with the “Flawless Victory” message players get from the “Mortal Kombat” franchise when they win a round without sustaining any damage.

A reminder: War is not a video game. And – here’s where Jewish tradition comes into play – even our enemies are human beings. While sometimes war is necessary, even when it is, it is a sacrilege not to treat it with the utmost of seriousness.

Trump and his lackeys are simply unserious people. The proposed new ICE-Meister and Homeland Security Secretary Senator Markwayne Mullin told a Senate committee that he thinks duels are cool (not knowing that they’ve been illegal since the 19th century) and refuses to condemn political violence.

Here’s a pertinent passage:

Perhaps the drip-drip-drip of wine/plagues could be an instrument of revenge on enemies other than Pharaoh. Or an imitation – or parody – of Greek and Roman practice of pouring a libation to the gods before drinking wine at a symposium. Or a mystical way of discerning God’s active role (God’s finger) in salvation history.

The idea of spilling the wine as a means to remind that our salvation required the regrettable suffering of the Egyptians appears to be a relatively recent one, attributed to Rabbi Dr. Eduard Baneth, a well-known German rabbi and scholar, who died in 1930 and to Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), the founder of neo-Orthodoxy in Germany. But some have found traces of it in an older commentary by the Abarbanel.

The spilling of the wine lends itself to fascinating debates at Seder tables – especially timely during a war, i.e. this year.

As the question is posed by Daniel Roth of the Pardes Institute:

So which one is it? Do we spill the wine as a symbol of lessening our cup of salvation and rejoicing as an act of solidarity with our fallen enemies? Or are we praying to one day rejoice over the future complete and utter destruction of our enemies and not just a few drops of plagues?

So which one is it? Do we spill the wine as a symbol of lessening our cup of salvation and rejoicing as an act of solidarity with our fallen enemies? Or are we praying to one day rejoice over the future complete and utter destruction of our enemies and not just a few drops of plagues?

In the New American Haggadah, edited by Jonathan Safron Foer (with translations by Nathan Englander and scintillating commentaries by other leading literary lights), we find a number of contemporary takes on spilling the wine and rejoicing at the vanquishing of our enemy – each one fits our current situation.2

Do you prefer this explanation?

It is one kind of moral victory to be rescued from wrongs that are done to us. It is another kind of moral victory to rescue ourselves by facing the wrongs that we do. Let some of the drops that we spill be for our own wrongdoing selves, grieving our hurtful mistakes, forgiving ourselves for our lack of moral perfection, remorseful but hopeful that we can learn and go on.

It is one kind of moral victory to be rescued from wrongs that are done to us. It is another kind of moral victory to rescue ourselves by facing the wrongs that we do. Let some of the drops that we spill be for our own wrongdoing selves, grieving our hurtful mistakes, forgiving ourselves for our lack of moral perfection, remorseful but hopeful that we can learn and go on.

Mercy, according to the rabbis, should outweigh justice. The kabbalists go one step further. For them, justice that has been severed from mercy is the root of evil. And that is what the tenth and final plague looks like. Justice severed from mercy. The rabbis also teach us that the Jewish people have the power to ensure that God’s mercy tempers the potential excesses of his justice. After being enslaved and nearly extinguished by the Egyptians, we can understand why our ancestors did not press God to show their oppressors mercy during the ten plagues. But we, their free descendants, must not rejoice over the punishment of the Egyptians. It is not a moment for singing.

Mercy, according to the rabbis, should outweigh justice. The kabbalists go one step further. For them, justice that has been severed from mercy is the root of evil. And that is what the tenth and final plague looks like. Justice severed from mercy. The rabbis also teach us that the Jewish people have the power to ensure that God’s mercy tempers the potential excesses of his justice. After being enslaved and nearly extinguished by the Egyptians, we can understand why our ancestors did not press God to show their oppressors mercy during the ten plagues. But we, their free descendants, must not rejoice over the punishment of the Egyptians. It is not a moment for singing.

That explanation is a perfect rebuttal to the unserious memefying of Hegseth and Trump.

Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart against the Jews, even after it seemed Pharaoh was ready to let them go? Did God want to make a point-”Don’t even think of challenging me”? Why did America shower death on Nagasaki, when it seemed that the Japanese were readying themselves to surrender? Was the firebombing of German cities so necessary as to neutralize all moral qualms? The Exodus story ends in freedom for Jews; the Civil War ended with freedom for African-Americans; World War Il ended with fascism utterly vanquished, and the death camps liberated. Can we say that the ends didn’t justify the means?

Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart against the Jews, even after it seemed Pharaoh was ready to let them go? Did God want to make a point-”Don’t even think of challenging me”? Why did America shower death on Nagasaki, when it seemed that the Japanese were readying themselves to surrender? Was the firebombing of German cities so necessary as to neutralize all moral qualms? The Exodus story ends in freedom for Jews; the Civil War ended with freedom for African-Americans; World War Il ended with fascism utterly vanquished, and the death camps liberated. Can we say that the ends didn’t justify the means?

Fine, but if the Prime Minister of Japan is at your table, just DON’T MENTION THE WAR.

So which one is it? Do we spill the wine as a symbol of lessening our cup of salvation and rejoicing as an act of solidarity with our fallen enemies? Or are we praying to one day rejoice over the future complete and utter destruction of our enemies and not just a few drops of plagues?

Regardless of its association with the plagues and the Seder, the idea of God not mourning the wicked goes all the way back to the Talmud. It is unquestionably a powerful expression of the prevalent Jewish value of never trivializing war and seeing each human being as being created in God’s image.

There’s no easy answer to the wine-spill question, but there is a very easy one to the way Trump and Hegseth are glorifying war and the way this administration has fetishized violence, at home and abroad, against the weak and the wily, against women and trans, especially, as well as people of all genders.

It is shameful, It is sinful. And it is wrong. And oh by the way, it’s stupid politics too.

I don’t know what God did when Pharaoh’s army was drowning. I just don’t believe God was dancing on the rooftops singing when the Ayatollah Khameini was killed a few weeks ago.

Those who didn’t have at least a little sadness and regret over the deaths of around 170 Iranian girls at their school cannot call themselves pious – and those who gloated over the killing of the wicked ayatollah like they had just sacked the quarterback forgot that there was a younger, potentially meaner ayatollah waiting on the sideline, ready to enter the game.

Oh wait. It’s not a game at all.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)