Force is sometimes needed to crush evil, says Rome’s chief rabbi as Pope pleads for peace

Rome’s chief rabbi has said that while armed conflict is always “an offence against human dignity” at times it is necessary to defeat evil with force.

The Catholic Herald October 31, 2023

Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni (pictured) made his comments in response to Pope Francis’s repeated pleas for an end to the war in Gaza and his recent day of prayer for peace.

One can pray for peace, he said, “but we need to see what kind of peace it is – if it is a peace in which evil is defeated or a peace that satisfies the aggressors and the violent after they taken and left the defeated wounded and offended”.

Pope Francis has issued numerous appeals for peace since the Israel-Hamas war broke out earlier this month following a surprise attack by terrorists that left some 1,400 Israelis dead and more than 250 others taken hostage to Gaza.

Israel has responded with a bombing campaign, which has so far claimed the lives of some 5,000 Palestinians, ahead of an imminent land offensive.

The Holy Father has acknowledged Israel’s right to self-defence and has asked that hostages be released, but has also called for a “proportional” response and for civilians to be protected in Gaza.

The Pontiff called two days of prayer for peace, on October 17 and a second on October 27, which featured a special holy hour in St Peter’s Basilica.

On the second day of prayer, fasting and penance, Rabbi Di Segni the same day published an open letter in Italian newspaper La Repubblica saying the hope is “that everything will end as soon as possible”.

He said prayer “conveys the aspirations of the individual, it is effective in uniting a group, expressing pain and asking for comfort and for an end to it”.

“Those who pray believe and hope that their prayer can be heard and accepted, Rabbi Di Segni said, but added that prayer is not “automatically an absolute value”.

“It depends on what you’re asking,” he said.

People can also pray for the downfall of their enemies or for victory in war, but “it all depends on who the enemies are,” he continued, saying everyone on all sides claim they are fighting a just war.

“Wars are always an offence against human dignity, they bring death and destruction, and must certainly be avoided,” he said.

The chief rabbi said that “when one’s existence is at stake in the face of an irreducible enemy, the pacifist alternative is also morally questionable”.

“Sometimes someone has to be defeated, only them and forever,” he continued, adding that the morality of prayer, in his view, “depends on its content”.

Rabbi Di Segni said that while it is wonderful to see crowds gather to pray for peace, to plead for an end to suffering, and to look beyond war, an evaluation must be made as to whether “looking beyond does not mean flattening differences and making everyone equal”.

Conflicts are never divided into all bad on one side and all good on another, he said, “but certainly there are the best and the worst ones”.

“Prayer can become an alibi to clear one’s conscience, to establish an inappropriate equidistance, to cancel moral evaluations,” he said.

The rabbi quoted the Biblical book of Exodus when, after fleeing Egypt, the Israelites found themselves facing the sea to one side and the Egyptian army waiting to bring them back to slavery on the other.

At that point, “Moses began to pray,” Rabbi Di Segni said, noting that in the passage, God responded saying, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.”

“There is a time for prayer and a time for action,” Rabbi Di Segni said, saying several Biblical prophets criticised “a religion in which formal acts are not preceded by repentance, by the recognition of faults, by the correction of wrong opinions, starting with one’s own and continuing with those of others”.

“With these premises the value of prayer and the invocation of peace will grow, it will be higher, more credible, and more effective,” he said.

Pope Francis in his Sunday Angelus continued to appeal for prayers for peace, thanking everyone who participated in the day of prayer, fasting and penance.

“Let’s not give up,” the Pope said.

“Let us continue to pray for Ukraine and also for the serious situation in Palestine and Israel and for other regions at war,” he said, adding that in Gaza especially “space must be left to guarantee humanitarian aid and the hostages must be released immediately”.

Francis said: “Let no one abandon the possibility of stopping the weapons! Stop the fire! Stop the fire! Stop, brothers and sisters! War is always a defeat, always!”

(CNS Photo)

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