Tehillim 2:3 writes: "Yoshev bashamayim yischak —  He laughs in derision at evildoers.” Sadly, that laughter is not heard here on earth

Among the many Rosh Hashanah greeting cards I received thIs year, one stands out. It reads: TO ALL THOSE WHOM I HAVE INSULTED, OFFENDED OR EMBARRASSED THIS PAST YEAR…….. THINK VERY HARD…. WHAT DID YOU DO TO CAUSE ME TO BEHAVE THIS WAY? IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO APOLOGIZE….

After I stopped chuckling, I realized that beneath all this humor, there lies a covert commentary on human nature and on current events.

For that greeting is a mordant echo of what has happened in the so-called civilized world ever since October 7 two years ago. We are so accustomed to the insanity of the world’s reaction that simply to mention its sheer madness has become a cliché. Would any reasonably sane person concoct a scenario where vicious terrorists unleash unspeakable horrors upon innocent men women and infants, and then blame the victims ? Could any normal person imagine that the sympathy of the world would be directed not at the victims but at the murderers, and that this brutal massacre would engender intensified Jew-hatred around the world instead of diminishing it — ostensibly because Israel had the temerity to strike back? Which, of course, the world depicted as genocide, while the real genociders, through some evil alchemy, became the pitiful genocidees.

Jews are being told by many leaders of the so-called free world to think hard and  consider what they did to cause such brutality. And no one is chuckling at this insanity; it has become the new norm. Just as trading 20 living and innocent Israeli hostages for 250 convicted Hamas murderers is the new norm.

No one is chuckling except, perhaps, “ He Who dwelleth in the heavens,” of Whom Tehillim 2:3 writes: "yoshev bashamayim yischak —  He laughs in derision at evildoers.” Sadly, that laughter is not heard here on earth.

Blaming the victim is a common phenomenon known as “deflection.” By blaming the victim, the perpetrator preserves his self-respect and deflects any responsibility for what he did. I might have hurt him and humiliated him in public, but that’s his fault, not mine. If he weren’t the wretched being that he is, this would not have happened. He brought it upon himself. He, not I, is the guilty one.

This characteristic of deflecting responsibility is as old as is humanity. Adam Harishon eats of the forbidden fruit, and when G-d confronts him, he blames Chavah. More: Adam suggests that G-d, too, is somehow to blame: “The woman which You gave me persuaded me…” Note the superfluous “which You gave me” (Bereishis 3:12). Adam violates G-d’s command, but Adam is not responsible. Who, me? I did nothing wrong; Chavah is the cause of it all, and so are You, G-d, Who foisted Chavah upon me.

This is why the recent Yamim Noraim are so crucial to our lives. When standing before our Creator, blaming others is not permitted; it is off limits. The transgressors are none other than our own individual selves. Al cheit shechatanu is repeated hundreds of times throughout Yom Kippur. We transgressed, not others. We are guilty, not our victims. Again and again we say it, as if to underscore that it is we alone who are responsible for these misdeeds. Not our environment, or our parents, or our siblings, or our friends, or our teachers or our neighbors, or our society, or our circumstances, or the countless other candidates for blame — not they, but we alone, are responsible for our deeds.

Note, for example, the repeated first-person singular in the words of the Kohein Gadol in the Avodah of the Yom Kippur Mussaf: Ana Hashem chatasi, avisi, pash’ati, “I have sinned, I have transgressed, I have willfully rebelled against Thee….”

It is small comfort that the blame and scorn being heaped upon Israel and upon Jews everywhere is as old as mankind. We are surely wounded by the outrageous slings and arrows being hurled at us even from purportedly supportive sources. But just as surely, we are not surprised.

“It is not too late to apologize” said that funny — but not-so-funny card. We have stopped chuckling, and we have a message to the world out there: Don’t even bother to apologize, now or ever. Please ignore us, find some other victims to blame, and let us live our lives in peace. Go away , and on your way out, glance at King David’s words in Tehillim 37:13: "Hashem yischak lo — G-d will laugh at the wicked, for his day approaches”; and at its corollary in 59:9, "Atah Hashem tischak lamo — Thou, O G-d, will laugh at them and will mock all [evil] peoples.”

Take a good look, and think hard. Just for laughs, of course.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1084)