two pesukim in mishlei seem to pull in opposite directions. mishlei 24:17 says בנפל אויבך אל תשמח ובכשלו אל יגל לבך, do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and 24:18 adds the reason: פן יראה ה׳ ורע בעיניו והשיב מעליו אפו, lest hashem see and be displeased and turn his anger away from him. but mishlei 11:10 says ובאבד רשעים רנה, when the wicked perish there is song.
1. so which is it? is joy at the downfall of reshaim a virtue or a flaw?
2. the gemara in megillah 16a has haman throwing אל תשמח at mordechai, and mordechai answers that the pasuk speaks about a fellow jew, while for an enemy of israel it is written ועל במותימו תדרוך. is that the whole answer, meaning it depends who the enemy is, or is there a deeper distinction?
3. practically: when a rasha falls, what is the right reaction inside, gratitude, relief, joy, or nothing? and is public celebration, like purim, judged differently from private feeling?
Thank you Rabbi, thank you very much.
There are several explanations in Chazal and the Mefarshim, and they do not all take exactly the same approach.
One answer is the Gemara’s own distinction in Megillah 16a. Haman quoted to Mordechai, בנפל אויבך אל תשמח, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls.” Mordechai answered:
הני מילי בישראל, אבל בדידכו כתיב ואתה על במותימו תדרוך
That applies to an enemy who is a fellow Jew; regarding enemies such as Haman, a different principle applies. So according to that Gemara, who the enemy is can certainly matter.
A second explanation, which I particularly like, is Rabbeinu Yonah on Mishlei 24:17. He says the pasuk can actually be speaking about a rasha. The problem is why you are happy. If you are rejoicing because evil has been removed and people are now safer, that is one thing. But if this man happens to be your personal enemy and you are enjoying his pain because you hate him personally, that is what Mishlei is warning against. Rabbeinu Yonah writes that the person is not rejoicing לשם שמים over the fall of wickedness; he hates him simply because “he is my enemy.”
That fits very nicely with ובאבד רשעים רנה. Metzudat David explains that when the wicked disappear there is rejoicing because בחייהם הרעו לבריות, while they were alive they harmed other people. The Malbim similarly explains the joy of the city as relief from people who were actively causing harm. In other words, the rejoicing is not, “Wonderful, somebody I dislike is suffering.” It is, “The people he was hurting are finally safe.”
There is also a third fascinating distinction in Sanhedrin 39b. The Gemara itself quotes ובאבד רשעים רנה regarding the death of the wicked King Achav, and then asks how that can be, since Hashem does not rejoice in the destruction of His creatures. The answer is:
הוא אינו שש אבל אחרים משיש
Hashem Himself does not rejoice, but He allows others to rejoice. So even when the destruction of a rasha produces legitimate relief and song among the people he oppressed, there can still be a deeper recognition that the destruction of a human being is itself not something Hashem delights in.
So I don’t think the Torah is giving us one mechanical emotional rule.
There can be a difference between a personal enemy and an enemy of Klal Yisrael.
There can be a difference between enjoying someone’s suffering and rejoicing that his evil has stopped.
And there can be a difference between the public celebration of salvation and taking private pleasure in another human being’s pain.
Purim is an excellent example. We celebrate because the Jewish people were saved and Haman’s plan was destroyed. That is very different from developing a personality that enjoys watching people suffer.
There are undoubtedly other explanations, including later and Kabbalistic ones. These three are enough to show that the pesukim are not really contradictory once you ask: who is the enemy, why are you rejoicing, and what exactly are you celebrating?