Schadenfreude Should Come With a Surgeon General’s Warning
You rarely hear the word “schadenfreude” in conversation, but recently it was featured in two editorial pieces, one in the Wall Street Journal and the other in the Los Angeles Jewish Observer. The German word, which means satisfaction in the misfortune of others, has become popular among Jews recently because of an article written by Si Frumkin, a journalist and Jewish activist in Los Angeles. Frumkin writes of the schadenfreude he now feels when looking at the situation in Gaza. Judging only by how many people have emailed me the article, it’s getting around. I write to warn readers that, pleasurable as it is, schadenfreude should come with a warning: it’s bad for your emotional and spiritual health!
Frumkin starts off by citing Peter Gaye, a Jew in Germany during the Nazi era, who wrote of the schadenfreude he enjoyed when watching the Germans lose gold medals at the 1936 Olympics, an experience he described as “one of the great joys of life.” Frumkin goes on to tell about his own current schadenfreude, which was set up by the solution that was found to the question of the “hot houses” which the Israeli farmers had used to grow flowers and vegetables in Gaza. As Israel was withdrawing from Gaza, the farmers wanted to destroy them, so that the Palestinians should not benefit from their hard work. Others wanted them preserved, so the Palestinians could use them profitably.
A group of wealthy American Jews solved the problem by paying the Israeli farmers $14 million to leave the hot houses for the Palestinians. When the Israelis left, and the Palestinians came in, they trashed and vandalized many of those hot houses left for their use and benefit. Frumkin writes: “And so I have schadenfreude. The Palestinians will not export flowers to Holland or food to France. The greenhouses will not be rebuilt. The Palestinian economy, such as it is, will continue to be mired in corruption, hatred and violence. They will suffer – schadenfreude – but still they’ll never admit that it was their own fault. And I have schadenfreude toward the naïve rich Jews who thought the Arab reaction to their gift would be based on logic and not on inbred hatred. You silly people! Didn’t you hear that this is the Middle East, where scorpions sting even if this means their own destruction? You lost $14 million and you know, I am glad you did.”
Residents of Baltimore like myself can offer a more benign version. Two years ago, when the Baltimore Ravens were a professional football team, they felt that they were one wide receiver away from getting to the Super Bowl; they signed Terrell Owens, acknowledged as one of the best football players in the league. In a blow to the civic pride of “CharmCity,” Owens turned them down, saying loud and clear that he would not play for the Ravens. The Ravens had to trade him to Philadelphia, where he helped lead them to the Super Bowl! This year, as we have watched his run-ins with his peers and management, leading to the Eagles sitting him for the rest of the season, what Raven fan doesn’t enjoy a little schadenfreude?
The recent rioting in France offered an opportunity for revenge schadenfreude. As the Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial on September 5th, countries around the world were gloating—having their own schadenfreude—in seeing America’s struggles to deal with the havoc brought about by Hurricane Katrina. No country enjoyed our nightmare more than France, which for decades, has maintained its holier-than-thou approach both to the American people and to the Jewish state, despite the debt France ought to feel towards this country, if only for the number of American lives lost at Normandy, freeing France from the Nazi occupation.
Hurricane Katrina provided a marvelous opportunity for France to continue its practice of recent years. The widely read LeMonde wrote: “Despite its military and economic potential, which it is quick to deploy abroad, the hyper-power is incapable of dealing with an internal catastrophe of this dimension. Is it reasonable to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fight in Iraq when America is incapable of protecting its own citizens?” Now, when France finds itself dealing with its own Islamic radicalism, its own underclass, we might imagine ourselves justifying in enjoying what’s going on.
It would be a mistake to do so, practically and Jewishly. Practically, if France can’t overcome its Islamic problems, they will only spread across Europe with its growing Muslim population. The Palestinians, in their inability to put down their terrorists and establish law and order, continue to endanger Israel as well.
Schadenfreude is like smoking and drinking; it may feel good while you’re experiencing it, but the long term effects can be dangerous to your health. Perhaps that’s why Jewish law forbids it. In Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers, Shmuel Ha-katan taught: “Binfol oyvecha al tismach – when your enemy falls do not rejoice.” In other words: Thou shalt not schadenfreude. Making the message even more striking, those are not Shmuel Ha-katan’s own words, he is just repeating a verse from Proverbs! Perhaps remembering that Shmuel Ha-katan was the rabbi who wrote the blessing of “Ve-la-malshinim” in our Shemoneh Esreh, which was a harsh critique of the early Christians, explains how this came about. Despite his calling for the Christians’ defeat, his waging theological battle against them, it was he who stressed the insight of the Proverb, when your enemy falls do not rejoice.
This lesson applies here at home as well, where the spirit of schadenfreude has taken hold regarding the war in Iraq, whose mounting toll of lives and injuries cannot but distress us all. Our country faces a difficult road ahead, no matter what course of action we take. Yet some seem to enjoy this. Headlines and articles across the Internet, written by American citizens, seem to take malicious satisfaction in our trials, even describing our country as the “evil empire.”
The same Pirke Avot I cited before reminds us “al tehi rasha bifnei atsmecha, do not see yourself as evil.” In the past, America was criticized for supporting dictators; now we are being criticized for advocating democracy. The reality is that people in the Middle East are closer to tasting democracy than ever before because of America!
America is depicted as being the “bad guy” in Iraq, but have you noticed the behavior of those we are seeking to defeat? They are people who blow up cafes, behead civil servants, murder women and children and send suicide bombers into mosques. Certainly America has made mistakes and has its problems, but we must distinguish between being against a war your country is fighting and hoping that your country, God forbid, is defeated!
The fact of the matter is, no country debates its flaws more publicly than ours does. No country spends more blood and money to uphold the freedom of complete strangers than America. No country rushes to the aid of international victims of disasters more than America does. No country has welcomed more immigrants fleeing oppression than America has done. And, we as Jews must always remember … no country has been more accepting, more supportive, of the Jewish people and the Jewish state than the United States of America.
The temptation to rejoice when others’ get what we think is coming to them is no small one to resist. But at this time of year, when Americans try to engender in themselves feelings of warmth and kindness towards others, it is high time for all of us to renounce schadenfreude, and to renew our efforts to bringing about what we all want, peace and prosperity for us all.