A surfer asked to read Psalms about the victims of the explosion, but is it permissible to pray for non-Jewish medicine? • And what about the fact that it is an enemy state? • Rabbi Sherlow makes an order

• Evacuation of wounded in the port of Beirut // Photo: AP

The explosion in the port of Beirut led to hundreds of dead and wounded, which agitated the whole world and garnered many calls in Israel to recite psalms for the healing of the wounded. However, this is not necessarily simple. A surfer turned to Rabbi Yuval Sherlow, head of the ethics department at the Tzohar organization and head of the Orot Shaul Yeshiva in Tel Aviv, on the question of whether it is permissible to pray for non-Jews. The question even sharpens because it is an enemy state.

"A terrible explosion in Lebanon killed hundreds of people," the surfer wrote to the rabbi. "The whole network asked to pray for them. They did not specifically ask Jews, they asked all people of all religions who could. And it really hurt my heart so I read Psalm 20 for the healing of all the wounded and injured in the explosion in Lebanon. I wanted to ask if it is halakhically okay to pray for Gentiles and for A lot of people without asking you specifically? ".

Are we allowed too? Prayer in the church at the time of the explosion

Rabbi Sherlow noted at the beginning of his answer that when King Solomon inaugurated the First Temple, he asked Gd that the gates of the Temple be open to the Gentiles as well. "These things are a continuation of the double conception of the Torah: On the one hand, all human beings are born of the first man. God, we ask for the good of all - 'Blessed are you all the families of the earth', and the commissioner drew our attention in his introduction to the book of Genesis that our ancestors even prayed for the people of Sodom.

"On the other hand, we distinguish between good and evil, between lovers and enemies, between the righteous and the wicked, and between Israel and the nations (some of these divisions are not identical). We follow in the footsteps of our holy fathers and learn from them the good and right virtues, without undermining the great mission of ' And he called on the name of the Lord, "explained Rabbi Sherlow.

Regarding the heavy disaster in Lebanon, he added, "While there is a heavy disaster that is not the result of injustices but a terrible accident, and people are deprived of their lives, injured in their thousands, losing their support (Lebanon is now in dire need of wheat following the explosion) and more - solidarity is growing The human, and the recognition that we are all human beings, and we are all in distress, about the distinctions between human beings and the great differences between us.Not only that, but we have hope that this prayer and this solidarity will also prepare more world peace, less hatred and less war, because we will reveal the basic fact. In the great basic imagination of human beings, and in the desire for peace. "

"My heart aches for the terrible destruction in Lebanon, and for a moment it diverts attention from the fact that it is an enemy country and part of the belt that is fighting us. This destruction does not hide the severe distress we are currently experiencing in the people of Israel, but joins it. , And hope that he does make peace in his heights he will make peace on us and on all Israel, and the plight of mankind will be healed and will also be the basis for a common growth of a vision 'no gentile will carry a gentile sword and learn no more war' "