Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

Words will never harm me

We all know the saying: “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me”. Our Jewish tradition warns that we are to be wary of words even as we are of weapons. Our Rabbis teach that speaking badly of someone kills three, the one who speaks the words, the one who hears them and the one about whom they are spoken. Indeed, words are weapons.

This week, we commemorate the life of Yitzhak Rabin, the former Prime Minister of Israel. In spreading the word that Rabin was a ‘rodeph’ – a ‘pursuer’, it became not only acceptable but required that his life be taken. A ‘rodeph’ in Jewish law is one who pursues another and, as a consequence, should be killed in self-defense. Rabin was labelled a ‘rodeph’ by those who believed he was putting the State of Israel and the life of Jews in jeopardy by the prospect of his negotiating land for peace with the Palestinians and in his signing of the Oslo Accords.

Rabin, who fought with weapons of war to defend Israel, became a ‘soldier of peace’ through words and diplomacy. In tribute to him, our School named one of our Houses in his honour. And, this week, in marking Rabin’s yahrseit in our High School assembly, we sang Shir LeShalom, the very song he sang moments before he was assassinated. For many Israelis and Jews, Rabin, indeed, was a ‘rodeph’ – one who exemplified the exhortation אוהב שלום ורודף שלום ohev shalom ve-rodeph shalom/ – Love peace and pursue peace.

Judaism teaches: החיים והמוות ביד הלשון – Words can lead to both life and death. May Rabin live on through our memory of him and in dedicating ourselves to pursuing peace in word and deed, both for Israel and all humanity.