Shmuel Hakatan said: “If your enemy falls, do not exult; If he trips, let your heart not rejoice; Lest God see it and be displeased, and avert His wrath from him.” (Proverbs 24:17-18).
Schadenfreude, the feeling of pleasure at someone else’s misfortune, is a psychologically fascinating, and morally troubling emotion. Recent research out of Emory University indicates that there are three primary motivations for this feeling (Wang, Lilienfeld, & Rochat, 2019). One is related to self-evaluation. We feel better about ourselves when others are harmed. The second is related to social justice. We assume that the person deserves their suffering and is receiving their just-deserts. The third concerns social identity and intergroup relations. We feel better about our own group when a rival group suffers.
This Mishna, a verbatim quote from Proverbs in the name of Shmuel Hakatan, dissuades the feeling of schadenfreude, even of enemies. The message could be analyzed through the aforementioned psychological framework. Jewish ethical teachings we have encountered in Pirkei Avot and elsewhere dissuade making downward social comparisons to bolster the ego. We should aspire to rise upwards towards role-models, rather than making ourselves feel better by looking at others’ failures. We have also previously addressed in Pirkei Avot the assumption that when someone suffers it is because they deserve it, known is social psychology as the just-world hypothesis. The sages cautioned against such an outlook, particularly in advocating for avoiding judging others. Several other rabbinic teachings dissuade feelings of schadenfreude even towards enemies of the Jewish people. Perhaps most famously with regards to refraining from saying the full Hallel on the intermediary and second days of Passover out of deference to the deaths of the Egyptians.
Commentaries question the whole premise of the Mishna. How can Shmuel Hakatan just verbatim repeat a verse in Proverbs? What is he adding that the verse did not already advocate? Some suggest that he just wanted to emphasize and highlight the already stated teaching. Pirkei Avot is not just about generating novel ideas and insights, but offers strategies for inculcating values and virtues. Emphasizing and repeating even well-known ideas is of pedagogic value. Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook connects this teaching to the fact that Shmuel Hakatan was chosen to enact the blessing against heretics (Berachot 28b). It was precisely someone who was not looking to rejoice in his enemy’s downfall that was chosen to design that blessing.
This Mishna presents a second challenge in terms of its chronology. Based on other stories in the Talmud, it seems likely that Shmuel Hakatan lived in either the first or second generation of tannaim, roughly correlated with the destruction of the Temple. These sages’ teachings were generally covered in earlier chapters of Pirkei Avot. Chapter 4 of Pirkei Avot has consisted of teachings from 3rd, 4th and 5th generation tanaiim, making Shmuel Hakatan’s appearance somewhat strange.
In his Wisdom, Politics, and Historiography: Tractate Avot in the Context of the Graeco-Roman Near East, Professor Amram Tropper quotes the speculative suggestion of Zev Safrai that there may have been a scribal error in this Mishna. The previous Mishna listed four social situations where extra awareness of emotional context is necessary for effective outcomes. The last of which was a warning not to strive to see a friend “in the hour of his disgrace.” The first letters of the opening words of this Mishna, “Shmuel Hakatan Said” in Hebrew are Shin-Heh-Aleph, which can also stand for the acronym “Sheken Hakatuv Omer,” which translates as “as the verse states.” Safrai conjectures that perhaps these two Mishnayot were originally one: “Nor strive to see him in the hour of his disgrace, as the verse states, ‘If your enemy falls, do not exult…’ A later scribe misinterpreted the Shin-Heh-Aleph as “Shmuel Hakatan Omer,” instead of the originally intended “sheken hakatuv omer.” The message is to avoid the danger of schadenfreude when witnessing a friend’s disgrace and the prooftext is the verse in Proverbs which warns against schadenfreude in the context of an enemy’s downfall. Besides for the thematic linking between the two Mishnayot, this approach also solves both the direct quote challenge, as well as the chronological conundrum.
Even without taking such a provocative approach to the Mishna, the main message and practical application are aligned. The sages wanted us to avoid the ethically problematic emotion of schadenfreude. We should not revel in the downfall of others, even if it makes us feel better about ourselves, celebrates divine justice, or strengthens our group identity.
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