Before the rescue, there was no sorting
In an ordinary encounter, do I recognize the person before me—or first decide which category of people he belongs to?
Learn the source
After Abaye teaches that a person should increase peace with every person, the Gemara says of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai: “No person ever greeted him first, even a non-Jew in the marketplace.” The detail is not merely that he answered with courtesy. He moved first.
That first greeting does something quiet but exact. Before biography, group or usefulness enters the calculation, it acknowledges the person standing there. The Gemara gives us no permission to judge another person’s heart; it gives the learner a bechinah in his own derech eretz.
What happened
Israel held its state ceremony for the civilians murdered on October 7 at the Mount Herzl memorial for victims of terror on October 5.
President Isaac Herzog centered part of his address on Route 232, where people fled the massacre while civilians, soldiers, police and rescue personnel also moved toward the danger to save others.
He said the rescuers did not first sort the strangers they helped by community, prayer or politics; The Jerusalem Post and N12 independently reported the remarks.
The Jerusalem Post · State memorial for October 7 victims and heroes · 5 October 2026 ↗N12 · Israel’s national memorial day for October 7 · 5 October 2026 ↗
Return to the news
Driving toward the killing on Route 232 is not comparable to saying hello in a marketplace. The scale and danger must remain different. Yet the memorial testimony reveals one shared moral movement: the rescuers did not make another person’s claim on them wait for a category. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai’s first greeting trains that movement at ordinary scale. Before I know a person’s circle, opinions or usefulness to me, I can acknowledge the person. This is not a verdict on anyone’s courage, nor a demand to enter danger. It is a bechinah for the safe hallway, shop or shul: do I first recognize a human being, or first decide where he belongs?
Stay with the thought
We should not make an easy equivalence. Saying shalom in a marketplace is not driving toward murderers on Route 232. The danger, courage and cost must not be reduced to a neat lesson for somebody else.
But the memorial preserved one movement worth carrying home: those rescuers did not make another person wait while they settled which circle he belonged to. The person came before the category. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai brings that movement into the safe scale of an ordinary day—not with a dramatic speech, but by being the first to greet.
A hallway, shop or shul gives us smaller tests. I may know how someone dresses, votes, davens, speaks or disagrees before I have actually acknowledged him. The first greeting does not erase differences or settle arguments. It refuses to make basic human regard depend on winning them first.
Berachos 17a · Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai ↗The Jerusalem Post · State memorial for October 7 victims and heroes · 5 October 2026 ↗N12 · Israel’s national memorial day for October 7 · 5 October 2026 ↗
Take one thing with you
Greet one person first today whom you would normally pass. Let the greeting arrive before your category, agenda or assumption about the person does.
A reflection, not a personal halachic ruling.Sources & reporting notes 3 references
- The Jerusalem Post · State memorial for October 7 victims and heroes · 5 October 2026 ↗
Report published October 5, 2026 at 14:14 Israel time and updated at 14:40. It records the second Mount Herzl state ceremony and President Herzog’s description of Route 232 as a road of horror and rescue. The report says people drove toward danger to save strangers. Torah Lens does not treat a memorial speech as a complete historical record of every rescue.
- N12 · Israel’s national memorial day for October 7 · 5 October 2026 ↗
Live report published October 5, 2026 at 10:55 and updated at 14:40 Israel time. It independently records the civilian memorial ceremony beginning at 14:00 and reports Herzog’s account of rescuers who went toward Route 232 without sorting the people they helped by community, prayer or politics.
- Berachos 17a · Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai ↗
Exact approved corpus excerpt, checked in context. Following Abaye’s teaching about increasing peace with every person, the Gemara describes Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai as greeting others first, including a non-Jew in the marketplace. The application is limited to one’s own ordinary greeting and regard for people. It does not compare a greeting to a rescue, infer anyone’s motives, or establish a new obligation. English is Torah Lens’s rendering; textual verification is not rabbinic approval.
Hebrew passages are quoted sources; English renderings are our own. The event connection and suggested reflection are Torah Lens’s application. Prepared with AI assistance. Rabbinic supervision has not yet been established.