deserving of mercy

Dudu Topaz is an interesting person. He is an Israeli television personality. He is very popular and he seems to do outrageous things to draw people in to his show and increase his ratings.

Last night, Dudu Topaz performed an outrageous, and in my opinion stupid, stunt. Why he did it, I do not know. There does not seem to have been a point to it, other than the fact that it has not yet been done (I have no idea if that is true) and would increase ratings. It was not a test of endurance and stamina, which despite the stupidness of some of David Blaines stunts, at least they had that factor. It was simply a stunt for stunts sake.

NOTE: I did not see the stunt performed. I read about it in the newspaper this mornign on the way to work. It has been on the radio and people have been talking about it.

What was the stunt?

Dudu Topaz lit himself on fire. He coated himself with protective materials and coatings and lit the match. I am told by people who saw it that it was a very impressive display.

I do not see the attraction in this that people should run to watch his show. I even find it kind of stupid and boring. Yes, it was risky, but he took all the proper precautions (I guess it was not enough as you will soon see), so what he did was really kind of pointless and unimpressive. I would be much mroe impressed with a fascinating stunt that actually tests his skills and abilities.

Anyways, the local news have been reporting that Dudu Topaz did not come out of his stunt unscathed. He came out with an injury to his ear. He seems to have burned something, despite the precautions he took, and is undergoing examinations to determine how much damage and how permanent it will be.

People are glued to their radios listening for an update to his condition. When the radio says something about him everybody starts clucking their tongues (one of the Israeli gestures that Americans usually hate, such as the upturned squeezed fingers meaning wait a minute, the tsk of the tongue, the shoulder shrug, among others) meaning "poor guy".

Is this guy deserving of our condern and mercy? He did an incerdibly stupid act and he knew the risks involved. It is not like something beyond his control happened. He did it to himself. yes, we Jews are Rachmanim B'nei Rachmanim, but does that apply to this situation. Are we meant to be concerned with people who bring such misfortune upon themselves?

My initial thoughts were that the guy is an idiot and deserves whatever damage they find in his ear or anywhere else on his body. He does not deserve our rachmanus.

Then, as I was writing this post, the thought struck me. We are in the midst of the Aseres Y'Mei Teshuva, the Ten Days of Repentance. We are asking of Hashem every day to forgive us for our sins. In a few days is Yom Kippur when we will spend the whole day in shul fasting and praying, beseeching Hashem for rachmanus and mercy we probably do not always deserve. We will be asking Him to forgive us and change our fates/destinies/futures for good. We will be asking Him to cancel our punishments, even for punishments we brought upon ourselves by our blatant sinning.

Maybe during these Aseres Y'Mei Teshuva we should show compassion and mercy even to those not necessarily deserving of it, so we can go with a clear conscience to Hashem and ask Him to show compassion and mercy to us even if we do not deserve it.

Refuah Shleimah Dudu.