We might title this essay “On the virtue of telling the truth in prayer.”

Recently, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces hosted an event in our shul featuring Yaakov Zada Daniel, who plays Eli on the wildly popular program Fauda. Beside being one of Israel’s best actors, Daniel is trained in real life to do exactly what he does in the television program. I.e., he is a Duvdevan, one of the elite Israeli soldiers trained to infiltrate Palestinian society in order to find and fight the terrorists.

When asked about the events of Oct. 7, and thereafter, he became increasingly heated. Several times he restrained himself, reminding himself that he was in a synagogue, right outside the sanctuary, so he needed to watch his language. But eventually, as he came closer and closer to describing the horror that he and his fellow soldiers actually experienced, the language got rougher and rougher, until, sanctuary notwithstanding, the f-bombs and other curses started flying.

I thought about Daniel’s attempted restraint when reading the 12th blessing of the Amidah, which talks about slanderers, wickedness, and enemies, and calls on G-d to “quickly uproot, smash, destroy, and humble the insolent, quickly in our day.” Notice the pounding repetition of violent images; notice also the impassioned and repeated, if also stylistically clumsy, wish that it all happen “quickly.”

The masters of Jewish liturgy, the editors of the liberal prayerbooks we use, were appalled by the aggressive language. They tried to alter the text to emphasize our opposition to evil as a principle, rather than to evil people; or else simply omitted the prayer altogether; or omitting some of the more bitter and jarring phrasings.

All of that editing is easy to do in the quiet of a library or a scholar’s study. It’s a lot harder when you’re fresh out of Gaza and have seen people celebrating the death of Jewish children.

What should we learn from the choice of the classic text to be as aggressive and assertive as it is? As harsh as it may sound, the classic liturgy wants us to be aware of the full measure of bitterness we should feel when confronted with the worst humanity has to offer. It is a daily reminder of the reality of evil in the world, and a daily reminder of the need to fight it.