How Long Must We Tolerate This Outrage?!

Ein milim -There are no words. Yet our only way to communicate our disgust is with words, as inadequate as they are. Every person of good conscience and morality, regardless of their religious or geopolitical persuasion, has been sickened and disgusted by Hamas’ actions in the Bibas family so-called hostage release. While every “release” to date has been a sorry and sordid spectacle, this one was the most egregious of all, designed to torture, torment and humiliate. Not satisfied with murdering babies Ariel and Kfir, ages 4 years and nine months at their abduction and their mother Shiri, the Hamas subhuman barbarians then pulled a heartless, shocking bait and switch, substituting an unknown female corpse for that of Shiri. Shocking and horrifying, but to those who have seen, heard and experienced all of Hamas’ horrors, not surprising.

Then, while other hostages were released on Saturday, (why always on Shabbat??)two more young men were kept in a vehicle, literally feet away from freedom, to torture them with the taste of liberation, only to whisk them back into captivity. And before their release, other Jewish captives were forced to debase themselves and “kiss” their captors. What is going on here? Why Hashem, are we facing this humiliation on top of the unspeakable death and destruction? How does one process such cruelty? What should be the Jewish response, or better yet what should be the Jewish expressions of power to prevent such humiliations from recurring? Our blood boils, our anger kindles, white hot. We must do something to end this humiliation!

Let us turn to an earlier hostage situation recorded in the Torah. Dina, daughter of Leah and Yaakov was kidnapped and violated by Shechem, prince of the region in what is today, the land of Israel, in the city of the same name Shechem, called Nablus by the Arabs of today. Upon hearing this, Dina‘s brothers, all of them (except for Binyamin, who was not yet born), are “extremely angry, for he (Shechem) had committed an outrage -nevalah- in Israel…such a thing may not be done!” (Bereishit 34:7).

We know the rest of the story. Through subterfuge and guile the brothers, speaking as one, turn the tables on Shechem and his entire family and townsfolk, seemingly offering to make peace in exchange for their entering the covenant of circumcision, the brit mila, only to have Shimon and Levi slaughter every male, as they lay aching in pain from their circumcisions, rescue Dina and bring her home. Yaakov, who has been uncharacteristically quiet throughout the whole ordeal, admonishes his sons and specifically the leaders, Shimon and Levi not because what they did was wrong, but says to them, “you made life difficult for me with our neighbors, how are we going to continue to live here?” The same two brothers respond defiantly “ha-kezonah yaaseh et achotenu- should he treat our sister like a harlot?“ (34:31).
They are incensed at even the mere thought that they should not have acted thusly. The treatment of their sister was a nevala, an outrage!

No response from Yaakov to this retort by sons Shimon and Levi is recorded, although later on his deathbed, Yaakov will curse their anger, although not their act. (49:5–7). While multiple commentators, meforshim disagree as to the extent of why the actions by Shimon and Levi were legitimate, whether violations of Noahide law or an act of outright aggression against the entire nation of Israel, by Shechem, his family and townsmen, they all agree it was justified. Nevertheless, they also justify Yaakov’s curse of their anger, for it is “a rage of conspiracy, too intense and too harsh“(ibid).

This suggests a more disturbing thought. Chazal tell us in the Eleh Ezkera midrash that we recite on Yom Kippur, that the execution of the 10 great Holy Sages by the Romans is an atonement for our collective sin of the sale of Yosef by his brothers; a sin, the brothers never clearly did teshuva for.
On the face of it, this seems like a monstrous notion, that our greatest Mishnaic and Talmudic sages, those who provided our understanding of the oral law, and the framework for Rabbinic Judaism would die in the most heinous ways for sins committed by their forbearers. In fact, the idea is so outrageous that the Eleh Ezkera itself records, the angels beseeching Hashem : “how can you destroy these Holy Saintly souls?” Where upon G-d, brooking no question or dissent, answers “one more more word and I will end the entire world”. That is because no rational explanation would suffice. To our meager understanding, this is an act that G-d allows and only He knows and understands the reasons why.

An argument could be made that a similar lack of our understanding could be applicable to our current situation in Gaza. Though it is profoundly difficult, in fact impossible to comprehend the reasons for our horrific national and personal tragedies from the kidnappings, murders, tortures, rapes, the entire onslaught since October 7, we know that our lack of ahavat achim, and in fact actual sinat achim was a painful contributory factor. Could the humiliations we are currently experiencing be the consequence of and ultimate atonement for the actions of Shimon and Levi? No, not their actions against Shechem and Company. These were completely justified in confronting their enemy who had so mercilessly kidnapped and raped their sister. Trickery and deceit was justified as was the slaughter of those who had committed this vicious, unprovoked outrage upon their family and upon their nation. So what was their sin that provoked Yaakov‘s condemnation?

Could it be the fact that Shimon and Levi acted alone? They did not consult with Yaakov or their other brothers, but acted impetuously and angrily. Every verse before that from the beginning of the Dina story, talks about Benei Yaakov the Sons of ‪Jacob as one unit, speaking with one voice (34:5,7,13). But then on day three after the Brit, they alone of the brothers, went out and slaughtered Shechem. They did not act with unity or honor. It’s even evident in the language of Yaakov‘s deathbed “blessing” of both of them at the end of his life. (49:5–7). He declares “klei chamas m’chairoteihem- their weaponry is a stolen craft”, meaning they learnt the sword not from Yaacov but from Eisav (Rashi). Once again we encounter that biblical word Chamas, which means robbery and violence and is so laden with the same sound and meaning as the dreaded implacable name Hamas of today. This time, however, it refers to our Shimon and Levi! They acted alone, in secret conspiracy, “b’sodom- keeping their plan hidden from their father and brothers. Why? Were they embarrassed? Did they feel it was too deceitful and underhanded?

Yes, destroy your enemies but consult and unite with your brothers, “b’yachad nenatzeach!”

As we will once again appreciate, with the advent of Purim in 2 short weeks, the way to ultimately defeat our enemies and to remove the cherpa , the humiliation, and the nevala, the disgrace, is that we must act united as a people. Before she embarked on the campaign to enlist the aid of King Achashverush to defeat Haman, Queen Esther tells Mordechai to “gather all the Jews together-“Lech knos et kol hayehudim”(Esther 4:16). In unity is our strength and our victory.

Hasn’t that been the lesson of this entire war? Isn’t the reason that this war befell upon us, is because we were anything but united before October 7?

So a few simple steps:
•Today that means we should forbid hostage release on the Sabbath to prevent future Shabbat desecration.
•No more public parades and festivals humiliating our loved ones.
•And no more doing “drip drip drip” of hostage releases. Release them all at once! Enough already!
Otherwise, there will be “hell to pay,” led not by Shimon and Levy alone but by all of us together.

Shabbat Shalom.