At the rally for Israel on Monday at the Boston Commons, there were two clarifying moments. When Senator Markey called for de-escalation, he was loudly and roundly booed. When Congressman Auchincloss observed that Israel did not ask America to de-escalate on 9/12, he was loudly and roundly cheered. What is that about? 

Last Shabbat was the worst day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. This week is the worst week for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. The prayer we say about Nazis on Yom HaShoah applies with equal force to Hamas. It is as if it were written for Hamas. The obscene and ongoing barbarism, savagery, cruelty, inhumanity of Hamas raises a question: what do we do with the hatred that can take root in our own soul as a result of Hamas’s evil? 

Consider the Haftarah for Shabbat Zachor, wherein God commands genocide: 

           Thus said the Lord of Hosts: I am exacting the penalty

           for what Amalek did to Israel, for the assault he made upon them

           on the road, on their way up from Egypt. Now go, attack Amalek,

           and proscribe all that belongs to him. Spare no one, but kill alike men

           and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and

           asses! I Samuel 15:2-3.

What did you think of this Haftarah before this week? What do you think of this Haftarah now? 

I get hatred. I get the desire to exact revenge. But what does that do to our soul? In response to the Harvard students who “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” Rabbi

Israel has an unquestionable right and responsibility to protect Israeli citizens and rescue hostages. How do we destroy our enemy, while not becoming like our enemy? How do we destroy our enemy, while preserving our soul?