For Being a Jewish Mother

I read Israeli news a lot, so unfortunately I’m a bit desensitized like most people to crimes and tragedy. My husband who grew up in Israel in the 90’s and early 2000’s (during the time of the Intifadas and the Second Lebanon War) is even more so, despite being extremely sensitive and caring. However, the tragedy last week hit a raw chord within me and I felt so heartbroken for the woman who passed away on the road to delivery.

The Torah states, in the parsha we read in shul this past Shabbos, that the young should stay with its mother for seven days before being sacrificed, and never shall it be killed or shechted on the same day (Vayikra 22:27-28). The way Torah treats animals is an understatement, or preview, in regards to how much it values human life. We are blessed with such an ethical code to guide us in compassion, as we can sense in these pesukim, and morality. Even with the goal of serving Gd in the Mikdash, we are commanded to act with extra caution and care in our treatment of His creations.

Credit: Chaim Abramowitz. Farmer birthing a mother dog with eight puppies (Jackson, NJ 2025).

What happened last Wednesday night was eerily reminiscent of how Gd cannot let two precious humans, a mother and a baby, go at the same time—the Ultimate display of rachmanus.

After Tze’ela Gez succumbed to her wounds, her baby was delivered via emergency C-section and survived. The pasuk specifically states שור או כשב או עז כי יולד if an ox or lamb or goat is born, והיה שבעת ימים תחת אמו, for seven days the young shall stay under its mother, ומיום השמיני והלאה ירצה לקרבן אשה לה׳ and from the eighth day on, it shall be desirable as a sacrifice through fire to Gd.

I saw this tragedy as a mother protecting her son—תחת אמו, in her precious womb—and instead of sacrificing him to Gd, she sacrificed herself through the fire of gunshots and terror. The lengths to which a mother is willing to sacrifice herself for her own children, and her cries to Heaven on their behalf, are like none other.

Certainly this year, as desensitized as we are to daily bits and current events, we have read over and over again of a mother’s fight for her child in captivity, for her cries and sacrifices, for going out at all lengths to save her son and daughter—and above all, her prayers tearing through the gates of Heaven. In addition to the tears of all those mothers who have lost their sons in war or fear they won’t return.

Nothing can compare to a mother’s love for her children. And nothing can elevate this woman even more after her inconceivably awful yet holy korban—a woman who taught people how to live after trauma and fiercely loved her children inside and outside the womb.

יהי זכרה ברוך.