Free Palestine from Whom?

Upon his arrest for the fatal shooting of Israeli two embassy staffers, Yaron Lishinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. the assailant declared, “free, free Palestine.”

Of course, if the assailant was truly concerned with freeing “Palestine” instead of killing Jews, he would advocate for the removal of Hamas and a change of  the  prevailing Palestinian culture which celebrates the terror.    Gaza has been a Palestinian state in all but name since 2005 when Israel withdrew from the strip.  But instead of building a “Riviera on the Mediterranean” Gazans elected the terror group Hamas, which proceeded to divert much of the vast international aid it has received for the purposes of terror.  Unfortunately, Hamas’ behavior has demonstrated that Abba Eban’s cliche about “never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity” still rings true. 

The brutality of Palestinian culture will only change when they learn the lesson of the Akedah, the binding of Isaac. God prevented our mutual patriarch Abraham, from sacrificing his son on Mt. Moriah, to teach that those who are in positions of authority, have an obligation to care for- not exploit- those over whom they have authority.  In other words, with power comes responsibility, those who abuse their power will eventually be humbled. 

In fact, King David was humbled twice for his abuse of power. The more well-known incident was the first, his adulterous affair with Bat Sheva and the murder of her husband, Uriah the Hittite. The second incident appears later in David’s life and involves a census he took of the people. The exact nature of David’s transgression is unclear. It has been suggested that David sinned by having the people counted directly instead of requiring a half shekel from each person who was counted. The idea being that rather than passively counting people, we want those who are being counted to actively contribute. It has also been suggested by Professor Micha Goodman that David’s order to have a census taken was an act of arrogance, for David simply wanted to revel in the number of people he ruled over. 

Regardless of what exactly David’s offense was, he attempted to avoid suffering the consequences of his sin by passing them onto his subjects. In other words, instead of sacrificing for the people, he expected them to sacrifice for him. The prophet Gad told the king that he would suffer a penalty but would be allowed to choose from three different penalties as to which he would suffer. The choice of penalties were seven years of famine, being pursued by his enemies for three months or three days of pestilence. Early on when David realized he had sinned, he had asked God to ha’avar, pass on his guilt. When presented with this choice of penalties, David saw his opportunity to pass on his guilt to others by not choosing to be pursued by his enemies, which would have affected him but not his subjects directly, but rather, three days of pestilence which would affect his subjects directly. That is to say, his subjects would become his whipping boys and suffer on his behalf thereby cleansing the king of the stain of his sin. 

However, as soon as the plague began and the king witnessed 70,000 of his subjects perish, he proclaimed, “I alone am guilty, I alone have done wrong; but these poor sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand fall upon me and my father’s house!”

Immediately, David was commanded by the prophet to “Go and set up an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite,” which is located on what would soon become the Temple Mt.  Once David was able to internalize the lesson on the Akedah, that you are to sacrifice for those over whom God has granted you charge over, not the reverse, he demonstrated that he now understood the meaning of true leadership. Now the king was ready to lay the foundation for what would become God’s house, the Temple. In order to emphasize this point, Rabbinic lore teaches that Mt. Moriah and the Temple Mt. are one in the same. Clearly, the message is, you draw closer to God through giving of yourself, not compelling others to sacrifice on your behalf. 

This Monday, we will observe two holidays which remind us of the importance of leadership and sacrifice. Sunday night going into Monday, we will celebrate Yom Yerushalaim which celebrates the 1967 reunification of Jerusalem which put the Temple Mt. back into Jewish hands. On Monday we will also commemorate Memorial Day. In both cases, we honor the sacrifice of those who led the way by putting the needs of the community above their own. Because of their sacrifice, we remain free. 

Hamas leaders living in luxury in Qatar who use their people as cannon fodder, clearly, have not yet come to appreciate the message of the Akedah, but instead pervert their religious teaching at the expense of those whom they rule over.

Peace will only be achieved when the Palestinians learn the message of the Akedah.  God willing, may that day soon come.