Haman, Hamas, and people questioning the Jews—there’s nothing new under the sun

Happy Purim, all Jerusalemites!

There are many, including Jews outside of Israel, who question what the IDF does in Gaza. Is that not genocide?

There are not a few learned Orthodox Jews in the US who question what Mordechai and Esther did in the Scroll of Esther. Was that not genocide?

They should know better because, although there are always exceptions, they confirm the rule that Jews are not prone to murder. There even never was a Jewish hunting society. Killing is no fun; to murder is even less so.

But doesn’t it say in the Torah that certain cities and Nations we should exterminate? And doesn’t it say in the Scroll of Esther that we killed Haman, all his family, and all our enemies, including their wives and kids?

On the latter question—No, it doesn’t say that. Let’s read it together. But first, understand why the Torah calls for annihilation and death penalties.

The Torah as a History Book

All the Rabbis agree that the Torah is not a history book. ‘Did it really happen like that?’ is an irrelevant question. The Torah is an Ethical Code. It also gives a framework to understand the moral predicaments we find ourselves in today. But it does not teach, explain, or justify history. Only, we treat the text AS IF it’s all history, but not because we are literalists. It stays a story. Scientific proof (fossils) are facts; Torah is morality. Therefore, it is silly to try to prove the Flood, the Exodus, etc.

The first thing to know about Jews and death is that Jews dislike killing humans as much as anything. This either was a reason for G^d to choose the Jews, or the text of the Ten Commandments (‘Don’t you murder!’) has made such an impression on us that we can’t get away from it anymore.

So much so that the secular PM Golda Meir said to Egyptian President Sadat, ‘Maybe, one day, we can forgive you for killing our kids, but we’ll never be able to forgive you for forcing our kids (soldiers) to kill yours.’

Purification

We notice that the Torah tells us how G^d purified humanity to improve on Adam and Eve after the sin. He waited 20 generations until Abram appeared on the scene. Only one grandson was worthy enough. Of his 12 sons, 10 seriously needed to repent to be part of the Jewish Nation. It did not take a person, a family, or a village to get things right—a whole People.

The Rabbis tell us that only 20% were worthy or willing to take part in the Exodus. The Mixed Multitude we killed after the Golden Calf. Almost all Jewish men died an unnatural death during 40 years in the desert after crying over the slanderous report by the Spies—only the women didn’t cry.

Sin after sin ends with the culprits (and supporters and bystanders) dying. Until finally, toward the time we entered the Holy Land, looking up at the copper snake (Heaven) would heal us. First, the right people had to come along. Then their descendants die and die and die. And then, finally, for purification, repentance took the place of death.

There is a Limit

The Torah comes to tell Jews (not just anyone) that certain misbehavior deserves capital punishment. Comes the Talmud, explaining the Torah, stipulating all the conditions that must be fulfilled to actually sentence someone to death. And it adds that a court that awards the death penalty more than once in 7 years is a bunch of murderers—by being not careful enough. One Sage even says, more than once in 70 years. That means that a judge who did not stop a death penalty twice in his life is like a murderer.

Exterminating a whole settlement also needs stringent conditions, as Abraham says to G^d regarding Sodom and Gomorrah. (The Rabbis disagree with the Christian theologians who claim that their sin was sexual perversion. Rather, it was wickedness, stinginess (charity was a ‘sin’), and a refusal to respect individuality—everyone had to be the same.) Just 10 righteous people living there could potentially save millions.

We don’t know if the destruction of S&G really happened because the Torah is not a history book. We only know that G^d wanted to show us that there is a limit to how much evil we may tolerate and how eager and zealous we should (not) be to execute such a Commandment.

Jews, as a group, are not only far from murder. Naively, we also find it unimaginable that others would just want to murder us. So, the Torah tells us to kill all of Amalek, the ancestor of Haman, and never forget this Commandment because we easily tend to think it’s done already, while it seems never completely over. The Rabbis tell us that Amalek is no longer a matter of heritage. It’s a group not united by genes or upbringing, and children of the greatest Nazis have converted to be very kosher Jews.

The Scroll of Esther Text

The Hebrew Bible Books after the Torah are a mixture of an ethical Code and true history. So, there too, there is no guarantee that it all happened as is written down. But some of it is clearly history—as archeologists find, over and over again.

As we read in the Prophets’ reading of Purim, the Prophet tells King Saul to destroy all of the Amalekites, men, women, children, babies, and animals. He kills all the men but spares the king and the best of the cattle. That’s how many women escape, disguised as sheep. It’s not clear how historic this is. But the lesson is very clear. Having mercy on the wicked may cost us tremendously. Just like the Prophet needed to tell King David, First, you were good to the bad, and then, you ended up being bad to the good.

The scroll of Esther seems historic, not just allegoric. It says very clearly that Haman wanted to kill and exterminate all Jews. He got permission from the Persian King to order the slaughter of all Jewish men, from young to old, babies, and women—and plunder their possessions.

Esther, after that, obtained permission for the Jews to defend themselves, kill and exterminate all the enemies and their families, and take the spoils. But what happened? Verse after verse, we read that the Jews killed tens of thousands of MEN, but they didn’t touch their possessions (or wives and children). Nothing genocide!

(The Talmud says that the offspring later would learn Talmud in Bene Barak. How can that be? My simple answer is that his daughters, who were left untouched, married non-Amalekites, and their children converted.)

In Gaza, it’s the same. So far, the IDF and IAF have killed tens of thousands of terrorists and, as much as possible, saved innocent bystanders and human shields. Not because we so much love Gazans, who almost all want us dead. But we don’t kill when we don’t need to. (NB: A teenager with a machine gun is a terrorist, not a child.) Again, no genocide whatsoever!

Jews, targeted by genocide, are falsely accused of genocide to ‘neutralize’ the crime of our enemies. There is nothing new under the sun.

A friend of mine reacted to the above with, ‘That’s a lot of justification.’ I told him, ‘That’s still nothing. You should read my justifications of Bibi!’ He was dressed up as Netanyahu in a prison uniform.

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