Is There Any Atonement for the Mass Killing and Destruction in Gaza?
I have two divrei Torah to give these High Holy Days. The second will be on how progressives are givng the settlers and their supporters victory on a silver platter However, the first is regarding the question whether there is any possible teshuvah for the mass killing of children and other non combatants in Gaza, and the flattening of cities. Some will call it genocide and ethnic cleansing. I have always avoided using such words, preferring a description of human rights violations rather than labels. I would rather discuss the facts than how we label them. While what we are doing in Gaza most definitely fits the definition of genocide according to international law, the average person doesn’t know international law. When the average person hears “genocide” s/he thinks of the popular definition of genocide – the attempt to physically annihilate an entire people. We are not trying to do that. But, we will “cleanse” the entire Gaza strip if the world allows us. And, the fact is that thousands of children and other non-combatants are dead because of our bombs, and others by starvation. Entire neighborhoods have been flattened. Some will twist and turn to say that what we have done and are doing is justified, and that can be debated. On the one hand, I don’t think it matters much to the dead children whether or not we call what we are doing genocide or simply “the mass killing of children.” But in light of what we wrought, I also have to acknowledge that my reasons for not using the term genocide have become increasingly weak.
Whatever label or lack thereof we want to give to the fact that our bombs have killed thousands of children and other non combatants, that I know from soldiers who have been in Gaza that the policy is that any Palestinian found in an area we have ordered them to leave is to be killed, that entire cities are being flattened and that it is questionable whether statements that forcing Gazans to leave the northern Gaza strip is to be temporary is masking the true intent that expulsion be permanent, the question is whether there can be anything we can do to remove this stain on Israel and on the Jewish people, or is it indelible?
Before exploring the question as I will below from Jewish sources, I will already give my answer. I am not sure that there can ever be total atonement for our collective responsibility for what we have wrought. But the only possible even partial redemption will be if a significant portion of the Jewish people in Israel and abroad take concrete non violent and legal steps beyond words and pointless demonstrations that could actually change Israeli government policy. We must do what so many throughout history failed to do when their society was committing atrocities. We must be different. Benefiting from the democratic privileges most of us still enjoy here in Israel and in many of the countries where Jews live abroad and recalling that Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught “In a free society some are guilty but all are responsible,” we must take meaningful and potentially effective action. I am not sure if there can be atonement for those who knowingly sent the bombs and denied food delivery and didn’t allow Gazans to fish and who knowingly flattened cities and infrastructure and erased all red lines in the name of self defense that will not even bring us the peace and security we deserve from a terrible enemy. I am not sure that there can be atonement for those who are “merely” responsible, but the importance of stopping the killing even at this late point is even more important than whether it will redeem us. In so doing, we might just also save the lives of of our hostages and of our soldiers as well.
Almost anything can be justified if we try hard enough. In the Mishna Torah Maimonides defines a war against a nation that has attacked us (as we were cruelly attacked on October 7th) as a Milkhemet Mitzvah, an obligatory war. We are nevertheless obligated to offer terms of peace before war, and are to avoid killing women and children, but we are permitted to kill all of the men and take women and children as spoil if they don’t accept subjugation and paying tribute. I have no desire to subjugate Gazans or the entire Palestinian people, although we largely have already. However, were we to at least observe Maimonides’ prohibition on killing women and children…..
As I have often written, closer to my moral sensibilities is the principle in Tractate Sanhedrin 74a that we are permitted to kill those attacking us, but must not kill an innocent person even to save our own life. I believe this must be our moral standard whether those who have attacked us are Jews or non-Jews, and despite the fact that Sanhedrin refers to individuals rather than to wars. I have also written in the past that I might find myself challenged if I believed that violating this principle would bring us the peace and security we deserve, but it will not.
The world would be better off if Hamas would cease to exist. All the evils of the Occupation do not justify October 7th. But were we to kill every member of Hamas, something as bad or worse would arise as long as we continue to rule over and oppress Palestinians. As we learn in Tractate Ta’anit 16a, we cannot ritually purify ourselves from having touched a dead lizard has long as we are holding on to the lizard. In our case, the dead lizard is the Occupation.
In Hilkhot Teshuvah (The laws of answering God’s Call, turning and returning to our truest and highest selves), Maimonides lays out several requirements for atonement. The first is that we recognize and admit our sin.
כָּל מִצְוֹת שֶׁבַּתּוֹרָה בֵּין עֲשֵׂה בֵּין לֹא תַּעֲשֶׂה אִם עָבַר אָדָם עַל אַחַת מֵהֶן בֵּין בְּזָדוֹן בֵּין בִּשְׁגָגָה כְּשֶׁיַּעֲשֶׂה תְּשׁוּבָה וְיָשׁוּב מֵחֶטְאוֹ חַיָּב לְהִתְוַדּוֹת לִפְנֵי הָאֵל בָּרוּךְ הוּא
If a person transgresses any of the mitzvot of the Torah, whether a positive command or a negative command – whether willingly or inadvertently – when he repents, and returns from his sin, he must confess before God, blessed be He, as [Numbers 5:6-7] states: “If a man or a woman commit any of the sins of man… they must confess the sin that they committed.”
Obviously, those who justify the massive killing of non-combatants and the destruction in Gaza will never confess their sin because they do not believe they have sinned. For that reason alone, there can be no atonement for them according to Maimonides. They won’t confess.
What about those of us who understand that what we are doing in Gaza is terribly wrong, but haven’t done enough to stop it? Maimonides, based on Mishna Yoma writes that when we have harmed fellow human beings it is not enough to confess and to ask God for forgiveness. There can be no atonement without obtaining the forgiveness of those we have wronged and making restitution. What restitution can ever be made to a family whose child has died of starvation or under the rubble? How can we ask for forgiveness from entire families that no longer exist?
According to Maimondes there are sins for which confession plus Yom Kippur can bring about atonement, sins for which confession and suffering or punishment bring about atonement, and those for which confession can only bring about atonement after our own death. There must be a fulfilled commitment not to commit the same sin if the opportunity arises.
But Maimonides does believe that there are sins for which there is no atonement.
In Chapter 3 of the Laws of Teshuvah, Maimonides also gives a list of sins that are so great that there is no forgiveness:
וְאֵלּוּ הֵן שֶׁאֵין לָהֶן חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא אֶלָּא נִכְרָתִים וְאוֹבְדִין וְנִדּוֹנִין עַל גֹּדֶל רִשְׁעָם וְחַטָּאתָם לְעוֹלָם וּלְעוֹלְמֵי עוֹלָמִים.
The following individuals do not have a portion in the world to come. Rather, their [souls] are cut off and they are judged for their great wickedness and sins, forever:
I don’t necessarily accept everything as true because Maimonides says so, and therefore can’t fault those who disagree with me for doing the same. There are items on his list I would judge less harshly, but the lists includes bloodshed and causing the many to sin. We can twist and turn to absolve ourselves of responsibility. We can correctly hold Hamas responsible for the war crime of embedding itself in a civilian population. We can argue that Hamas is responsible for denying food to its population. We cannot deny that even if Hamas has us over a barrel because of what we would have to do to defeat them, that our continued warfare is causing the blood of massive numbers of non-combatants to be shed. Those responsible for our policies are causing the many to sin because we are all complicit. And I have received testimony from soldiers who were in Gaza that the unwritten order is to kill anybody who is found in an area in which Palestinians were ordered to evacuate. Then commanders who have propagated this unwritten understanding have caused the soldiers underneath them to sin.
What about countries? Would Maimonides agree with Heschel that an entire country or nation can be sinners sharing collective responsibility for what their people are doing?
Yes.
Maimonides writes:
“Each and every person has merits and sins. A person whose merits exceed his sins is [termed] righteous. A person whose sins exceed his merits is [termed] wicked. If [his sins and merits] are equal, he is termed a Beinoni.
The same applies to an entire country. If the merits of all its inhabitants exceed their sins, it is [termed] righteous. If their sins are greater, it is [termed] wicked. The same applies to the entire world.
If a person’s sins exceed his merits, he will immediately die because of his wickedness as [Jeremiah 30:14] states: “[I have smitten you…] for the multitude of your transgressions.”
Similarly, a country whose sins are great will immediately be obliterated as implied by [Genesis 18:20]: “The outcry of Sodom and Amorah is great….
In regard to the entire world as well, were its [inhabitants’] sins to be greater than their merits, they would immediately be destroyed as [Genesis 6:5] relates: “God saw the evil of humanity was great… [and God said: `I will destroy humanity….’]”
This reckoning is not calculated [only] on the basis of the number of merits and sins, but also [takes into account] their magnitude. There are some merits which outweigh many sins as implied by [I Kings 14:13]: “Because in him, there was found a good quality.” In contrast, a sin may outweigh many merits as [Ecclesiastes 9:18] states: “One sin may obscure much good.”
The weighing [of sins and merits] is carried out according to the wisdom of the Knowing God. God knows how to measure merits against sins.”
I hope that Maimonides is not correct that our actions as a country could bring about our Israel’s obliteration, but we Israelis are members of a country that has committed and is committing sins for which there is no forgiveness. The well known Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard has written that we Israelis are part of a mafia crime family, “ The criminal, felonious, unforgivable project of Gaza’s destruction is an all-Israeli project. It could not have happened without the cooperation – whether through active contribution or silence – of all parts of Jewish Israeli society” (Haaretz August 31st 2025)
I would add that this is not just an indelible stain on Israel, but on Judaism and the Jewish people.
Sfard concludes, “Together we must fight our family by every non-violent means. Follow the path of Abraham, who, according to midrash, smashed the idols his father worshiped; of Moses, who rebelled against his adoptive Egyptian family to lead a people of slaves to freedom; and of all the prophets who rebuked the sinful people and the criminal kings. In today’s terms: support refusers, encourage international investigations and call for sanctions and political isolation. To push in through the feet what will not go in through the mind and heart, to preserve an island of human values, and above all – to stop the annihilation of Gaza.”
Our actions cannot be merely actions that provide a salve to our conscience such as demonstrations that have no real impact given that our government seems practically impervious to public opinion. I confess that iI am not sure what we actually can do that our government can not ignore. The strike called by the families of hostages lasted only one day. It might be easier for individuals to stop making all non-essential purchases. If enough of us did that, the government would need to react. What if those of you abroad would put all of your planned contributions to Israel in escrow funds not to be transferred until Israeli policy changes?
We are collectively committing acts for which there is no forgiveness and no portion in the world to come for those who have committed them. If there is to be any redeeming ourselves as a country, as a religion and as a people from what we are all responsible, we must tip the scales through acts of effective effort to change Israeli policy. If the world does not wish to bear responsibility, it must do the same.
