Israel-Gaza War 5784: Shoftim – How Can We Speak of Justice?

We suffered a horrendous blow this week, yet another heart-breaking loss. Six hostages were executed by Hamas at point-blank range hours before Israeli troops found them in the Gaza tunnels. There is unbearable rage and grief in all our hearts for the murder of Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Eden Yerushalmi. Hashem yikom damam, may Hashem avenge their blood. Theirs and the blood of all who were taken in this past year.

This week’s Torah portion, Shoftim, meaning “judges,” is about justice, but how can we speak of justice in the face of such injustice? Hersh Goldberg-Polin miraculously survived having his arm blown off with a grenade on October 7th, and continued to miraculously survive more than 300 days in Hamas captivity, only to meet this fate. His parents never lost hope and were two of the most visible faces advocating for Hersh and all the captives. Only hours before Hersh and the others were executed, his mother, along with other relatives of hostages, approached the Gaza border barrier. Along with them, Rachel Goldberg called out her loved one’s name over a megaphone, hoping he would hear her. She went from strength to strength, believing she would dance at his wedding, hold his child, only to suffer this cruel blow. Speaking of justice now feels like a mockery.

Nevertheless, we persist as she persisted, as our people have persisted throughout history, in the face of the cruelest injustices. We believe in a G-d who loves justice.

Shoftim tells us how Moses enjoined the people to appoint judges and officers of the court to enforce the laws. Moses instructed the judges not to pervert justice or show partiality to any individual, but to apply the laws equally to all. In our day, South Africa has brought a case to the International Court of Justice charging not Hamas but Israel with genocide. In these days when “justice” is defined as holding people, and nations, innocent or guilty based on which group they belong to, we can only hope that the ICJ judges will not be partial to the “oppressed” Palestinians.

After speaking about impartial judges Moses uttered one of the most well-known phrases from the Torah: “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof (Justice, justice you shall pursue”). (Deuteronomy 16:19, 20)

Rabbi Bunim of Pesischa explained the repetition of the word “justice” as follows: you should not use an unjust means in pursuit of a just end. Another way of saying this is that the ends do not justify the means, a maxim widely accepted today.

Yet since October 7th, we have heard a thousand times that not only is resistance justified “when people are occupied,” but that resistance “by any means necessary” is justified. Wherever you stand on Israel’s presence in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank), the massacres, rapes, and kidnappings of that day cannot be justified. If removing not only the Israeli military, but every Israeli civilian from the West Bank were the height of justice, our Torah says that these means of pursuing it would not be permissible.

Our commentators go on to say that this concept of justice was quite unique in the ancient world. Plato, a Greek philosopher, defined justice as harmony in society, fostered by everyone having a place and knowing his place. If you were a slave, justice meant accepting your lot, however harsh. Today, many believe justice consists of knowing your “place” as oppressed or oppressor, privileged or disadvantaged. In the Jewish conception, justice means equal treatment for everyone, because all are made in the image of G-d. Furthermore, all have an equal right to life and to dignity. The Torah mandated that lashes meted out as punishment were limited, so as not to dishonor the criminal in others’ eyes. Criminals executed by hanging were not left overnight but were buried the same day. Even in death, dignity was a right.

On October 7th, there was no right to life or dignity. People were tortured and abused before, and after, being slaughtered, their agony broadcast on social media. This is what the virtuous howlers in our elite colleges and street mobs call “justified resistance.” They wouldn’t know justice if they fell over it in broad daylight.

Of course, Hamas’ invasion that day was not aimed at liberation of an oppressed people. It was a pogrom, an attempted genocide and ethnic cleansing, according to Hamas’ own words. It was an unjust goal pursued by unjust means. Injustice, injustice, they pursued.

How do we carry on in the face of injustice? In the face of evil triumphing and the world blaming Israel alone? Yesh din v’yesh dayan, there is judgement and there is a judge. When the earthly appointed judges fail us, we can only turn to the true Judge.

I cannot end without one more word about the Goldberg-Polin family. Those who listened to the powerful words of Rachel Goldberg at her son’s funeral heard the great strength and faith of our people that has allowed us to survive the bitterest injustices and cruelties throughout our history. She did not complain or rail, although she had every right to. She thanked G-d for the gift He had given her in her son. In the depths of her pain, she reached out to the other murdered hostages’ families with sympathy, reassuring them they had done all they could to save their loved ones. Finally, she asked that, just as she and her husband had striven to their utmost over 330 days to do whatever they could to help their beloved son stay strong and survive, so now could Hersh help them stay strong and survive.

This is Israel. This is the Jews. Such a people will never be defeated. May the true Judge bring us justice and an end to all sorrow, speedily in our day.