On Hamasim, Hamushim, and Jewish/Israeli Bravery

1. Hamas as Violence and Outrage 

I’ve spent the past few years thinking that the Arabic word Hamas (meaning “zeal, strength, or bravery”) is cognate to the Hebrew word Hamas (meaning “violence” or “outrage”), which sounds exactly the same. And there are indeed some amazing homiletic connections on that front. In this week’s parsha, Bereishit, the world is created. It sadly doesn’t take long for everything to deteriorate. In next week’s parsha, Noach, we read: (Bereshit 6:11) – (translation from Sefaria) 

וַתִּשָּׁחֵ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ לִפְנֵ֣י הָֽאֱלֹהִ֑ים וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס׃

“And the earth became corrupt before God; for the earth was filled with lawlessness (hamas)”.

Professor Umberto Cassuto comments that the word hamas is a general term for evil. The following verse speaks of how God will destroy the world due the hamas of its inhabitants. However, the Midrash teaches that the floodwaters did not rain upon Eretz Yisrael (The Land of Israel), due to its special holiness, a holiness which was apparently in place from the beginning of time, even before there was a Jewish People to live there! 

I’ve always envisioned the view of this amazing phenomenon from outer space: you’d see the entire earth covered in water, with the exception of a gigantic sinkhole in Eretz Yisrael, as if it were surrounded by a force-field! The commentaries say that the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael still all died from the environmental upheaval caused by the deluge, but they did not die from drowning, out of divine respect for the Holy Land. Still, the Holy Land’s gentile inhabitants at the time were all guilty of the sin of hamas, just like the rest of the world.

Prime Minister Netanyahu himself invoked this meaning of the word hamas, from Yeshaya 60:18, after October 7th (translation from Sefaria):

לֹא־יִשָּׁמַ֨ע ע֤וֹד חָמָס֙ בְּאַרְצֵ֔ךְ שֹׁ֥ד וָשֶׁ֖בֶר בִּגְבוּלָ֑יִךְ וְקָרָ֤את יְשׁוּעָה֙ חוֹמֹתַ֔יִךְ וּשְׁעָרַ֖יִךְ תְּהִלָּֽה׃

“The cry ‘Violence!’ Shall no more be heard in your land, nor ‘Wrack and ruin!’ within your borders. And you shall name your walls ‘Victory’, and your gates ‘Renown’”. 

Metzudat David comments that this verse refers not to the internal violence of the Jewish people in Israel, but rather to the violence from Israel’s external enemies, who will be destroyed. 

 2) Hamas as Hamush 

However, despite all of these great connections, and despite having preached on them myself for years now, some recent rudimentary internet research has led me to conclude that the fact that these two words sound identical in Arabic and Hebrew is apparently just an amazing coincidence, known as a “false cognate” (or, perhaps, a case of divine messaging). I went down an AI rabbit-hole on this, and it turns out that the actual Hebrew cognate to the Arabic word Hamas would be the Hebrew word Chamush, meaning armed, determined, or courageous. In other words, the letter “S” in the Arabic word Hamas actually corresponds to the Hebrew letter Shin, and not Samech. I actually find this quite fitting. I always found the notion that Hamas means “violence” to be a bit too on the nose, even for God. Imagine if your enemy were named something which, in your own language, translated as “The Evil Jerks”.

It would be fun to exploit that for propaganda purposes, but it would also create the danger of overly caricaturizing the enemy, would it not? Hamas are indeed a caricature of evil and violence, to be sure, but it’s precisely for that reason that it’s dangerous to just rest on your laurels and view your enemy only in that simplistic light. It’s instead more fitting when your enemy calls themselves something more noble. Something like “The Righteous Ones” or “The Good Guys”. That presents you with a challenge: to articulate why they don’t actually embody their name. And why, instead, it’s our side which does so, or at least, which strives to do so. 

Tanya Chapter 6, quoting from the Zohar, on Kohelet 7:14 – 

“On a day of good, be among the good, and on a day of evil, ponder; for God has made one corresponding to the other, to the end that man will find nothing after Him”.

The Zohar comments on the notion of “one against the other” that the Sitra Achra (The Dark Side – not just a Star Wars term, but a kabbalah term as well!) mirrors the good. For everything good in the world, there is a corresponding and twisted mirror image of evil. My rebbe Rabbi Yonasan Sacks invoked this idea after 9/11 to explain that when the good people of the world are lax in a particular positive trait, then the forces of evil will co-opt that trait and pervert it for what is bad. And so, on 9/11, the hijackers co-opted the trait of mesirat nefesh – self sacrifice – a trait in which we westerners have grown weak, and they used it for evil. I’ll never forget the tears and the emotion with which R. Sacks delivered those remarks at an assembly at Yeshiva University, only two days after 9/11. 

Shemot 13:18 says –

וַיַּסֵּ֨ב אֱלֹהִ֧ים ׀ אֶת־הָעָ֛ם דֶּ֥רֶךְ הַמִּדְבָּ֖ר יַם־ס֑וּף וַחֲמֻשִׁ֛ים עָל֥וּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃

“And God led the people round about, by way of the wilderness at the Sea of Reeds. And the Children of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt”.

One of the cutest moments I’ve ever had in tutoring a bar mitzvah boy was a few years ago when we got to this verse, and my student looked confused and said: but why would they only arm the children?? (He was reading the term “Children of Israel” to mean literally “the kids/youngsters” alone! Sadly, Hamas really does arm its children…) 

The following verse tells us that the Jews were carrying the coffin of Yosef to be buried in Eretz Yisrael, as he had adjured his descendants to do so. 

The theory for why the word “armed” is connected to the word for the number five (hamesh) is that military formations back then were typically in groups, or columns, of five. In modern Hebrew, the word for ammunition is tachmoshet, from the same root. Similarly, the IDF’s Ordnance Corps—the military branch responsible for weapons, ammunition, and combat vehicles—is called the Cheil Ha-Chimush (חיל החימוש), the Armaments Corps. And so, the word hamush means, as we used to say in my time as a chaplain in the US Army Reserve: “strapped and ready to go”. And that’s exactly how Hamas refers to themselves. As my ancestor the B’nei Yissaschar occasionally writes at the end of a particularly important paragraph: understand this well.  

3. Are we Zealous for our Side? 

The Haftorah for Simchat Torah is from Yehoshua Chapter 1, which was read throughout Israel just as Hamas was attacking on October 7th. Yehoshua 1:14 –

 נְשֵׁיכֶ֣ם טַפְּכֶם֮ וּמִקְנֵיכֶם֒ יֵשְׁב֕וּ בָּאָ֕רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֨ר נָתַ֥ן לָכֶ֛ם מֹשֶׁ֖ה בְּעֵ֣בֶר הַיַּרְדֵּ֑ן וְאַתֶּם֩ תַּעַבְר֨וּ חֲמֻשִׁ֜ים לִפְנֵ֣י אֲחֵיכֶ֗ם כֹּ֚ל גִּבּוֹרֵ֣י הַחַ֔יִל וַעֲזַרְתֶּ֖ם אוֹתָֽם׃

“Let your wives, children, and livestock remain in the land that Moses assigned to you on this side of the Jordan; but every one of your fighting men shall go across armed in the van of your kindred. And you shall assist them”. 

The Midrash comments that the word hamushim speaks to zerizut – alacrity, readiness, determination – or zeal. Just as Hamas describe themselves. The State of Israel was in a pitiful state of unreadiness that day. But in the three years since then, thank God, the people of Israel have shown a remarkable and miraculous turnaround, and have essentially defeated all of their Persian-sponsored enemies, in the spirit of Esther 9:1 –

  וּבִשְׁנֵים֩ עָשָׂ֨ר חֹ֜דֶשׁ הוּא־חֹ֣דֶשׁ אֲדָ֗ר בִּשְׁלוֹשָׁ֨ה עָשָׂ֥ר יוֹם֙ בּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁ֨ר הִגִּ֧יעַ דְּבַר־הַמֶּ֛לֶךְ וְדָת֖וֹ לְהֵעָשׂ֑וֹת בַּיּ֗וֹם אֲשֶׁ֨ר שִׂבְּר֜וּ אֹיְבֵ֤י הַיְּהוּדִים֙ לִשְׁל֣וֹט בָּהֶ֔ם וְנַהֲפ֣וֹךְ ה֔וּא אֲשֶׁ֨ר יִשְׁלְט֧וּ הַיְּהוּדִ֛ים הֵ֖מָּה בְּשֹׂנְאֵיהֶֽם׃

“And so in the twelfth month – which is the month of Adar – on the thirteenth day thereof, when the king’s order and his edict drew near to be put into execution, on the day that the Jews’ enemies looked forward to ruling over them, but it was reversed, that the Jews should hold sway over their enemies”. 

I’m under no illusion that Iran or its proxies are actually fully defeated yet. But, compared to three years ago, the turnaround in power has indeed been nothing short of miraculous.

Our enemies refer to themselves as Hamas/Hamushim – determined and eager. In accordance with the Ba’al HaTanya’s invocation of the notion of “zeh l’umat zeh” (that the evil mirrors the good), I’d say that that presents us with a direct challenge: are we as zealously hamushim, determined and ready, for the sake of our own side? 

The verse in Yehoshua 1 specifically addresses those Jews who live across the Jordan River – today we call that diaspora Jewry – and exhorts them to come fight for their brothers and sisters “between the river and the sea”, as the ignorant college morons are fond of chanting. After October 7th, I knew that it was not in the cards for me to actually go and take up arms in Israel. I decided to contribute instead by fighting on what Israel has called the eighth front, the PR war.  

Three years after they attacked us, I think that it’s incumbent upon all of us to understand how our enemies view themselves, and how we can mirror those forces of the Sitra Achra (evil) for the good. Let’s make sure that all of us Jews remain hamushim, zealous, eager, and determined to stand up for who we are. The brave heroes of the IDF are hamushim for all of Jewry in the more literal sense of being armed and ready. The least that the rest of us can do is to try and live up to the metaphorical sense of the word, in whichever ways that we can, be it just fighting the good fight on social media, or just remaining proudly Jewish and pro-Israel, even when it might be unpopular. Let’s try and recommit to all of that in this still as-of-yet newish year.