The Missing Letter, The Missing People

Halakha, Jewish law tells us that when one letter of the Torah is missing, the Torah is considered pasul, and cannot be read. A midrash likened the Torah scroll to the people of Israel and said that if one Jew is missing then the entire Jewish people are incomplete.

Traveling in Israel the last several weeks, I think of this midrash constantly.

Wherever I look there are reminders that the nation of Israel and therefore the Jewish people are not whole.

The moment you land at Ben Gurion airport, you see pictures of those who have been kidnapped or murdered by Hamas and their accomplices in Gaza. The photos and names of those captured or murdered are ubiquitous. Signs everywhere speak of the imperative to bring them home. Lampposts and street signs are adorned with yellow ribbons. Empty yellow chairs, some with posters of the faces of the missing are on display in shopping centers and other public places. The hourly news broadcasts either conclude or begin with a reminder that there are still those being held captive, as well as how many days have passed since they were taken from us.  One of the newscasts concludes every hour, “Lo mitraglim”, roughly translated, it means, “We will not get used to… (the situation, or life)”, and then after a long pregnant pause, “until all are returned home.”

There is no escaping that we are not whole.

Even the signs about traffic jams include a not-so-subtle message. One I have frequently seen reads, “Traffic is flowing,” meaning no delays. And then right beneath it, “Yahad nenatzeach: Together we will win”, or as I prefer to translate it, “Together we will prevail.”

Israel is navigating two moral imperatives which can lead to contradictory and conflicting approaches: the desire to redeem all the hostages and bring them home and the need to disable Hamas to ensure that it is not left in a position to be able to ever launch an attack like this again. As the saying goes, “there are good people on both sides of this disagreement.”

Israel relentlessly pursues both options simultaneously while attempting to return to a modicum of normalcy.

I cannot help but wonder why there is no outcry from the rest of the world. Taking hundreds of innocent people against their will should not be viewed as just a Jewish or Israeli problem.

What good is the Red Cross if it is little more than an Uber service shuttling freed captives from the Hamas terrorists to the embrace of their families and nation that awaits them? Why does the UN not demand the release of the hostages? Why do the nations of the world not condemn the wanton blatant and most basic violation of human rights? Why are the streets of the world not filled with demonstrators protesting the kidnappings?

Perhaps, as usual, part of the blame lies with us and our poor way of explaining things. Rather than demanding, “Bring them home”, we should be forcefully exclaiming and demanding, “Let them go!”

The difference is not just semantic. It places responsibility for the unacceptable capture and obligation to release the innocent victims where it rightfully belongs – on Hamas and the Gazans who are holding our people, who are torturing them every day, who are taunting the families of those being held.

“Let our people go!” is the refrain we should be shouting, especially at this time of year. It worked for the cause of Soviet Jewry. It worked for Moses. Let us hope at this season of freedom, it will work again, so they will know freedom, and so that the families will welcome home their loved ones, and our people will be whole and complete.