The rabbis of the Talmud examined the matter of honoring our parents in special circumstances. We will now explore one of these cases.

MENTAL HEALTH

The rabbis presented the case of Rab Ase, who lived with his elderly mother, who exhibited symptoms of senile dementia. Rab Ase took excellent care of her, doing whatever he could to please, honor, and avoid contradicting her. The Talmud illustrates the mother’s erratic behavior and Rab Ase’s reaction: first, she asked him to buy her jewelry, and he brought her some. Then she asked him to find her a husband. Trying to appease her, he told her he would look into it… Eventually, the situation reached a point where the elderly mother’s orders became increasingly eccentric, and her behavior grew even more erratic. Rab Ase then decided not to care for his mother “personally.” Firstly, for some reason, Rab Ase’s mother’s behavior was very dysfunctional in her son’s presence, but with other people, she behaved more calmly. Secondly, Rab Ase understood that if this situation with his mother continued or worsened, he might be forced to restrict his mother physically, something he was unwilling to do because it would be disrespectful to her. Rab Ase then hired a capable helper to care for his mother. Based on this precedent, the rabbis concluded that, in certain circumstances, a son or daughter might have their elderly parents under the care of other people.

Obviously, these are very sensitive and complex issues, and each case is entirely different from the other. It is recommended in these circumstances to consult with a rabbinical authority and a mental health professional to find the best and most effective solution for both parents and children.

It is worth noting that the fact that a son or daughter is not taking care of their parents in person does not exempt them from continuing to address their parents’ needs, visiting them, speaking to them frequently over the phone, and using all modern means of communication to maintain a strong emotional relationship with their parents.

DISOBEYING PARENTS FOR THEIR OWN GOOD

Honoring our parents includes, as much as possible, pleasing them and fulfilling their wishes. But what should be done when parents ask their children to do something harmful to them? For example: What should a son or daughter do if their father asks them to bring him an alcoholic beverage, and the child knows that the father will end up drunk? Should a child obey their father and bring him liquor, following his “wishes,” or should they refuse to please their father in this case?

The rabbis explain that in these types of circumstances, children must refuse to obey their parents for their own good. However, they must do so while maintaining the utmost respect, trying to dissuade their parents while keeping their dignity intact and maintaining a positive attitude without offending them.

Contemporary rabbis provide some other common examples. If a father or mother has diabetes and asks their child to bring them a very sweet food, or if a father asks his son or daughter to bring him cigarettes, in all cases where parents ask their children for something that may cause them significant harm to their health or well-being, children should not fulfill these requests. Once again, even in these cases where children disobey their parents for their parents’ benefit, it is crucial to maintain a respectful attitude and avoid offending, yelling at, or humiliating the parents (Yalqut Yosef, Kibbud Ab va-Em, 2, 46-60).

  הִנֵּה אֲנִי פֹתֵחַ אֶת-קִבְרוֹתֵיכֶם וְהַעֲלֵיתִי אֶתְכֶם מִקִּבְרוֹתֵיכֶם עַמִּי; וְהֵבֵאתִי אֶתְכֶם, אֶל-אַדְמַת יִשְׂרָאֵל

יחזקאל ל”ז

This is a very symbolic week, a week that represents the transition between two completely opposite historical milestones that affected the Jewish people more than any other historical event. On the one hand, this past Tuesday we cried and mourned on Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day. On the other hand, this coming Tuesday night, we will celebrate Yom ha’Atzmaut, the day of Independence of the State of Israel. Jews have suffered countless persecutions, massacres, and pogroms everywhere and at all times. However, we have never suffered as in the Shoah. Both in absolute and relative terms, there has never been such a devastating massacre as the Shoah. The Jewish people were never so close to being exterminated. At one point in 1944 or 1945, when the Nazis murdered half a million Hungarian Jews in just six months, when no one dared to oppose the Third Reich, or when Rommel was preparing the gas chambers in Tunisia to transport and gas there, the Jews of North Africa, Palestine, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. At such times we lost all our hopes. We felt we were doomed to die or we were already dead. We were buried. It was the end.

But then the greatest miracle, promised so long ago by our prophets, happened. In a span of just three years, which in the context of the history of our people is less than the blink of an eye, the Kibbuts Galuyot, the return to our land, began. HaShem took us out of our graves, lifted us, and brought us back to Israel. And from the ashes, we, the Jewish people, began to revive. More than 2500 years ago, Ezekiel (Yehezqel) had a very special prophetic vision (nebua). In this vision (Chapter 37), HaShem transported him to a valley. In that valley, there were bones. Many bones. Human bones. Probably millions of bones. Dry bones. There is nothing more dead than a dry bone. Ezekiel saw it and said nothing. And then HaShem told Ezekiel: “Son of man: Do you believe that these bones will ever come alive? And Ezekiel, in a combination of humility and surprise, replied: “HaShem, God, You would know that.”

And then, there was a deafening noise. The bones began to move, came together and formed skeletons. Veins and nerves covered the skeletons and, finally, flesh and skin. Now, they were no longer bones but bodies; dead human bodies, corpses. Then, HaShem said to Ezekiel, “Prophesy to these bodies to insufflate into them a breath of life, and let the spirit of life enter into these bodies and let them live again.” And so it was. A breath of life entered the bodies, and they stood up. It was a great army, very large. HaShem told the prophet Ezekiel, “Son of man, these bones are the house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones dried up, we lost our hope, we have been sentenced to disappear.’ So, I prophesy and say to them [Israel]: Thus said HaShem, God: behold, I will open your graves, and I will raise up from your graves, and I will bring you to the land of Israel. And it will be known that I am HaShem when I open your graves and bring you from them, My people. I will grant you a spirit of life, and you will live again. And I will lead you into your land. And you will know that I am HaShem. I have promised, and I delivered.”

It is impossible not to connect this prophecy with 1945 and 1948. In 1945, we were doomed to disappear. We were dry bones or, perhaps worse: ashes. And then, when so many Goyim thought that we had disappeared, that we would never again become a people, that all those promising prophecies would never be fulfilled, the greatest miracle occurred, just like Ezekiel saw in the valley of the dry bones. HaShem opened our graves, lifted us, and brought us back to Israel. HaShem promised, and He delivered.

יעקב בוקאי ז”ל

Tonight and tomorrow, we commemorate “Yom haZikaron”,  Israel’s Memorial Day.  We remember the heroes of Israel: soldiers, spies, and martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the establishment and continued existence of Medinat Israel.

A few years ago, I read a very interesting magazine given to me by Mr. Nathan Hasson from Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn. This monthly magazine, “MIKAN UMISHAM” writes about the Jews of Damascus (Sham) Syria, their stories, traditions, etc. One of these magazines is dedicated to the  “mustaarabim comando” (or mista’arabim), a special unit of the Israeli army that was officially formed in 1943.  Before Israel’s independence in 1948 and the IDF’s establishment, Jews living in Israel formed a clandestine army called the Hagana. The Hagana was organized to defend the Jewish colonies from the constant attacks and looting coming from the Arab population. Within the Hagana there was a military unit, Palmach, whose mission was to attack the enemy in a preventive manner and disrupt their military plans. In 1943 the Palmach organized a special elite group of espionage and counterterrorism called “The Arab Commando” or, in Hebrew, the Mustaarabim (“pseudo-Arabs”). This unit was formed by a handful of young agents and spies of Jews born in Arab countries. These young people spoke Arabic perfectly, knew the culture, and could dress and look like Arabs. In this way, they could go behind enemy lines, blend with the local population and gather intelligence information or perform special missions.

The most famous of the “mustaarabim” spies was undoubtedly Eli Cohen z “l (1924 -1965), whose espionage operations for Israel in Syria were crucial and determinant for the victory of Israel in the Six-Day War.

Today, Yom Hazikaron, I would like to share with you the stories of other younger “mustaarabim” to honor their heroism and memory.

YOSEF COSTICA

Yosef Costica was born in Damascus, Syria, in 1921. At the age of 13, he emigrated to Israel.

In 1936, the year of the great Arab rebellion, Yosef volunteered in the Hagana. In 1940 he was recruited for a special mission in Tripoli, Lebanon. Costica changed his identity and his name. He was now “Abu Nuri”, a Lebanese Maronite businessman. Costica’s mission was to report the possible coming of Nazi troops into Lebanon. Why Nazis? Lebanon was  “a French colony”, and at that time, France was under the control of Vichy, who supported Adolf Hitler י”ש.  It was expected that at any moment the Nazis would arrive in Lebanon and cross over to Israel, to deport and kill the Jews.  Costica had to watch and report on these movements to his superiors and eventually sabotage the arrival of the Nazis into Israel by any necessary means: ​​destroying bridges and roads, bombing ships or vehicles, etc.

Costica was later reassigned to reporting on the location of the city’s refineries, for which he reinvented his identity and posed as an athlete who ran several kilometers each day around the refinery facilities.  He returned to Israel on foot to bring his superiors all the information and maps they needed.

The information collected by Yosef Costica was a great service to the future Medinat Israel in the most vulnerable time of our history.

YAAQOB BUCAY

The story of this young man is quite tragic.   Yaaqob was born in Damascus in 1930, in a family of 10 children. At the age of 15, he made Aliyá, and at 16, he volunteered at the Hagana.  Bucay stood out as much for his physical condition as for his great motivation to fight and defend Israel. His name reached the Palmah commanders, who recruited him for the “Mustaarabim unit” for his knowledge of the Arabic language. Yaaqob was assigned to a very risky mission: establishing an espionage network in Amman, Jordan.  He received intensive training for 6 months. The plan was the following: in 1948, a truce had been signed between Jordan and Israel, and part of the agreement was that Israel would deliver to Jordan 450 Jordanian citizens who had crossed into Israel illegally. Yaaqob Bucay was going to infiltrate that group and pose as a Jordanian citizen, and once in Aman, he would begin to organize an intelligence and espionage unit there. The transference of Jordanian citizens took place in March 1949. But something failed, and the young Jewish spy was discovered.  Some say that his blue eyes gave him away, or his Jewish appearance, that he wasn’t able to disguise … Despite all the diplomatic efforts and the dispatch of several agents to rescue him, his whereabouts could not be found, and he could not be saved. It is thought that in the Jordanian prison Bucay, who was just 19 years old, was tortured to extract information from him. Yaaqob Bucay was sentenced to death and hanged in August 1949.

Two months after his execution, a letter written in his own handwriting arrived in Israel, in which he wrote to his superiors that he did not confess his identity or mission. “I have not betrayed [Israel]; my conscience and my heart are and will always remain faithful to you as long as I am alive.”

It is unknown where he was buried, but a monument was erected in his honor in the military cemetery of Israel, “Har Hertzel”.

יהי זכרם ברוך

THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

Yom haAtzmaut celebrates the Declaration of Independence of Israel on May 14, 1948. But that declaration of Independence was the beginning of a very painful war that cost the lives of 1% of the Jewish population of Israel … The day after Independence day, all the armies of the Arab countries began to attack the Jewish population of Israel, which at that time consisted of more or less 650,000 souls.   The story of Nissim has to do with the attack against the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Yerushalayim, the Roba Yehudi, by the powerful Jordanian Legion.   Nissim Ginni was born in Jerusalem in 1937 or 1938. It is possible that he was born in Hanuka, because among Sepharadim it is common to name a baby born on that holiday “Nissim” (miracles, alluding to the miracles of Hanuka). His father was Ytshaq Ginii, an observant Jew that came from Izmir, Turkey. His mother was Miryam Waqnin, from Morocco. Nissim had two brothers, Nathan and Meir z”l, and one sister, Chaya. Nissim studied in the Talmud Tora of the Old City. 1,600 Jews lived there at the time, in constant tension with their Arab neighbors. Jewish children suffered the permanent bullying of Arab children, but they managed very well to defend themselves.  

THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM

On May 14, 1948, when Nissim was in the 4th grade, hostilities began. The Old City was blocked, and the Jews living there were isolated, with only 200 young soldiers left and very little ammunition to defend the population. The soldiers resisted as much as they could, but many died or were captured by the enemy. The siege intensified, and there were fewer and fewer Jewish fighters left. The civilians, then, joined the efforts to defend the city. The situation of the Ginni family was not easy. The father, who had a bakery in Mahane Yehuda, was caught outside the Old City when the blockade began and was not able to enter the Jewish quarter. Nissim’s mother, blind in both eyes by a terrible illness, was in charge of her four children. Chaya, the older sister, who was 14 years old, volunteered in Bate Mahase, an improvised infirmary where a few nurses and volunteers treated the wounded. Many children, such as Nathan, Nissim’s older brother, who was 12 years old, also volunteered to help. The children brought coffee or food to the soldiers and helped as much as they could.  

THE MOST COURAGEOUS CHILD

Nissim, nine or ten years old, also volunteered. Probably due to his skills in the game of “hide and seek”, Nissim knew perfectly well all the corners, the shortcuts, and the secret passages of the Old City. Nissim was very mature, awake, and especially brave. Nissim helped the soldiers carrying weapons and ammunition from one to the other. But the most important thing that Nissim was doing was to slip away at night, avoid the enemy sight, and identify and inform the Jewish forces of the movements of the Jordanian troops. Eyewitnesses tell that Nissim often ran under a rain of Jordanian bullets to fulfill his mission, risking his life to find the Jordanian snipers. The intelligence brought by this child resulted in them being absolutely critical of the brave Jewish soldiers, and his actions saved many lives. On May 27, 1948, Iyar 19, after helping the Israeli soldiers for hours, Nissim went home to eat a hot meal. But before he could taste his mom’s food, a young man came looking for him: “Your replacement did not arrive”, he told him, “we need you at the observation post.”

SHALL I STAY HOME WHILE MY BROTHERS DIE?

When Nissim was about to leave, his mother, frightened by the sounds of the increasingly closer bullets, said: “Leave him here; outside is getting very dangerous.” Several witnesses remember what Nissim said to his mother at the time: “מה את רוצה אמא, שאני אשב בבית ואחרים ימותו”  “What do you want, mom, that I stay at home while others die?” And Nissim left.  Nissim arrived at the observation post, near the place where Yeshiba Porat Yosef stands today, next to the Kotel. In a tragic moment, Nissim raised his head, and a Jordanian sniper shot him and mortally wounded him. Nissim was taken to the infirmary of Bate Mahase, where he was treated by his own sister Chaya, who desperately tried to stop the blood. But she did not have the appropriate medical equipment to help Nissim, and the next day Nissim Ginni died of his wounds.  

THE FALLING OF THE OLD CITY

That day, after resisting heroically for 14 days, the Rabbi of the Old City of Yerushalayim, Ribbi Benzion Hazan, raised the white flag, and the city surrendered to the Jordanians. The Jordanians took about 500 Jews prisoners, and the rest of the Jews were taken out of the city. The body of Nissim and seven other deceased soldiers remained in the infirmary of Bate Mahase.    

THE BURIAL of NISSIM GINNI

In June 1967, the Israeli Army B”H reconquered Yerushalayim. An elderly Arab citizen asked to speak with the highest-ranking officer. The elder took the officer to a corner of the city and said, “The bodies of a few Jews are buried here. I buried them myself in 1948. The Jordanians wanted to burn the bodies, but I did not allow them.”   The army removed the bodies, but the fighters could not be identified. Except for one: Nissim Ginni, because he still had his baby teeth … The remains of Nissim were taken by order of Rabbi Shelomo Goren to the cemetery of the Mount of Olives, Har HaZetim. After a few years, the Israeli Army recognized Nissim Ginni as the youngest fallen soldier to have served in the Israel Defense Forces, and a plaque was erected in his memory in the Har Herzl military cemetery. See HERE

This Shabbat, we will read two sections of the Torah: Tazria and Metzora. One of the most discussed topics in these two sections is tzara’at, which is a disease or condition (neg’a) generally associated with leprosy. Once diagnosed with this disease, the individual was isolated and quarantined until their cure. The Sages learned from the case of Miriam, Moses’ sister, who contracted tzara’at, that there is surely a relationship between tzara’at and speaking ill of others, which is known as Lashon Hara, i.e., speaking badly about others. Since those who engage in the addiction of gossip and destructive speech must be “isolated” so that their behavior does not “spread” and their example does not become “normalized” in Jewish society.

We present here a brief reflection on one of the ways to avoid Lashon Hara, according to the teachings of Pirkei Avot.

“And judge every person favorably.” – “Yehoshua ben Perachyah used to say: Make yourself a mentor, acquire a friend, and judge every person favorably.”

Judging others favorably is a commandment of the Torah. Where does this commandment appear? In the book of Leviticus 19:15 it says: “You shall judge your neighbor with righteousness.” The Sages explained this important precept as follows:

There are three categories of people: the righteous person (tsadiq), the wicked person (resha’im), and the average person. The righteous person has an impeccable record of good deeds. These individuals, who are more like angels than humans, are not the majority. They will be between 1% and 5% of the total. At the other extreme, we have the true wicked people, the resha’im, those selfish individuals with bad intentions and a record that condemns them. I estimate that this is also a maximum of 5% of the total population (the book “The Sociopath Next Door” claims that sociopaths are 4% of the population). And then we have the ordinary people: all of us, who generally have noble intentions, do good things, but also have our flaws – sometimes we behave altruistically and sometimes selfishly. People with average morality will make up 90% of the population.

The Torah says:

1. To the righteous person, you must judge them with indulgence. Even if you are not sure if they acted well or badly, or when you perceive a suspicious situation but do not have all the evidence in front of you: do not condemn them in your heart. Judge them generously. Positively. Give them the benefit of the doubt.
2. To the wicked person, who already has a record of deliberately acting with evil, you cannot give the benefit of the doubt until they repent because their behavior can affect you. You must be suspicious of a truly wicked person, even when it seems they want to do something noble (we will talk more about this later).
3. And what about the average person? With most of our friends, family, acquaintances, etc., the Torah indicates that with the average person, you should judge them as if they were a “righteous person” and give them the benefit of the doubt unless you have clear evidence to the contrary. In other words, this commandment, “You shall judge your neighbor with righteousness,” should be read more or less as follows: “You shall judge your neighbor (the average person) just as you judge the righteous person (the tsadiq).” Thus, according to the Torah, we must give the benefit of the doubt to the vast majority of people!

Judging others in this way brings enormous benefits for society and individuals in material, spiritual, and emotional terms.

Firstly, because “with the same measure that you measure, it will be measured to you.” How do we want to be judged by God after 120 years? Do we expect Him to judge us severely or indulgently? Surely we want the Supreme Judge always to find an extenuating circumstance, a justification for our mistakes… The Sages explain that God will judge us with the same measure we use to judge others. If we learn to judge others with the benefit of the doubt, that’s how we will be judged by Him. And something else: not only will God judge us as we judge others, but our gestures and attitudes are usually reflected and imitated by the people around us. If you want other people to judge you indulgently, not to rush to suspect you or condemn you before having all the information at hand, then learn to judge others with the benefit of the doubt. When you give others the benefit of the doubt, you also receive it from others.

Finally, judging with the benefit of the doubt is the best antidote to avoid Lashon Hara. When we speak badly of others, it’s because we think badly of those people. Often we hear a destructive comment about another individual, and we “believe it” and repeat it, even though we may not have evidence or know the complete story and all versions of the story. If we learn this great commandment of giving others the benefit of the doubt in our hearts, we will be much more careful not to listen, not to believe, and especially not to repeat negative comments about others. This way, we will avoid Lashon Hara, and our quality of life will improve immensely.

כֹּה אָמַר ה’ צְבָאוֹת: עֹד יֵשְׁבוּ זְקֵנִים וּזְקֵנוֹת בִּרְחֹבוֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָם, וְאִישׁ מִשְׁעַנְתּוֹ בְּיָדוֹ מֵרֹב יָמִים. וּרְחֹבוֹת הָעִיר יִמָּלְאוּ יְלָדִים וִילָדוֹת מְשַׂחֲקִים בִּרְחֹבֹתֶיהָ

זכריה ח’ 5-4

There is a scripture carved in stone. It’s a quote from the prophet Zekhariah, 8:4-5. Zekhariah was a child when the Jews lived in the Babylonian exile 2500 years ago. Without their own land and without the Bet HaMiqdash, the future of the Jewish people looked very grim. They were hopeless. In normal circumstances, Jews would have naturally integrated (assimilated) into the Babylonian population and disappeared. But a miracle happened. Cyrus, the Persian emperor, was moved by HaShem (as he explicitly declared) and encouraged the Jews to come back to Israel and rebuild Jerusalem. Although the majority of the Jews chose to remain in Babel (the first but not last “voluntary exile”), thousands came back.

Zekhariah was among them. They found a completely destroyed city. Everything was ruins, ashes, and desolation. There was not even a wall to protect the city, which made living in the city a mission impossible (imagine living in a house without one of its outside walls).

But from the midst of this desolation, Zekhariah had a prophetic vision, a very unlikely scenario to happen, given the terrible conditions of Yerushalayim in his days.

This prophecy, engraved on that stone, is in Chapter 8, verses 4-5:

כֹּה אָמַר ה’ צְבָאוֹת: עֹד יֵשְׁבוּ זְקֵנִים וּזְקֵנוֹת בִּרְחֹבוֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָם, וְאִישׁ מִשְׁעַנְתּוֹ בְּיָדוֹ מֵרֹב יָמִים. וּרְחֹבוֹת הָעִיר יִמָּלְאוּ יְלָדִים וִילָדוֹת מְשַׂחֲקִים בִּרְחֹבֹתֶיהָ (זכריה ח’ 5-4)

“And now, HaShem says: I will return to Mount Zion, and I will dwell in Yerushalayim…. And once again, old men and women will walk Jerusalem’s streets with their canes and will sit together in the city squares. And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in it.”

Let us now see the whole picture: you are in Bate Mahase, reading this extraordinary verse engraved on the stone in front of you. On any given day, elders sit on a bench and children play in the street. Then you realize that you have the incredible merit of being a living witness to the fulfillment of Zekhariah’s prophetic words. You also understand that you are not just a witness of Zekhariah’s prophecy but rather the embodiment of that prophecy. You get the feeling that 2500 years ago, in his incredible vision, Zekhariah saw you.

On Monday night, the eve of the 27th of Nisan, we will begin the commemoration of Yom haShoah, the day on which we remember the brutal extermination of 6 million Jews at the hands of the Nazi murderers and their collaborators.

My parents and grandparents were not born in Europe. I come from a typical Sephardic family. On my mother’s side, my ancestors come from Syria, and on my father’s side, from Morocco. None of my close relatives were sent to a concentration camp, nor died in a gas chamber. My parents, my sisters, and I were all born in Argentina. We did not directly experience the Shoah, nor do we have survivors in our families.

I learned about the Shoah at the school I attended in my hometown of Buenos Aires, the Talpiot school on Azcuénaga Street at 700. Every year they made us watch some horrible black-and-white documentaries. So, my classmates and I learned about death trains, corpses, crematoria, and gas chambers. I will never forget that documentary that showed a group of school-age children, accompanied by a teacher, innocently entering a German army truck, from which they never emerged alive, since to expedite their murder, the Nazis directed the carbon monoxide gases inward. I cried, and a lot… for the horror that our brothers suffered at the hands of the most inhuman humans that history has known, yemach shemam.

But what I remember most, and what made my experience of the Shoah something “personal,” happened the year our principal, Mr. Eliezer Shlomovitz, z”l, invited a Holocaust survivor to speak with us (it was probably the year 1977). It is worth noting that at that time, it was not common for Shoah survivors to speak in schools.

He was an elderly man. It was difficult for him to speak in Spanish, and you could tell he didn’t have a memorized speech. Although I vividly remember the experience of hearing him speak, I am ashamed to admit that I remember all the details of his personal story. Not his name or if he thought it necessary to mention it. After telling us about his personal holocaust, how he lost his parents, his little brothers, and practically all his loved ones, and how he managed to escape from Auschwitz, this elderly man told us something like this:

“You have not personally lived through the Shoah, thank God. I think I fear that perhaps for you, the Shoah may one day become just another chapter in modern Jewish history. A history that perhaps can be refuted, questioned, or denied by our enemies. And that is why I want you to understand that the effort of our enemies to deny history is the first step in trying to repeat it. And you can never allow that to happen. It is not enough to ‘learn’ about the Holocaust. You have to be witnesses to the Shoah. All of you. Why? Because history can be denied and documents can be questioned. The only ones who can protect the memory of the Shoah are the witnesses of the Shoah. Today, you have heard my story. And you have also seen me. And you have seen my eyes… Now you carry a new and tremendous responsibility on your young shoulders. Today, you have become eyewitnesses to the Shoah. How did this happen? I will explain it to you. My eyes saw the Shoah. But they didn’t see it in black and white. My eyes saw the dark green of the Nazi uniforms, the metallic gray of their rifles, and the red of the blood of our loved ones. My eyes saw death in all its horrible colors. My eyes saw the horror that my words cannot describe. And now I want you to look into my eyes. So that from today on, you can tell others, and someday tell your children: ‘I have not seen the Shoah. But my eyes have seen the eyes that saw the Shoah. And now, my children, look into my eyes and become witnesses too.’

When he finished speaking, he rolled up his sleeve and invited us to look at his prisoner number. It was the first time we had seen a number tattooed on human skin. I approached him a little closer and forced myself to look more closely into his eyes. They were small, gray, sad, tired, and dull. There was something empty and absent in that gaze. It lacked “life.” And that was when I realized that in the tired eyes of that old man, I had witnessed a reflection, or a dark shadow, of the horror of the Shoah. And since then, I became a witness. And the Shoah became part of my personal experience.

Let us not forget. Nor allow it to be forgotten.

ובני ישראל פרו וישרצו וירבו ויעצמו במאוד מאוד ותמלא הארץ אותם

“And the children of Israel increased, and they multiplied profusely, they grew, and they became very, very powerful. And the land was filled with them ”.

I confess that I’ve always read this verse in a different way than I am reading this year. I understood this text like this: The Jews in Egypt had become a demographic threat to the Egyptians. “And the earth was filled with them”, means that the Egyptians noticed the Jewish presence everywhere. The text itself does not praise the Jews for their impressive economic achievements, but neither does it appear to criticize them. The text only mentions the facts and explains why Pharaoh decides to put an end to the growth of the Jews.
Let me now present an alternative reading of this text, especially the last words, and a slightly different conclusion.

LIVING OUTSIDE A COMMUNITY
The text begins by describing the demographic explosion and the success of the Jews (= they grew), and then it explains what the Jews did once they succeeded. When they arrived in Egypt, Jews were living secluded in the land of Goshen. They were a society of privileged foreigners. But now, probably 60 – 70 years, or two generations later, Egypt-born Jews no longer felt like foreigners but an integral part of the affluent Egyptian society. And the ghetto was now too small for them! The Tora tells us here that many Jews voluntarily left their territory – their Jewish quarter and their community– and began to scatter throughout the country (“And the land, Egypt, was filled with them”), looking for more real-state, more wealth, more power, and more influence. The ethnic or social barriers that living in a community provided, protecting them from assimilation, were now an obstacle to their progress and economic development. It was the first time — but not the last — that assimilation began to take shape as a result of prosperity and success on the part of Jews who felt that they belonged in the Gentile society.

FORGETTING GOD
While this negative reading of this text is a bit speculative, there are reasons to think that it may not be too wrong. In very different contexts, the Tora repeatedly warns the Jewish people about the “risks” of material abundance. In the book of Debarim (Chapter 8: 11-14)  the Tora describes the wealth that the Jews will enjoy in the Promised Land and then it says:  “Be careful lest you forget HaShem your God and abandon His commandments… when you have eaten your fill, and you have built beautiful houses to live in, and your cows and herds multiply, and your silver and gold have increased, and you have prospered in all that you possess … beware! Lest your heart grow arrogant and you forget HaShem your God, who delivered you from the land of Egypt…. ”.  How does assimilation begin? By forgetting God when you do not “need”Him because you already have all that you need and then more.  And when did Jews remember God? When they were poor or suffering the horrors of starvation or slavery.

FORGETTING ISRAEL
There is an additional element that might show the criticism of the Tora to the fact that Jews “filled the land of Egypt with their expansionist presence.” That is the remarkable silence of the Tora regarding the expected return of the people of Israel to their land. We all remember that Jacob’s children came to live temporarily (lagur) in Egypt: they were supposed to stay there until the situation improved and then return to the land of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!  In Egypt, God blessed them with progeny and prosperity. That should have motivated the children of Israel to return to Israel with their wealth and resettle in their ancestors’ land as consolidated people. But this verse seems to say that the Jews, once they started to enjoy a very high standard of living in Egypt, felt comfortable there and were looking to move not to Israel but even deeper to the south, into the land of the Nile.

Understood in this way, this verse seems to express the concern that the Jewish people were at risk of losing their identity and spirituality and forgoing their plans to return to Israel.

Ironically, but in a way that should not surprise us in our modern times, it seems that the one thing that “saved the Jews from complete assimilation” and finally got them to return to their land was Egyptian antisemitism.

This is the Hebrew text that inspired this interpretation of the biblical text.   

ההעמק דבר

ותמלא הארץ אתם. מהם מיבעי וכן ת״א מנהון. אבל לשון המקרא אותם. בא ללמד דלא ארץ גושן לבד שהי׳ מיוחד לישראל ומלאה מישראל לבד. אלא אפילו כל א״מ שהי׳ עיקר ישיבת עם מצרים מ״מ מלאה הארץ את ישראל. ומשמעות אותם עמם. כמש״כ בספר ויקרא י״ז ה׳ עה״פ וזבחו זבחי שלמים לה׳ אותם. והיה כל מקום פנוי שמצאו ישראל לקנות ולדור נתישבו שמה. והיינו דכתיב במכת בכורות ופסח ה׳ על הפתח הרי שהיו הרבה בתי ישראל בקרב בתי מצרים. ואע״ג שיבואר להלן ב׳ כ״ה וג׳ ז׳ שפרעה נגש לישראל ולחצם לדור במיצר כדי להשפיל דעתם. מ״מ הי׳ באופן שנשארו בקרב ערי מצרים בין בתיהם. ובא הכתוב להקדים בזה סיבת שנאת מצרים וגזרת המלכות. ומחשבת חשד מה שלא עלה ע״ד ישראל. כ״ז בא משום שבקשו לצאת מרצון יעקב אביהם שישבו דוקא בארץ גושן כדי שיהיו בדד ונבדל ממצרים כמש״כ בפ׳ ויגש. אבל הם לא רצו כן. ובש״ר איתא עוד שפסקו למול מזה הטעם שאמרו נהיה כמצרים. דאחר שקבעו דירתם בקרבם מצאו טוב להם להשתוות למצרים ולא יהיו ניכרים שהמה יהודים. ומשום זה ביאר המדרש שהפך ה׳ לבם לשנוא עמו. וכבר ביארנו בס׳ בראשית עה״פ כי גר יהיה זרעך וגו׳ אשר היא הסבה שבכל דור ודור עומדים עלינו לכלותנו בשביל שאין אנו רוצים להיות כגרים ונבדלים מן האומות

“And the land was filled with them”. What does it mean? …it comes to teach us that not only the area of Goshen, which was originally designated for Israel, was filled with them, but even all other Egyptian cities were also filled by them. This means wherever the Jews found an empty space in Egypt, they bought it and settled there. This is what is written in The Plague of the Firstborn God had to differentiate between the houses of the Israelites and the Egyptians because the Israelites [stopped living in their neighborhoods] to live among the Egyptians. Although the Pharaoh forced the Jews to live in narrow conditions to degrade their spirits, they resettled within the Egyptian cities, among their homes. This text, therefore, comes to anticipate the reason for Egypt’s hatred and decree against Israel: the suspicion that Israel harbored thoughts to betray them and take over Egypt! This was why their father Jacob wanted them to dwell specifically in the land of Goshen and be separated from Egyptians, as it says in Parshat Vayigash. But the Jews did not want that. And as a result [in order to assimilate], they even stopped circumcising themselves for this reason, saying that they want to become like the Egyptians… and not be recognized as Jews. And therefore, the Midrash explains that God turned the Egyptians’ hearts to hate the Jews.

As we have already explained in the book of Genesis, “your offspring shall be [=behave as] strangers in a land..” (Genesis 15:13): when the Jews do not behave as such, the nations stand against us to destroy us, because we do not want to be like strangers and live separated from them.