Redefining Evil: Hamas’s War Against Civilization

 Redefining Evil: Hamas’s War Against Civilization

Sermon by Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman

October 20, 2023

In this week’s Torah portion, Noach (Genesis 6:9—11:32), we read that the reason God decides to flood the earth and destroy all life was that the world was filled with violence. “Violence:” that’s the most frequent English translation of the Hebrew word hamas. The Amplified Bible, however, which incorporates explanations and interpretations into its translation, defines hamas as “desecration, infringement, outrage, assault, and lust for power.”

How ironic that in the last two weeks, the term has reentered our spoken lexicon. 

Now of course, hamas in the Bible and Hamas, the terrorist organization, are not one and the same. The words may sound the same, but that’s a mere coincidence.

Still, in this case, the shoe fits. In both situations, it represents evil—evil enough to break the heart, evil enough to cause destruction death and destruction.

In the past, I defined evil in context of the Biblical history of Amalek and its war against the Israelites. The Amalekites were a tribe that roamed in the Sinai Wilderness and the southern regions of the Negev, subsisting to a large extent on robbing and looting. Deuteronomy 25:17-18 describes the first encounter between Israel and Amalek. Having just left Egypt, the Israelites were weary, disorganized and not yet trained in war or self-defense. Seizing the opportunity, the wily Amalekites attacked by stealth, by night, targeting the rear of the camp. 

Attacking the weak, despondent and helpless is indeed evil—the very opposite of what we consider a sacred mitzvah. But this definition is not complete. The horrendous attack on Israel two weeks ago mandates that we redefine the term.

Orchestrated by the malicious axis of Iran, Russia and the terrorist organization Hamas, the surprise attack which took place on October 7, a Sabbath and a Sacred Day in our calendar, has so far taken the lives of over 1400 civilians—men, women, children, infants and the aged. I won’t go into detail on how they were killed. Additionally, more than 200 were taken hostage, and the estimate is that, tragically, at least half of them are no longer alive. 

But committing these atrocities wasn’t the only goal of Hamas.

When the IDF—the Israel Defense Force—fights, its main purpose is to protect Israel and its civilian population. Hamas on the other hand uses its own people as human shields. To make matters even that much worse however, is the reality that Hamas doesn’t use the Gazan population merely as human shields, but rather also as human bait. 

Hamas knew very well what would happen as a result of its vicious attack. There could be no other possible outcome but a full reckoning. As in past conflicts, Hamas expected—and even hoped—that thousands of its own population would be killed and wounded. Relying on world sympathy, Hamas has been using this tactic ruthlessly and cynically for years now. Turning the definition of oppressed on its head, the goal of Arab leaders has always been to keep their own people captive in fear, poverty and misery, and turn Israel into the victimizer. Untold millions of dollars have poured into Gaza since Hamas violently took control of it in 2007. Not surprisingly, very little of that money ever reached the Gazan population. Most of it went either to finance the luxurious lifestyle of Hamas leaders, or to purchase weapons and dig attack tunnels that reach deep into Israel proper. 

The stated goal of Hamas is to “liberate” Israel and give its land back to the poor displaced Arabs. But that, like everything else Hamas purports to be and do, is subterfuge and a lie. Their real goal is to spread the rule of radical Islam (and along the way, make its leaders powerful multi-billionaires). Make no mistake about it: Hamas is ISIS, a mutated deadly virus that will do anything—and stop at nothing—in order to reach its goal of world domination.

Last Tuesday, an explosion at a Gaza hospital reportedly left hundreds of civilians injured and dead. The world and international news organizations pounced on the opportunity to accuse Israel of this atrocity, without stopping for a moment to check the facts on the ground. Now it turns out that the explosion was caused by an errant missile fired by Hamas from a cemetery adjoining the hospital. By the way, this wasn’t the only example of this tactic. Hamas commonly uses high-rise apartment buildings, schools, kindergartens and mosques to launch missiles against Israel, hoping for the inescapable result, retaliation that would cause loss of life to its own population and the inevitable condemnation of Israel. And, of course, even more blood money to pour in, in the guise of humanitarian aid. The bombing of the Gaza hospital was the moment Hamas was waiting and hoping for. Mongering fear and horror while appealing for sympathy is how Hamas aims to spread its reign of terror. First Israel, then the rest of the world. 

Hamas does not represent the majority of Palestinians. Frankly, it couldn’t care less about them. Nor does it represent the Gazan population that they control through oppression and tyranny. In addition to murdering, kidnapping and raping Jews, Hamas is willing to kill its own people and sacrifice Gazan children for its own vile purposes. And that is what makes Hamas so evil, and that’s why Hamas has to be eradicated. 

Evil can no longer be defined only as hurting the weak and defenseless. This definition must be expanded to include the cynical use of men, women and children, infants and the aged as human shields and human bait. 

It turns out that the explanation offered by the Amplified Bible is pretty accurate: “desecration, infringement, outrage, assault, and lust for power” describe both the Biblical word hamas and the goals and methods of the terror organization that today is the very personification of that evil. 

How sad that, thousands of years after the Israelites first encountered the vicious tribe called Amalek, the Torah’s warning still remains valid today: “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God” (Deut. 25:17-18 NKJV).

Tonight we pray for the wounded civilians and soldiers, as well as the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. We pray for the souls of the innocent men, women and children—entire families—who were so brutally murdered two weeks ago, on the Sabbath, on a day set aside for holiness and rejoicing. We pray for the return of peace to the region, so that evil and suffering may be eradicated from the earth. 

Adonai ‘oz l’amo yitein, Adonai y’varech ‘et ‘amo bashalom—May God grant us strength, may God bless us with peace. Amen.

© 2023 by Boaz D. Heilman

Eradicating Evil: Israel's War Against Hamas

 Eradicating Evil

By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman

October 14, 2023

I’d like first of all to thank all of you who are here today. This gathering isn’t meant to be a political rally. We’re not here to discuss political issues—we are here to show unity and solidarity in the face of evil.

Let us not be mistaken: what happened a week ago today in Israel was not part of a regional conflict. It wasn’t tit for tat, one in a series of attacks and counterattacks. This was not merely an act of war. It was the essence of evil itself.

The atrocities we witnessed, the savage murder of over 1200 innocent men, women, children, infants and the aged, are unspeakable. They belong in horror movies or history books—the acts of barbarians and hordes that come riding across continents, slaughtering any and all who stand in their way.

The Jewish People, tragically, are not unfamiliar with terror and massacres. We first encountered it three thousand years ago, having just come out of Egypt, unprepared for war or conflict, when we were assailed by the Amalekites, a vicious and bloodthirsty desert tribe that attacked us at night, by stealth—and most treacherously, that targeted the rear of the camp, where the weary, dispirited, and sick were lagging behind.

At that time, God and Moses declared an eternal war against the Amalekites and the evil that they represented.

The Amalekites are long gone, but not so the evil. We saw it again and again, perpetrated by nations and nationalist fanatics who took the sword against us, forcing us to convert or be killed. 

The horror that was perpetrated last Shabbat was the most recent in this long line of attacks. But let us be clear: This massacre was not intended against Israel alone. It was far and beyond part of the “cycle of violence,” part of the regional conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Taking place on the Sabbath—and, most significantly, on Simchat Torah, the day set apart thousands of years ago to celebrate our Covenant with God—this was an attack against all Jews, an attack against Judaism itself.

And in truth, it was even broader than that. The massacre was meant to send a signal to the entire world: “We,” said Hamas, “are coming after all of you. Jews, Christians, and anyone else who may not be a follower of Allah,” their god. 

Who and what is Hamas? 

Hamas is the blood sister of ISIS, whose stated purpose is to establish a Muslim califate over the entire Middle East—and then spread to the rest of the world.

Hamas claims to represent the Palestinians. That is a lie. They couldn’t care less about the Palestinians. They claim to be the liberators of conquered lands—and that’s a lie too. Their true intention is to subject all lands to Sharia Law. The Jews in Israel represent only the first target on their target list of those destined for annihilation and destruction.

Hamas has always stated their intention: Their national covenant calls for the elimination of Jewish presence in Israel. For 1500 years, their version of Islam has shown its true bloody, murderous purpose in Iran and Iraq, in Yemen, Turkey, Egypt and Syria, among many other lands. 

There are those in this country and elsewhere who see last week’s massacre as the result of oppression and occupation. Those pseudo-liberals who live in ivory towers, in academia, in bastions of liberal politics, who claim to stand for freedom for the oppressed—have had their minds stolen by religious fanatics who are only too happy to teach them that pent up rage results in righteous self-defense.

But righteousness doesn’t—by any stretch of the imagination and definition—include acts of barbaric violence such as were committed last week. 

Righteousness, by any standards, does not include the indiscriminate murder of men, women and children. It does not include the desecration and mutilation of bodies. It does not include rape, beheadings and burning of babies, slitting of throats of defenseless youth, the mass shootings and setting on fire of entire families and communities. Such acts are nothing less than evil. They represent the choice some people make, to do the very worst that human beings are capable of. By the definition set by Moses and God thousands of years ago, these acts are evil.

Today is Shabbat, and we are taught not to mourn on Shabbat, but this is no ordinary Sabbath. This is a Sabbath of mourning and commemoration. It is a Sabbath of unity, reflection, and prayer: Prayers for the souls of those who were murdered in cold blood; prayers that we may forget the images we have seen, not hear again the screams of terror and agony; prayers for unity; prayers for the moral courage and strength to eliminate and eradicate evil and all evildoers.

There will yet be a time for political reckoning in Israel. The country’s leaders let Israel down. They failed us; they failed in their mission, stated over and over; they failed to demonstrate the proof of the oath we repeat: Never Again. And they will pay the price for this failure.

But this isn’t the time for that. For now, we must face the evil that was unleashed upon us. It has affected each and every one of us, regardless of nationality, religion, or political affiliation as inhumanity and evil inevitably do. 

Over the past few days, I’ve struggled both with words and with prayers. How could God let this happen again—especially on the day celebrating our Covenant with God?

The only prayer that comes to my mind at this moment is Adonai oz l’amo yiten, Adonai yevarech et ‘amo bashalom: “God give us strength, God bless us with peace.” We need to be strong. Only then will peace follow. It will take what it will take, and undoubtedly Israel will be condemned for disproportionate reaction, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Because this is the nature of anti-Semitism and hypocrisy. The world at large shows the Jews pity when we are slaughtered, but none when we hit back. That luxury—a right given to every other nation and people and nation in the world, is not one allowed the Jews.

Tragically, however, it is exactly this kind of force and strength that Israel must now show, no matter how prolific be the crocodile tears shed by pop artists, hypocritical and ignorant academics, pseudo-liberal students and hardcore anti-Semites who crawl from the swamp or occupy gilded seats of power.

Am Yisrael Chai—the People of Israel lives. Our history offers unassailable proof that no matter how many times we are attacked, exiled, humiliated and murdered, burnt alive or drowned in the deep seas, we rise up again and again. We shall rise again after this demonstration of evil and hatred too, but first we must teach the perpetrators a lesson they will never forget. It’s our moral duty and responsibility.

And so help us God. 

© 2023 by Boaz D. Heilman