רְאֵ֗ה אָנֹכִ֛י נֹתֵ֥ן לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם בְּרָכָ֖ה וּקְלָלָֽה׃ אֶֽת־הַבְּרָכָ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר תִּשְׁמְע֗וּ אֶל־מִצְוֺת֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֧ר אָנֹכִ֛י מְצַוֶּ֥ה אֶתְכֶ֖ם הַיּֽוֹם׃

“See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing, if you obey the commandments of your God יהוה that I enjoin upon you this day;”

 

At every junction, and along every path we take, there are blessings and curses. Moses warns Bnei Yisrael of exactly this binary in preparation for entering the Land. The people will walk between the two fateful mountains – Mt. Gerizim, the mountain of blessing, and Mt. Ebal, the mountain of curses – an apt metaphor for life and the tumultuous and contentious events in Israel this past week. It was as if this verse from this week’s Haftarah portion was written for this exact moment:

כִּֽי־בְשִׂמְחָ֣ה תֵצֵ֔אוּ וּבְשָׁל֖וֹם תּוּבָל֑וּן הֶהָרִ֣ים וְהַגְּבָע֗וֹת יִפְצְח֤וּ לִפְנֵיכֶם֙ רִנָּ֔ה וְכׇל־עֲצֵ֥י הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה יִמְחֲאוּ־כָֽף׃ (ישעיהו נה:יב)

Yea, you shall leave in joy and be led home secure.
Before you, mount and hill shall shout aloud,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:12)

Some find this type of binary thinking unhelpful. I suggest, however, that we view it as a way to approach this moment (and life itself) to find balance as we work to multiply our blessings and root out life’s many curses.

Blessing:

There is no greater blessing than receiving a loved one back from captivity. On Tuesday the entire country and many around the world rejoiced with the surprise news that Kaid Farhan al-Qadi, a 52-year-old Bedouin-Israeli and father of 11 from the southern Bedouin village of Khirbet Karkur, was rescued from a tunnel in Gaza.

In a cavalcade of honking, Farhan al-Qadi was brought home to his village for a great celebration. Much was written about the imagery of Israeli soldiers risking their lives to save a Bedouin Muslim man. A security guard at the factory of a Negev Kibbutz-al-Qadi, he was shot and abducted for refusing to disclose where “the Jews” were as Hamas approached him while working on October 7. After his rescue, the image of a kippah-donned doctor standing over his bedside made waves throughout the Arab world.

The message was clear. This war is not about Arab vs. Jew or Israeli vs. Palestinian. This is about those who act with humanity and those who don’t.

Curse:

With every blessing, there seems also to come a curse. Al-Qadi spoke of a hostage who was killed and died before his eyes. That hostage was identified as 86-year-old Nir Oz resident, Aryeh Zalmanovich. Many will recognize him from the Hamas video made and released in January of Zalmanovich in captivity as well as another soldier’s body discovered in the recesses of the underground tunnels.

In case there was any doubt, the rescue of al-Qadi shed light on the true curse of Hamas. In a critical New York Times report, Ephrat Livni reminded us (bringing up an expose from November): “These underground discoveries after nearly 11 months of war show just how elaborate and extensive Hamas’s tunnel network has turned out to be. Some of the tunnels are hundreds of miles long, according to Israeli, Hamas, and U.S. officials.”

Making sure that those tunnels and others will not be rebuilt has become a critical issue in the cease-fire negotiations being mediated between Israel and Hamas. Mr. Netanyahu has said he wants some Israeli troops to continue to patrol the Philadelphi Corridor that runs along the Gaza border with Egypt to prevent Hamas from rearming after the war or rebuilding tunnels to and from Egypt.

This is a stark reminder of what this means for Gaza and Palestinian society. The exposure of the vast and intricate tunnel network that snakes deep below the surface of Gaza puts front and center what many have been saying for years – that every resource, every dollar, every bag of cement, all building materials, tremendous amounts of gas and fuel, have not gone for the benefit of the ordinary Palestinian citizens of Gaza but have been stolen by Hamas to create their terrorist underground network.

As we say in Talmudic language, פשיטה. This ought to be obvious. But the sad reality is that so many choose to ignore this truth. Those who are pushing for increased humanitarian aid to the hundreds of thousands of suffering Palestinians are not wrong to do so, but this week’s hostage rescue in the underground tunnel maze re-surfaced the point.

Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure is a scandal of international proportions.

How can those who champion the Palestinian cause and demonstrate their concern for the plight of Gazans not be enraged at this display of neglect, impoverishment, and theft of vital and massive humanitarian resources meant for the Palestinian people? This fact, however, does not excuse Israel or the international community from providing vital aid for Gaza’s Palestinians, as there’s no question that their dire situation is extensive and immediate. But it should show that there has been far too little outrage from the world, especially in the progressive community, regarding the detrimental effect that Hamas’ long-term industry to build a terrorist infrastructure has had upon the Gazan population.

It is understandable why PM Netanyahu – who let it be said, gave a green light to Qatar’s suitcases of cash flow openly for years to Hamas – now insists on a continued IDF presence in patrolling the Philadelphi route that controls the Lincoln tunnel-esque passageway from Egypt to Gaza.

Curse:

Israel is tasked with weeding out terrorism, from the Iranian proxies of Hamas and Hezbollah and at home. Israel ought to be weeding out Jewish terrorism also in the West Bank against Palestinians and Palestinian villages, a homegrown curse if ever there was one. Attacks on Palestinian villages by extremist settlers are multiplying, and the assailants are rarely apprehended or prosecuted. This uptick in rogue militant violence by Jewish extremists is happening because they are operating with a strong tailwind from their extremist representatives in the governing coalition –Ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Betzalel Smotrich and their ilk.  An IDF investigation into a deadly terror attack carried out by some 100 Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Jit earlier this month has found that troops who arrived first at the scene did not act as expected to stop the assailants, according to recently released findings.

National Security Minister Ben Gvir’s insistence on both ascending the Temple Mount and publicly declaring the fact that he prayed there – in violation of the established status quo arrangement with the Muslim Waqf (who oversees all activity on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Shariff) – could be the spark that ignites greater violence around Israel and the region at large. While Ben Gvir may be seeking spiritual fulfillment at this sacred site, I do not believe that is his main motivation (to put it mildly). Rather, it is out of his desire to instigate greater violence, openly display Jewish dominance, and stick a finger in the eye of the Palestinians and the Muslim world who are incensed by this showing of disrespect.

The author of Deuteronomy would have us understand that if we adhere to God’s laws and essentially follow the rules, we will be rewarded with continual blessings. But if we don’t, we will be cursed. This week reminds us that we are God’s partners in this work and that it is our actions that can continue to bring blessings. Our failure to act, or when we act wrongly, will result in curses. As we go forward into the month of Elul and begin our process of introspection and repentance, let us ensure that our actions continue to bring us blessings. And let us commit to speaking out loudly and clearly against those whose actions bring curses.

Shabbat Shalom.