"Thou Shall Not Murder"

Shabbat Zachor and Keriyat HaMegillah

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor

March 2, 2001

Regardless of which newspaper we read, regardless of the details, when the article is about Israel and the Palestinians, even when it is the Israelis whom are dead, the last words almost always are: "Of the over 400 dead in the uprising, almost all of them are Palestinians." The implications are many and are terrible: the Israelis are monstrous murders; the Palestinians are always right; and Israelis should give in to any demands that the Palestinians make; because, the Palestinians are always right. Times-Dispatch, New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, it always reads the same.

It is an ugly lie. It is convenient. The truth resists fitting into sound bytes and TV blips.

The truth is that the Palestinians don't want to accommodate to an autonomous and independent Jewish existence in the Middle East.

The truth is that, overwhelmingly, Arab casualties occur when Israelis are surrounded by masses of rock throwing Arabs, and fire in self-defense because rocks kill and maim. Even pebbles blind. Mobs of Israelis with rocks do not surround Arabs who come to work in Israel.

The truth is that Israelis keep their children home and away from harm, while the Arabs use them for media fodder. The Israelis do not fire on anyone without provocation, least of all children.

The truth is that Israeli civilians do not fire on anyone. Arab civilians have been firing into Israeli neighborhoods, at Israeli civilian vehicles, and last week plowed a bus into Israelis, military and civilians at a civilian bus stop. Has there ever been a terrorist action by Israelis in Arab cities? Did Israelis ever blow up their civilian buses aimed at killing and terrorizing civilian populations?

The truth is, that in the face of their own imminent danger, if the Israelis really used the military power they have, there would be tens of thousands dead and wounded, and not hundreds. Let anyone pick up the newspaper and read the articles indicating how many are dead anywhere else in the world and appreciate the immensity of Israeli restraint.

The real, real truth, in Hebrew, "emet l'amito shel hadavar," is that the Israelis don't want to kill anyone.

They offered more land for peace than anyone imagined.

They offered more of Jerusalem than you and I would have wanted.

They would rather live in peace.

They would rather be left alone.

They would rather if everybody conveniently forgot about them and their corner of the world.

You might remember the words Golda Meir spoke to Anwar Sadat when he came to Jerusalem. "I can forgive you for killing Jewish boys. I cannot forgive you for making Jewish boys kill Arab boys." This attitude is embodied in the name of the Israeli military: Tz"vah Haganah L'Yisrael - The Army of Defense of Israel.

My purpose tonight is to illustrate that the deepest desire of the average Israeli and of the Israeli government, Sharon not withstanding, is not only that it is the desire for peace. This true desire for peace is part of the very fabric of our existence as Jews. It is seen in the juxtaposition of the special Torah portion for Shabbat Zachor, which are Bat Mitzvah will explain tomorrow, and of the Megillat Esther, which we will read this coming Thursday night. While Megillat Esther is read as this story where we make lots of noise, it is a most serious and relevant Biblical text.

The Bible presents three generations of evil that sought to destroy the Israelite nation. The last one, Haman in the Megillah, is presented as a descendant of Agag who was the Amalekite king who lived around 1000 B.C.E., just before the time of King David. Yet the relation of the Amalekites to Israel goes back to the time of the Exodus. In the Torah it is recorded that the Amalekites attacked the rearmost section of the people, the woman and children, the most vulnerable. While Joshua led the people in defense, they were not eradicated. Evil still lived and threatened Israelite existence. Years later, at the end of the period of the judges, Samuel the Prophet, who anointed Saul as king, commands Saul in God's name, to "utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and new born, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." Saul disobeyed, and did not kill Agag and some of the animals. There is no mention of him sparing women and children. We may assuage ourselves by saying, as did the rabbis who were troubled by this episode in our history, that this was war, plain and simple, a war for survival. The Amalekites would never let Israel live, never mind, in peace. This was the ultimate war of defense. And we need to ask, after Barak's offer far beyond what Clinton had wanted, far beyond any of the left wing parties wanted, how different is this now from then?

The Israelite nation in Persia would again find themselves face to face with the third generation of Amalek ready, able and desirous to destroy them. Haman wanted to destroy all the Jewish civilians of Persia. He asked permission from Ahashverosh to destroy them all. So was the decree signed and sealed: "to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day… and to take the spoil of them for plunder." You know the next part of the story, how the plan was thwarted. But drowned out by the groggers is the fact that Ahashverosh empowered the Jews to do back to the Persians exactly as they were going to do to the Jews - kill them all, men, women and children! BUT THEY DON'T!! The Megillah records that when attacked, without provocation just because they existed, the Jews only killed their attackers, and did not harm the women and children. They did not disturb the civilian population. And "they did not lay their hands upon the plunder." Every year we read the Megillah twice, at night and on the next morning. Every year we read "ubavezah lo shalchu et yadam" - "they did not set forth their hand." In the face of the greatest provocation, their complete extermination, they did not act as would have been done to them. The source for Golda Meir's words, and the true animating force in the hearts of Israelis today, our brothers and sisters, stems directly from the Rabbinical juxtaposition of Biblical texts this week, the saga of Saul and Samuel in tomorrow's haftarah, and Megillat Esther. When you read the texts of the Bible seriously and carefully, this development and attitude is unmistakable.

And from time immemorial, excluding the wars of self-defense against Assyria, Babyonia, and Rome, the guiding light of Am Yisrael, has been the quest for Shalom, for peace.

So when you read tomorrow or the day afterwards the slanted and skewered report of events in the Middle East, remember this lesson of the Purim: the contrast between the earlier text of Saul, Samuel and Agag the Amalekite king, and the story of the Megillah, how, while empowered, the Jews of Persia did not touch a single civilian, especially the women and children. The festivity of Purim, the noise and costumes, must never mask the deep lessons embedded in the Megillah.

The Jewish people in the Diaspora and in Medinat Yisrael have always been "Ohavai Shalom" - "Lovers of Peace" and "Rodfey Shalom" - "Pursuers of Peace." While never at the cost of national suicide, I pray that a miracle will occur, soon, in these days. Meanwhile, let us always uphold and represent the honor of Israel.

Amen.