God Heard Ishmael’s Cries. Have We?

God Heard Ishmael’s Cries.  Have We?
High Holidays 5785 (2024)
Rabbi Noah Gradofsky

Throughout the world, Jewish hearts will be focused during the High Holidays, as they have been since October 7, 2023, on the current plight of Israel – first and foremost the hostages who remain in captivity, but also those who were murdered, raped, tortured and more on October 7; the tremendous burden on soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces and their families; the tens of thousands of Israelis who have not been able to return safely to their homes in northern Israel; the millions of Israelis who had to go into bomb shelters as Iran sent hundreds of ballistic missiles toward Israel, the whitewashing of Hamas and Hezbollah in some circles; the cancelling of Jewish and Zionist voices on some campuses, and so on.

Over the course of the 5785 High Holiday season, countless prayers will beseech God’s assistance in protecting Israel.  Numerous sermons will argue about the importance of Israel’s existence and ask the Jewish community to stand behind the State of Israel, as does my colleague Rabbi Moshe Grussgott’s Rosh Hashanah sermon found on UTJ Viewpoints here.  I unreservedly add my voice to these cries and agree that this should be the primary focus of our High Holiday season and even our entire existence as Jews for the remainder of this crisis.

I am disturbed, nonetheless, that in the circles I travel (mostly halakhically observant circles ranging UTJ to more standard Modern Orthodoxy) I suspect little or no attention in prayer and drasha (sermon) will touch upon the plight of citizens of Gaza and Lebanon who are ruthlessly used as human shields by Hamas and Hezbollah and whose ultimate death sentence is carried out by the Israeli military.

This strikes me as contrary to our tradition.  Notably, our sages chose liturgical readings for the High Holidays that highlight God’s concern for the plight of non-Jews, even of people with real or potential enmity toward Israel.  The Torah reading on Rosh Hashanah centers on God’s hearing the cries of Ishmael (who, perhaps notably for our purposes, is considered the progenitor of modern-day Arabs).  The Haftorah portion read on Yom Kippur afternoon is the book of Jonah, which tells the dramatic story of Jonah’s successful prophesying to Nineveh, saving its non-Israelite inhabitants from destruction (importantly, Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, which was destined to exile the northern kingdom of Israel).  As my local minyan’s spiritual leader, Rabbanit Leah Sarna pointed out in her Rosh Hashanah drasha, Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 33b tells us that the rabbis modeled the cry of the shofar on the cries of the mother of the Canaanite general Sisera, who died in battle against the Israelites.

Similarly, our prayers on the High Holidays generally focus on the needs of the entirety of humankind rather than the needs of Jews in particular.  Many of the aspirations we express in our High Holiday liturgy focus not on the destruction of our enemies but on hopes an end to evil itself.  God prefers repentance to the destruction of evildoers, as we are taught, for instance, in Ezekiel 33:11, which is quoted toward the end of the Neilah service and eloquently reflected in Unetane Tokef.  Many people who during the entire year close their Amidah by praising God as “Who blesses His people Israel with peace” during the Days of Awe return to the universalistic blessing originally coined by our sages, praising God simply as the one “Who creates peace.”

This is not to say, of course, that we consider the defeat of enemies to be lamentable, at least not in the heat of battle where awaiting the enemy’s repentance is not an option.  Indeed, after Devorah’s song references the cries of Sisera’s mother, our prophetess sings “so may all your enemies be destroyed, oh LORD” (Judges 5:31).  Nor would I suggest that we allow the pain we experience for the suffering of others to crowd out our concern for the wellbeing of Israel which has far too few advocates even after October 7 laid bare the ruthlessness of her enemies.  But I feel that if we only pray for the destruction of our enemies, rather than also considering Palestinian suffering, we risk losing a part of our humanity (CF Avot 1:14).

For me, one of the most powerful moments in the High Holiday liturgy comes in the words and deeds of the sailors on the boat on which Jonah attempts to flee God’s orders.  After it is established who Jonah is, after Jonah tells them to throw him overboard, even though their mortal danger is all Jonah’s fault, they continued to try to row ashore so that they would not have to sacrifice Jonah for their own safety (Jonah 1:13).  When it was finally clear to them the only way to save themselves would be to throw Jonah overboard, they did so only after expressing their anguish at the situation:

וַיִּקְרְאוּ אֶל ה’ וַיֹּאמְרוּ אָנָּה ה’ אַל נָא נֹאבְדָה בְּנֶפֶשׁ הָאִישׁ הַזֶּה וְאַל תִּתֵּן עָלֵינוּ דָּם נָקִיא כִּי אַתָּה ה’ כַּאֲשֶׁר חָפַצְתָּ עָשִׂיתָ:

And they cried out to the LORD and said, “Please, Oh LORD, let us not perish for this person, and do not hold us accountable for shedding innocent blood, for you, Oh LORD, have done according to your will. (Jonah 1:14)

During this High Holiday season, I would not dare sit in judgment of Israel’s army, which heroically stands guard over our people.  Nor would I for a moment criticize our people’s focus on the safety and security of the State of Israel.  But as the boatsman cried out in anguish over their part in Jonah’s fate, so, too, we should express our anguish at Palestinians’ death and suffering, however necessary such suffering might be for the peace and security of Israel.  We should pray that God grant Israel’s government and army the wisdom to act so that God cannot find Israel accountable for the unnecessary shedding of blood.  As the boatsmen labored to protect Jonah, may we all work toward a world in which Israeli and Palestinian alike know that their own peace and security need not be secured at the cost of the suffering of the other.

May the Creator of peace help us find a way to peace.