BESHALACH 5784

Person of the Year

I don’t know why I still get Time Magazine. It’s really not the news magazine it used to be. Last month I noticed that it picked as its Person of the Year, Taylor Swift. Very rarely does it pick a woman … and hardly ever is the choice an entertainer. But Taylor Swift, I’m told, is more than just an entertainer. I say “I’m told” because I’m not a “Swiftie” and I don’t know much about her.   

Yes, I know that she is not a “guy.” Obviously! Last month, after that issue came out, I was in touch with a colleague, Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg, discussing our pick for “Person of the Year.” If we did not pick a woman like her in our day and age of wokeness and DEI, we would be accused of being a misogynist, a sexist, male supremacist, anti-feminist and just a plain old male, chauvinist pig. Fortunately, the person we felt had the greatest impact on this past year and for years to come, is not only a woman, but many women—the women of the State of Israel, who this year changed their country and perhaps re-wrote history.

1^st, a little Torah on the role of women:

- a couple of weeks ago we read in the Torah (Ex. 6:14) the genealogy of the rashey beyt avotam (the heads of their father’s houses)—in other words, the heads of each of the 12 tribes of Israel. For the Reuven we are told: “the sons of Reuven, the 1^st-born of Israel were Chanoch and Fanlu, Chetzron and Charmi.” And then: “The sons of Shimon were Yemuel, Yamin, Ohad, Yachin and Tzohar.” On it goes for the 12 tribes. Did you notice that it only mentions sons? Surely they had daughters. 

- in 2 weeks the Torah (Ex. 23:4) reading will present the law of the obligation to “return a lost article.” What happens if you find 2 lost articles—one belongs to a man and the other to a woman. Whose do you return 1^st? Guess! 

- What about if 2 people are drowning—a man and a woman—who do you save 1^st? Guess! 

- And still later in the Torah (Lev. 27-8) it tells us that if a person vows to give their work value as an offering to the Temple, women are worth less than men. Yes, our Sags give explanations. But really?

It’s not just among Jews. A recent UN report indicates that 9 out of 10 people in this world have “fundamental biases” against women. And now, beginning on October 7^th, the women of Israel showed the world that it got it all wrong. As Annie Oakley put it: Anything you can do, I can do better! I can do anything better than you! It started even before October 7^th … as Hamas was planning its pogrom.

There’s a special group in the Israel Defense Force called Tatzpitanit (spotters). They’re stationed at the Gaza border and carefully watch live surveillance on cameras. The job requires great technological and intellectual skill, but few take the job because you sit for endless hours in a control room, forbidden to take your eyes off the screens in front of you. You can’t talk or eat or be distracted. Males who qualify usually take other jobs. So who’s left to do it? The women! 

For several months before Oct. 7^th, these spotters notified their superiors again and again that they had seen Hamas militants training to drive their vehicles across the border, training to murder Israeli civilians in kibbutzim, training to take over army bases, training to dismantle cameras on the border fence and even to cross back into Gaza with hostages. Time and again, no one took them seriously. Why? Because they are women—and what do they know? One of their commanders even told them: “I don’t want to hear another word about this nonsense.” The spotters on the border with Gaza were amongst the 1^st to be attacked on Oct. 7. 15 were killed and 7 taken hostage. Maybe now, we’ll listen to what women have to say!

We can learn even more from a group of young Israeli women who were woken at 6:30am on October 7^th with no idea they would be making history as the 1^st female armored tank crew in Israel—and perhaps the world—to participate in active battle. They were like the prophet and judge Devorah in our Haftorah today who went to war against the Canaanites who were attacking her people. Commander Michal later said: “We saw terrorists everywhere and I told the driver to just run them down.” They killed terrorist after terrorist running them down and shooting them. They prevented Hamas from moving further south. When one of the soldiers was asked if the terrorists knew there were women in those tanks, she responded: “You think they saw Michal’s hair sticking out of her helmet? Boys, girls what does it matter?” And that’s the whole point. Boys, girls, the women of Israel have taught us that it doesn’t matter.

The spotters and this female tank unit are truly are an inspiration. They should be an inspiration to some American women leaders who, for some reason since Oct 7^th, exhibited a lack of fortitude and principle—like the 3 Presidents of the most prestigious American universities: the Presidents of MIT, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. You saw as they testified before Congress they were asked a simple question: “Would they discipline students calling for the genocide of Jews?” … they just couldn’t get themselves to respond with the word “yes.” And suddenly all of our country’s feminist organizations like NOW, the National Organization for Women, or Women International or The Association for Women’s Rights all lost their voices. They did not speak up for the women of Israel who Hamas raped and disfigured!

Of all the trauma and suffering that Israel has gone through in the past 3 months, perhaps no moment was more painful than when Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samar Talalka were killed by fellow Israelis. The 3 had escaped Hamas terrorists and were waving white flags, but IDF troops mistakenly identified them as a threat, and the 3 hostages were shot and killed. 

All of Israel was devastated by the news. Everyone felt the pain of their families, and everyone thought of the guilt the soldiers who made such a tragic mistake were feeling. That’s when Iris Haim’s voice was heard. Iris is the mother of one of the hostages who was mistakenly killed. She recorded a message to the soldiers who were responsible: I am Yotam’s mother. I wanted to tell you that I love you very much, and I hug you here from afar. I know that everything that happened is absolutely not your fault, and nobody’s fault except that of Hamas, may their name be wiped out and their memory erased from the earth … And don’t hesitate for a second if you see a terrorist. Don’t think that you killed a hostage deliberately. You have to look after yourselves because only that way can you look after us. At the 1^st opportunity, you are invited to come to us, whoever wants to. And we want to see you with our own eyes and hug you and tell you that what you did—however hard it is to say this, and sad—it was apparently the right thing in that moment. And nobody’s going to judge you or be angry ... We love you very much.   

The soldiers sent her back a voice note: We received your message, and since then we have been able to function again. Before that, we had shut down. She sent back, Amazing, that is what I wanted. And with these words, she helped a nation start to heal their deepest wound.

After Moses sang the Song of the Sea with the Jewish People in gratitude to Gd after safely crossing the Red Sea in today’s Torah portion, Miram, Moses’ sister took the Jewish woman (Ex. 15:20) and sang their own song with drums and dances. The Midrash (Mechilta de-Rabbi Yishmael 15:20) asks, why did Miriam’s song have drums and not Moses’ song? Answer:  because their faith in Gd was greater than the men. And so the Talmud (Sotah 11b) teaches: “It was in the merit of the righteous women of Israel that Israel was redeemed from Egypt.”

My friends, it was the Jewish women that who kept our faith alive in Egypt and it was women who have always kept Jewish life going. In our generation perhaps, it will be the women who keep our Jewish community and our country going. May the women of Israel—our People of the Year—along with all other women, continue to go m’chayil l’choyil (from strength to strength) and keep the faith alive. Amen!