WElive in unprecedented times, and anyone who speaks with any certainty about why something did or didn’t happen or pretends to know what will happen next is only fooling themselves because only G-d Himself knows.
Nevertheless, as Rav Soloveitchik once explained, when tragedy strikes, the job of the Jew is not to ask lamah (why) but rather to ask l’mah (for what), as in, “What am I supposed to do with what I know right now?” In that spirit, the only way to begin to move forward through the fog and chaos of war is to impose a framework on whatever small part of the equation we can, and build from there.
In some distinct and circumspect areas, the law can provide such a stabilizing force, a starting point for how to respond to things we still cannot fully comprehend. An important legal development over the last week has led to a number of paradigmatic changes that both Israeli and American Jewry have a collective obligation to act on.
Hamas told the world who they are on day one of their existence: an anti-Semitic, genocidal terrorist organization. But after witnessing the scale and brutality of last week’s massacres, more world leaders are finally taking Hamas at their own word, and are therefore more willing to let Israel act accordingly.
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