“We’re Jews, and we have a Jewish heart, which means that our enemies can extort a terrible price from us”
For the last week as well, the debate over the shockingly high price of the hostage release deal has raged. There’s little doubt that for all the joy at Jewish lives redeemed, the cost is catastrophic.
Hundreds of killers released to roam Yerushalayim and beyond; Hamas left standing to strut for the cameras and rule Gaza; the receding chances of ever getting all the hostages home.
After a week spent absorbing it all, the controversy has crystallized in my mind into a few familiar lines that we say every Monday and Thursday — phrases that combine ineffable Jewish sadness with staunch Jewish faith.
“Habeit mishamayim ure’eih,” we say in Tachanun per the ArtScroll translation: “Look from Heaven and perceive that we have become an object of scorn and derision among the nations; we are regarded as the sheep led to the slaughter, to be killed, destroyed, beaten and humiliated.”
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