A Shattered World: Trying to learn from Mishpatim in the Wake of Loss

As I write these words on Thursday morning, the bodies of four Israeli hostages have been transferred to the Red Cross, being returned to their families in Israel. Among them are the youngest of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas and associated groups on October 7th—Kfir, who was nine months old at the time of the attack, and Ariel, who was four years old then—as well as their mother, Shiri Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz, a peace activist who volunteered in an organisation helping Palestinians in need of medical care to cross the border for treatment in Israeli hospitals.

Wars are rife with tragedy, and people far from the conflict often build emotional defences to endure the anguish they bring. Yet, certain events—charged with profound symbolism—can break through these barriers, forcing us to confront the full weight of suffering. Amid a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, the deaths of two children have resonated deeply across the globe. Just as, a decade ago, images of three-year-old Alan Kurdi lying dead on a Turkish shore awakened the world to the horrors of the war in Syria, the deaths of the Bibas brothers have rekindled our awareness of the brutal toll the Israel-Gaza conflict has taken on children. The deaths of the Bibas brothers have shaken the world, as have the images of countless Palestinian children who have lost their lives in this war — the grief is universal, and our humanity demands that we feel the pain of all innocent victims, regardless of nationality.

This week’s parashah, Mishpatim, also known as the “Book of the Covenant,” provides instructions on how to build a society rooted in justice and care for all people. Among them are obligations to protect foreigners, orphans, and widows; to treat enemies with dignity and return their lost property; and the principle that punishment should be proportional to the damage, as expressed in the formula “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”[1] These are the values that have guided Jewish conduct throughout history—while practices may have evolved, the principles they embody have remained steadfast.

May our current pain for all victims on both sides of this conflict, especially children, remind us of our commitment to building the kind of society delineated by the Book of the Covenant: one in which justice prevails, in which everyone feels safe, and in which the most vulnerable receive our full attention. At the same time, may we remain steadfast in the pursuit of securing the release of all hostages, ensuring the safety of innocent civilians, and striving toward a future in which such tragedies no longer occur.

Shabbat Shalom

[1] After extensive discussion in the Talmud, the Rabbis determined that this principle guided the scale of financial compensation in each case but did not grant the injured party the right to inflict the same injury in return.