Parshat Noah: the beauty and the robber

 

Once, there was an apartment building in a tough neighbourhood.  Some families in the apartment building were honest. They obeyed the law. They would not steal from anyone.

Some families in the building did not obey the law. They were not honest. They were thieves. They stole from their neighbours. But because they cared about what those neighbours thought, they only stole when no one was looking.  

Other families were not so subtle. They didn’t steal when you turned away. They didn’t steal at night. They stole during the day. They stole openly, often with violence.

These violent families didn’t care what you thought. They didn’t care what you saw. They were robbers. They cared only about themselves. They cared only about what you could give them.

They were dangerous. They didn’t just steal from you. They wanted you to know they were stealing from you. They wanted to see your face when they stole from you. Sometimes, they wanted to steal from you and harm you.

If you lived in that apartment building, you could not avoid the robbers. You could not avoid the violence.

Sometimes, the violent families turned your building into a war-zone. Then, every moment outside your apartment was life-threatening.

One family in that building was particularly vicious. The parents were violent. Their children were worse.  

This violent family lived next door to a hard-working family whose only daughter was beautiful. The oldest son of the vicious family wanted her.

The oldest son set out to get the beautiful girl. He did it according to his family’s ways. He’d stalk the girl. He’d grab her. He’d push her. He’d corner her and threaten her. He’d tell her what he wanted to do to her.

He wanted her. But she would not let him touch her. Every time he tried, she’d slap his face.

The oldest son of the vicious family lived according to his family’s moral code. This code was based upon the ideals of right and wrong: it was his right to take whatever he wanted and wrong for you to resist. He could not understand why she would reject him.

But he did understand violence. He understood that if you refused him it was his moral duty to become violent. He simply could not understand how the beautiful girl could be violent towards him. How could she do that? He was her spiritual superior. He had rights. He had entitlements. She did not.

He hated her. He hated her resistance. He was not accustomed to being denied by those beneath him.

He lusted for her. So when she refused him, he became violent.

He attacked her brothers. He assaulted her parents. He hissed at her that she belonged to him—and him alone.

Still, she refused.

He attacked other families in the building. He blamed the girl for the attacks. He went to the building Condo Committee. He told them he wanted peace. But the girl beat him, unjustly. She refused him. Her brutality meant peace was impossible. His peace, he said, was the Committee’s moral duty. There would be peace when he got the girl.

The Condo Committee went to the girl’s family. They told the parents they must give their daughter to the robber.

The beautiful girl’s parents agreed. They reasoned that the vicious son might indeed be a violent robber. But he was justified because their daughter behaved so unjustly.

The poor boy had no choice.

The beautiful girl feared for her safety. She feared for her life.

Her parents pleaded with her. “We have no choice,” they told her.  “You must give him what he wants. Otherwise, we will have no peace.”

The violent son returned to the Condo Committee. He reminded them, “I only want peace. Give me the girl. I don’t want your property. I just want her.”

As he left the Committee meeting room, he stopped in front a woman. He eyed her pocketbook. He punched her in the face and stole the pocketbook.

The beautiful girl is Israel. The Condo Committee is the United Nations. The parents are Israel’s Left. The robber is the Arab.

How dare we say the Arab is the robber? We dare it because of the Arab himself.

The most popular Arab group that loves to hate Israel has given the Arab a name he loves. He uses that name to promote a world-wide Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood’s goal is to eradicate Israel.

The Arab’s self-chosen name is his identity. That name has meaning. We know the meaning from this week’s Torah portion, Noah.

The Arab calls himself, Hamas. The Hebrew word, ‘Hamas’, appears in Tanach (Breisheit, 6:11), when G-d tells Noah that He will destroy the world because it has filled with Hamas.

Hamas means’ robbery’--the kind that will destroy the world.

That is how the Arab defines himself.