20 No. 73 JUSTICE ask your forgiveness for the many years we neglected the aspirations of the residents of the Gaza envelope. I apologize that over a year has passed, and we have not yet fulfilled the prophetic and biblical obligation to bring home “those who have been taken captive back from the enemy’s land” (Jeremiah: Ch. 31). You should know that all Israeli society is with you. I ask your forgiveness because, despite this, the hostages remain in captivity. There is a famous teaching that emphasizes the significance of each person, and his or her uniqueness. “Therefore, the human was created alone” (Mishna Sanhedrin 4:2). This teaching forms an ethical paradigm which contextualizes this entire issue. When witnesses stand in court, they are required to learn about ethical priorities. They are told of the critical importance of “laws concerning life and death;” the fear that with a single breath, one can condemn another to death. Through a lack of attentiveness, another person might die because we did not watch over them as we should have done. Whoever does not save a single person — it is as if he has committed bloodshed. Whoever does not save another is liable not only for the blood of that person, but also for the blood of all their descendants who will never come into the world. There is no way to replace another person’s uniqueness. When a king mints coins with his image, all the coins are identical. But when the King of Kings mints coins, when the Holy One, Blessed be He, created man — in His image, with His likeness, no single coin resembles another. None of us resembles our fellow person. Each and every one of us must say, “The whole world was created for that man or woman who is in captivity.” We must say: “The responsibility for their return rests upon me.” I stand before you as a witness to the profound lesson which you are teaching all of Israeli society. At the heart of the Balfour Declaration lies the word “home” — “A national home for the Jewish people.” It is as if the leaders of Zionism sought to tell us that the Israeli partnership is not just a “social contract’’ or “political agreement.” The partnership we will build here will be a “shared home,” where there is personal and ethical solidarity with every member of the household. On October 7, 2023, the home was shattered; the private homes of many of us, the national home, as well as the shared home. For the hostages, the home was not the safe place we promised them. The moral disintegration that we, as a society, have undergone and continue to undergo, is being transformed by you with the simplest response: “Yes, indeed. I am my brother’s keeper!” For a year, you have been crying out, calling, imploring us: do not engrave the “Mark of Cain” on your foreheads. We must answer actively that we are committed to being the guardians of our family, and all those who are in captivity, are there because of us. God forbid, we will bear on our foreheads — each and every one of us, and all of us as a society — The Mark of Cain. So, I stand before you and say to all of you: thank you for being here, setting for us all the proper ethical priorities of Israeli society. We need this to bring the hostages home, and we need it to have an ethical society worth returning to. n Prof. Hanoch Ben Pazi is in the Department of Jewish Philosophy at Bar-Ilan University and serves as Head of the Weisfeld Maayan Centre of Sustainability and Jewish Philosophy. His research is dedicated to modern Jewish philosophy, with a particular focus on Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Buber. His book, “Hebrew Humanism,” was published by Idra Publishers in 2023. Against the Mark on Cain's Forehead: An Address to the Families of the Hostages* Hanoch Ben Pazi * Address delivered at Hostage Square, Tel Aviv, on October 29, 2024 (in Hebrew). I
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