Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

No Blood on Our Hands?

Our parashah, Shoftim, ends with a chilling and admonishing narrative.

If a body of a slain individual is found in “no man’s land”, the elders/leaders of the closest city “wash their hands” and make the following proclamation:

“Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have our eyes seen/witnessed (this blood spilling)”.

While the Babylonian Talmud notes that the representatives of the city are exculpating themselves and the city of responsibility for the victim – they did not turn him away from the city when he was seeking shelter and they did not fail to warn him of an impending danger. The Jerusalem Talmud explains that they are declaring that they are not to be blamed for the murderer/killer as he was not one that they “let loose” upon society (having known his intentions/violent disposition) nor did they see him commit this act.

From the Bible through the Rabbinic tradition and to this day, Judaism teaches that while we may not be (directly) accountable for a crime, we, nevertheless, are to be held responsible.

As Maimonides says in the Laws of Murder and Preservation of Life, whenever one can save another when witnessing the perpetration of violence or knowing of an impending danger but does not do so, he/she transgresses the command “Do not stand upon the blood of a fellow human being”.

This week, Former Brigadier General of the Israel Air Force, Eliezer Shkedy, visited Emanuel school and spoke with our High School students and those of BJE, Masada and Moriah whom we were hosting. One of his most meaningful moments was when planes of the IAF flew over Auschwitz as an integral element of a memorial service for those who had perished during the Holocaust.

The Israeli Jewish pilots were flying over the same crematoria, selection platform and train tracks over which the Allied forces flew in 1944. As Amir Eshel, one of the pilots, asked:

“Why didn’t the American pilots who photographed Auschwitz bombard the camp from the air? Why, out of 2800 missions carried out by the Allied forces in southeastern Poland…was not a single mission dedicated to destroying the railroad tracks or the crematoria?…Why didn’t they bomb? Why? It drives you crazy?”

Can the Allied powers say, can the world say “our hands did not spill this blood, our eyes did not see”?

Fighter Jets Over Auschwitz – www.haaretz.com/.premium-israeli-fighter-jets-over-auschwitz-1.5332524