As I was walking through the grocery store on Tuesday, a five-year-old child ran past me, playing with a dinosaur toy and pretending to have it eat food from the shelves. As I watched this little child wander the aisles alongside his father, completely lost in his own world, I felt a pang of longing for my own children to be young again, when they too were quite oblivious to their surroundings and just enjoyed the moment.
And then, as I got in line to pay for my groceries, I thought of the Bibas children, of tiny Kfir and Ariel, two boys who should be two- and five-years old today. I thought about the fact that they too should be enjoying the world around them, laughing and exploring and safely oblivious to any horror that adults around them may know of.
On the morning of October 7th, 2023, Kfir, Ariel and their parents Yarden and Shiri were kidnapped from their home on kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas terrorists and then shuttled into Gaza. While Yarden came home on February 1st, reports are now telling us that the rest of his family are dead. The bodies of Kfir, Ariel and their mother will supposedly be returned to Israel tomorrow.
There is no moral justification for the kidnapping and murder of a nine-month-old baby and a four-year old child. There is no moral universe where Hamas’ actions make any sense.
As I stood in line in the grocery store thinking about that young child playing with his dinosaur toy, I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of sadness. The innocence, the carefree joy of childhood – it is something so precious, something that should never be taken from any child. A child’s world should be one where everything feels safe, where the biggest concern is whether a toy dinosaur will eat food or not.
But as I thought about Kfir and Ariel, two little boys who should be alive today, playing and growing, the stark contrast was overwhelming. Instead of laughter and exploration, their young lives were stolen by evil.
There is no rationalizing or justifying the horrors committed by Hamas. No ideology, no cause, can ever explain or excuse the kidnapping, torture, and murder of innocent children. The evil that Hamas embodies is thus not just a threat to Israel, but to humanity.
This week, we read Parashat Mishpatim in the Torah, a portion concerned with the creation a world rooted in justice, compassion, and the protection of the vulnerable. Hamas’s actions are the opposite of these values. They represent a threat to every child’s right to grow up in peace, to every family’s right to live free from fear.
We must act to ensure that such evil does not persist, that this kind of terror does not continue to destroy lives. The world must stand united in the fight against Hamas and all forces that seek to harm innocent children. We cannot allow such evil to flourish in any corner of the globe.
For the sake of every child, whether it be that little boy in the store with his dad or Kfir and Ariel who should be alive, for the sake of every child, we must work to rid the world of Hamas.
