The Meaning of Hamas and My Son’s Bar Mitzvah

It’s a rather surreal time, especially in Israel where I am fortunate to live, to be celebrating a joyous occasion. Yet that’s what our family is about to do, as our youngest son becomes a bar mitzvah this Shabbat, and an older son gets married in two weeks.

It’s no coincidence that my son Noach, who is named after Rabbi Noach Weinberg, of blessed memory, the illustrious dean and founder of Aish HaTorah, is turning 13 this Shabbat when we read the Torah portion called “Noach.”

At the beginning of the portion the verse says, “And the earth became corrupt before God and was full of hamas” (Genesis, 6:11). In Hebrew, what does the word “hamas” mean? The Midrash, the ancient rabbinic commentary on the Bible, says that hamas means violence and murder, complete moral destruction (Breishit Rabba 31:6).

Hamas, the terrorist organization, is living up to its despicable name – at least according to its Hebrew meaning. In Arabic, in addition to being an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya – The Islamic Resistance Movement, the word means “zeal,” “bravery” or “strength.”

If God forbid you had to be in Auschwitz, who would you rather be: a Nazi guard or an inmate?

Not only do these terrorists commit barbaric acts of evil, they distort and pervert them as acts of bravery, creating moral confusion and corruption.

This Shabbat I will repeat to my son a question Rabbi Noach Weinberg, his namesake, often asked his students. If God forbid you had to be in Auschwitz, who would you rather be: a Nazi guard or an inmate?

Unfortunately, today we can rephrase the question: If God forbid you had to be in southern Israel two weeks ago, who would you rather be: a Hamas terrorist or one of the civilians who was murdered?

It’s a horrific question, but Rav Noach was making an important point, one that I want my son to digest as he becomes a bar mitzvah. There are forces of good and evil in the world. Don’t confuse the two. Don’t minimize the sheer destructive power of evil that was unleashed two weeks ago before the eyes of the world, who are already attempting to push it away, shift blame, and distort the picture.

Noach, you are engaged in a moral battle between good and evil. Dedicating your life to being good is so important it’s even worth willing to die for it. You would rather die as a good Jew in Auschwitz than survive as an evil Nazi because being good is more important than life itself. It’s choosing eternity.

The Torah gives us moral clarity. Without it, one could pervert the hamas of violence and murder and dress it up as the hamas of zeal and bravery. In a world filled with a flood of moral confusion, the Torah is our ark, our refuge. It’s what protects us.

Noach, in addition to being called up to the Torah and getting an aliyah, you are being called up to the army and deployed to serve God in the battle of good versus evil. Now that you are a young man obligated to observe the mitzvot, you are joining the ranks and need to do your part, with dedication and motivation, fueled with the realization that every mitzvah you do makes a genuine difference in bringing God’s light the forces of good into the world. Ima and I are so very proud of you, and look forward to seeing your unique contribution you will bring to the ranks of the Jewish People.

In Israel this week, President Biden said that Hamas unleashed “pure unadulterated evil upon the world. There is no rationalizing it, no excusing it. Period. The brutality we saw would have cut deep anywhere in the world, but it cuts deeper here in Israel.

October 7^th…became the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust… The world watched then, it knew, and the world did nothing. We will not stand by and do nothing again. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”

How fitting it is that in Spanish the word “hamas” has an entirely different meaning. It means: “never again.”