I. It is infuriating. The incomplete and twisted narrative promoted by many in the media and government casts Israel’s holy and dedicated army and Jewish people everywhere as genocidal, oppressive and hateful. How can they forget who initiated the attack on October 7, including not only the “soldiers” of Hamas but the common Gazans who joined them? How dare they preach about Israel’s humanitarian responsibilities while failing to exert maximum pressure on Hamas to unconditionally and immediately release the hostages? How do they level accusations of genocide against an army that warns its targets before launching attacks? How do they highlight the destruction of homes and hospitals while ignoring the terror infrastructure embedded within and beneath them? Don’t they understand that there is only one army in the entire region that follows a moral code and reviews its actions for compliance with international law; that one side in this conflict sees civilian casualties as a tragedy while the other cynically uses them as a strategy?
Why is the plain truth so hidden from them?
II. “The outcry against Sodom and Amora is great and their sin is very grave. I shall go down now and see if they have really done as much as the outcry that has reached me, and if not, I will know.”1
The city of Sodom had a reputation of being a terrible place, inhospitable and uncaring to the extreme, where the culture of alienation persisted despite the city’s proximity to Avraham, the world’s greatest model of kindness, and even after his nephew and student Lot came to live among them. Sodom’s treatment of others had reached a boiling point, but before acting to destroy the city, G-d wanted to see it for Himself, so to speak, by sending angels posing as guests to see how they would be treated by Lot and the locals. Made aware of the plan, Avraham prayed and pleaded successfully with G-d to be as forgiving and tolerant as He possibly could and to extend compassion to Sodom if He found even a glimmer of goodness in its midst. That goodness was not to be found. When Lot followed the model of Avraham and welcomed the guests into his home, he and they faced the vicious fury of the entire city, “from young to old, all of the people from every quarter.”2
Sodom clearly deserved its fate, as it demonstrated its persistent cruelty and its resistance to being influenced by the greatest teachers and role models. Yet even as Sodom was destroyed, G-d plucked Lot from the midst of the devastation such that the righteous would not be destroyed along with the wicked. The destruction of Sodom was done with perfect justice and left no theological questions.
Sodom’s destruction should therefore presumably serve as a powerful and prominent religious symbol, vividly displaying G-d’s existence and presence and His true and unquestionable justice. Wouldn’t its story be the perfect illustrative Torah reading for the Day of Judgment (Rosh Hashanah)? Shouldn’t its ruins serve as the ultimate monument to G-d’s presence in this world? Yet while we read much of Parashat Vayera on Rosh Hashanah, we disregard this section—and the ruins of Sodom are altogether forgotten, serving neither as the location of G-d’s Temple nor as a place of pilgrimage.
Why is this rare and vivid display of G-d’s truth virtually ignored?
III. The context! Do they not realize that Israel’s occupation of Gaza ended in 2005? Do they not recognize that the checkpoints and sieges were not created to humiliate Palestinians but were a failed attempt to prevent Hamas from building its massive terror infrastructure and arsenal with the goal of destroying Israel? How dare they suggest granting a state to those who remain committed to Israel’s destruction—and do so now, as a reward for the terror of October 7? How can they hypocritically call for two states for two peoples without noting that the Jewish State will always welcome Arabs while the Palestinian territories are Judenrein? How do they call for de-escalation and ceasefires without realizing that one side will use that quiet to resume their quest to create the next revolution in artificial intelligence, medicine or agriculture, while the other will use it to rearm and rebuild its terror tunnels? How do they claim to champion peace and coexistence without noting that it is one side’s dream and the other’s nightmare?
How can they consistently ignore the full picture?
IV. “Take your son, your only one, the one whom you love—Yitzchak—and go to the land of Moriah and offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, the one that I will show you.”3
How could it be? Avraham and Sarah had waited for the birth of this child for decades. Finally, and miraculously, he was born, and it was he who would carry forward the covenant, mission and destiny that G-d had chosen for Avraham, whom He knew “would teach his children and his household the way of G-d, doing what is right and just.”4
And now G-d is asking his beloved Avraham to sacrifice his future in an act that would contradict every principle of righteousness and justice that he had taught the world! Avraham, who had always walked before G-d,5 anticipating6 and identifying with7 His every command, was being asked to do the incomprehensible. The happy outcome of Yitzchak being spared was certainly welcome, but it did not resolve the overwhelming questions that arose along the way to the mountaintop.
How can they consistently ignore the full picture?
If Sodom is where G-d and His judgment are made vividly clear, Moriah is where He and His ways are most hidden and mysterious. Yet it is the place consecrated forever as G-d’s Temple on Earth, where He will be most visible—b’har Hashem yeira’eh8—and it is the story that we read from the Torah on Rosh Hashanah and repeatedly invoke in its prayers and rituals, as the shofar represents the horn of the ram that was offered in place of Yitzchak. We may deeply admire and take pride in our forefather Avraham’s heroic willingness to sacrifice that which was dearest to Him for G-d, but is the Akeidah the fitting thing to highlight on G-d’s Day of Judgment? Avraham’s words in praying for Sodom resonate here: “What a desecration it would be for You to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous like the wicked. . . . Shall the Judge of all the Earth not do justice?!”9
V. The Israeli government, army and people are imperfect. Technical mistakes will cause their bombs to kill those they did not target, and the horror and trauma of war will even lead some of their soldiers to commit war crimes. Politicians are always complicated, security cabinets and army chiefs of staff may make poor strategic decisions, and some within the government, army and citizenry who have had enough of Arab intransigence will call for vengeance and population transfer. In the thick of an existential war with an enemy explicitly committed to its destruction, Israel has not made it a priority to clearly explain its actions or address valid issues that others consider pressing. These are the bugs, not the features, of the Israeli war effort. Yet these imperfections are repeated so often that they have become a mantra among Israel’s critics, used to characterize—or, perhaps more accurately, to condemn—Israel and the Jewish people: the nation of goodness that is a source of blessing to the world and its leader in charity, morality and faith.
It is infuriating and humiliating. The false and incomplete narratives portray the “Light unto the Nations” as a source of darkness. Klal Yisrael is defamed and disgraced. We are so very far from seeing the fulfillment of the Rosh Hashanah prayer of tein kavod Hashem l’amecha, that G-d deliver honor to His people.
VI. While Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Judgment, it is also the anniversary of Creation, the moment when G-d, in His kindness, created man in His image so that we would benefit from His ultimate goodness.10 G-d built the world on kindness,11 to offer opportunity and blessing to His creations—gomel chasadim tovim v’koneh hakol.12 G-d’s goodness is such that He wants only that which is good for us. “Remember us for life, O King Who desires life, and inscribe us for life.”13 Even as we approach Him in Judgment, we are reminded that He “does not seek the death of the wicked but their improvement so that they may live.”14
That is the truth. But is it the prevailing narrative? Already on that first Rosh Hashanah, the snake convinced Chavah that G-d was not giving but rather withholding from them the ultimate good.15 And ever since, do we believe G-d’s narrative or the serpent’s? Do Jews come to shul en masse on the High Holidays because they want to greet the King Who desires life—or because they are frightened for their lives? Do we fixate on U’netaneh Tokef because of its imagery of the caring shepherd lovingly tending to each member of its flock—or because of its dramatic and humbling depiction of G-d’s judgment? How many rabbis find their schedules filled with people wondering aloud why G-d has showered them with so much good?
Several years ago, a longtime acquaintance of mine lost his wife, Rachmana litzlan, at a young age. She had battled cancer, and one summer, while their younger children were at camp, it returned with a vengeance. The couple decided not to share the news with their children to allow them to enjoy the summer.
When the kids came home, they found their mother still very aware, very alive, but very, very sick. Upon seeing her, one of them broke down and cried, “Mommy, why does this have to happen to you? Why you?!” She held her child and told her, “You know, I have had the most wonderful life. I was blessed with you and with your brothers and sisters. I was blessed with wonderful parents, with Daddy, with good friends and many good times. When I had all that, I never questioned, ‘Why me?’ If I didn’t ask it then, I won’t ask it now.”
No, we, and the world at large, neither appreciate G-d’s goodness nor understand His judgment. The G-d of tzedakah u’mishpat stands constantly accused of being uncaring and unjust and making bad things happen to good people. The G-d of goodness, the source of blessing in the world and the source of all that is, Who models every virtuous trait, is demonized as the very opposite.
During the Yamim Noraim, we seek to restore G-d’s good name. We pray for the day when the world He created will recognize Him and celebrate His goodness, honor His people, and value all those things that will bring the righteous to rejoice. That is the world we pray for—but for now, at best, His presence in our world can only be perceived in its hiddenness. If we search for Him in the ruins of Sodom, in the transparent, perfect exercise of fairness and judgment, we will not find Him. G-d is only visible to those whose vision can pierce the cloudy mystery of the Akeidah. The Days of Judgment revolve not around Sodom but around the Akeidah—on our belief in the G-d in Whose judgment we trust even as we cannot fully understand, and in the ultimate acknowledgment of the Yom Kippur confessions, “V’Atah tzaddik al kol haba aleinu—G-d, You are the righteous one in all that has befallen us.”
VII. The central motif of our prayers on Rosh Hashanah is our hope for the restoration of G-d’s honor and kingdom in His world; on Yom Kippur, our confessions, assumption of responsibility, and pleas for His forgiveness take center stage. It is a season of rebirth—hayom harat olam—our opportunity to move from anger to trust. A time to lift ourselves out of the frustration over all the terrible things “they” have been doing to us and instead reflect on what “we” can do better: to shift from being plagued by the shame and demonization heaped upon us and focus instead on how we can deepen the world’s honor and love for G-d.
In this world, we will find G-d in the clouds hovering over Moriah that we approach in the trusting and committed footsteps of Avraham, leaving there with G-d’s blessing to him: “I will bestow My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore; your descendants shall seize the gates of their enemies; and all the nations of the earth shall find blessing through your descendants, because you have heard My voice.”16
Notes
1. Bereishit 18:21.
2. Bereishit 19:4.
3. Bereishit 22:2
4. Bereishit 18:19.
5. Bereishit 17:1, 24:38; Rashi 6:9.
6. Yoma 28a, Bereishit Rabbah 95:3.
7. Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah 10:2.
8. Bereishit 22:14.
9. Bereishit 18:25.
10. Derech Hashem 1:2:1.
11. Tehillim 89:2.
12. Opening berachah of the Amidah.
13. Ibid.
14. Yechezkiel 33:11.
15. Bereishit 3:1–5.
16. Bereishit 22:17–18.
Rabbi Moshe Hauer is executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.