What a difference a Shabbat makes…  It’s been three weeks since Israel was attacked and brought into war once again. We gathered at our shul for a special time of prayers, and another time on Shelter Island with 80 people coming to show support. We said the Blessing for Israel and Mi Sheberach for IDF soldiers.

It was just on Yom Kippur that we prayed together — who will live and who will die — On Yom Kippur, the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, Jews were battling themselves in the center of Tel Aviv, interrupting the most sacred prayers. Our enemies recognized our vulnerability. Our Teshuvah, Tzdaka, and Tefillah were blemished and did not avert the harsh decree. We read the story of Jonah, how a whole city was saved. Not in our case. My cousin, who is blind, said to me: “Good thing I can’t see, just hearing about it makes me cry.”

While we celebrated the Torah on Simchat Torah, suicide terrorists perpetrated a sadistic civilian massacre. Hate against humanity. In their attempt to dominate and create a culture of submission, they demoted themselves from human to subhuman. Not freedom fighters, but of darkness. As Rabbi Akiva asked, as he was being tortured to death by the Romans, “Zot Torah veZe sechara?” Is this the reward for keeping the Torah?

We don’t know G-d’s calculations, but we do know that G-d destroyed the world with the flood of Noah because of chamas — the Hebrew word in the Parasha of Noah that translates as violence. After the flood, G-d established the Seven Noachite Laws, setting a minimum bar for human conduct on this earth. No matter where the political border lies, we now know the line that separates us: We don’t act like this.

It feels like the prophecy in the Torah of a future circumcision of the heart, as though part of our heart has been cut off. However, the bloody cut will heal into a covenantal scar, which will say: “We are not like them.” These barbaric acts are the difference between us. Then, seeing the two rows of burnt cars on the road to the nature party, where more than 300 people were hunted, reminded me of Brit bein habaitarim — the Covenant between the parts that G-d set before Abraham.

This is a mandatory war. First, because they attacked border cities. Second, because they attacked the weak, as Amalek did when the Israelites had just left Egypt. In the time of King David, they kidnapped the people of Tziklag. King David went into Amalek’s camp and brought back the captives. Thus, the Torah commands us to erase the memory of Amalek, the head of the serpent. In a mandatory war, even a bride amid the wedding ceremony, needs to leave everything and join the military effort.

In Psalm 81, G-d tells us: At war, I test you. The Torah tells us that the bottom line is where we draw the line of ethics, especially at war. To set ethical boundaries so we don’t lose the image of G-d. Our enemy, on the other hand, sent bounty hunters, who received $10,000 per kidnapped head. Rambam says you can’t pay more than a person’s worth, meaning exchange one for one. Otherwise, people would be hunted all day. In the case of Gilad Shalit, the exchange rate was inflated to 1 to 1000.

But Amalek also comes at times of redemption. It wants to cool down our passionate excitement, to distract us. This time the attack was supposed to keep away peace in the Middle East. Every Jew, every human being is at war with this force of Amalek. Each one in his or her own role. I don’t derive any pleasure seeing buildings come down in Gaza or anywhere, and I hope and pray there is another way that God may give our enemies into our hands. Yiten Elohainu et oivenu hakamim aleynu.

The Torah has already won this war. It created a people that hold the torch of Torah to stand against evil darkness. We pray, as Isaiah for the kidnapped, “Yet it is a people plundered and despoiled: All of them are trapped in holes, imprisoned in dungeons. They are given over to plunder, with none to rescue them; to despoilment, with none to say, ‘Give back!’” Like Rachel, our matriarch, whose birthday we just commemorated, who cries for her children when they go into captivity, but is there to welcome them ultimately as they return home

Am Israel Chai,

—Rabbi Gadi Capela