Parashat Mishpatim occupies a central place within God’s epic revelation to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. It opens with Sefer HaBrit, the Book of the Covenant, outlining the mitzvot that the Israelites will be expected to uphold. Their agreement is captured by an enthusiastic, two word response, na’aseh v’nishma, “We will do and we will listen.”

Among God’s commitments to the Israelites is a promise to send what is, in effect, a guardian angel to protect them.

I am sending a messenger before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have made ready. Pay heed to him and obey him. Do not defy him, for he will not pardon your offenses, since My Name is in him; but if you obey him and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.

Exodus 23:20-22

This angel will be a guide, a judge, as well as a protector and a champion for the Jewish people. Who is this angel? Many of our midrashim and commentators try to answer this question. One explanation in particular stands out to me. After citing several interpretations offered by others, Nachmanides, the 13th century Spanish Rabbi, shares his own. “The true understanding is that this angel whom they are promised is the mal’akh hago’el – ‘the redeeming angel’ of Genesis 48:16, who has God’s name ‘in him’…”

Nachmanides draws our attention to a particularly special moment.  Jacob is nearing the end of his life. He calls Joseph to his side, along with his grandsons, Ephraim and Menashe. Blessing, them, Jacob invokes the angel who has been with him, protecting him throughout his life.

Ha’mal’akh hago’el oti mi’kol ra—
The angel who has redeemed me from all harm—
Bless the lads.
In them may my name be recalled,
And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
And may they be teeming multitudes upon the earth.

Genesis 48:16

As Nachmanides develops the idea, he explains that this Redeeming Angel is in fact not an angel at all, but rather the aspect of God that watches over and governs the physical world in which we live.

Jacob, despite a life filled with adversity and danger, experiences God’s protection and blessing. This is what he wishes for his grandchildren. And this is what God invokes at Mount Sinai, promising to watch over the Jewish people through the adversity and danger that they will face in the generations to follow, up to and including our own.

This is what I was thinking of this week, as we witnessed the bodies of Ariel and Kfir Bibas returned to their families. With their bright red hair, Ariel and Kfir, just 4 years old and 9 months old when they were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, became the symbolic faces of the entire war.

On the morning of October 7, Yarden and Shiri Bibas, with their two sons, Ariel and Kfir, hid as Hamas terrorists stormed through their Kibbutz, Nir Oz.  In an attempt to draw the terrorists away from his family, Yarden left the safe room and was captured. A little while later, Shiri and her children were also taken and brought, alive, into the Gaza Strip. Photographs of a terrified and bleeding mother and her crying children showed them alive in Khan Younis later that day. Shiri’s parents, Margit and Yossi Silberman, who also lived in Kibbutz Nir Oz, were among the more than 1,200 Israelis who were brutally murdered.

Since December 2023, Hamas claimed that Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir were killed by an Israeli attack. The IDF never confirmed what happened to them, and the family refused to give up hope until their bodies were returned home.

According to the terms of the current cease fire, Yarden was released on February 1, after nearly 500 days.  At the time of his release, he did not know that his wife and children had been murdered.

We now have a better idea about what they suffered. On Thursday of this week, as part of the terms of the cease fire, the bodies of Shiri, Ariel ,and Kfir were to be released, along with that of 83 year old Oded Lifshitz. In a cruel spectacle, similar to the Hamas propaganda that accompanied the previous releases, coffins were brought up on stage with celebratory music, taunting photographs and messages in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. This prompted widespread condemnation. Even the Chair of the UN Human Rights Commission condemned Hamas’ actions. “The parading of bodies in the manner seen this morning is abhorrent and cruel, and flies in the face of international law.”

As the coffins passed from Hamas to the Red Cross to the IDF, Israelis lined the streets and the squares of the nation in tears. The process of mourning, more than 500 days later, could finally begin. 

But the horrors were not over. Israeli forensic teams confirmed the identities of Ariel and Kfir, along with Oded Lifshitz. Physical evidence revealed that the children had been murdered by bare hands in cold blood in November 2023.The fourth body, it turned out, was not Shiri’s. As I was preparing my drash, Hamas had just released another body which they claimed was Shiri’s.

What are we supposed to feel at this moment? Anger, rage, sadness, grief, relief – so many swirling, conflicting emotions.

The Torah’s promise of mal’akh go’el – a Guardian Angel, rings hollow at a time like this.  Where was the Guardian angel while innocent children, Ariel and Kfir, were brutally taken, imprisoned and murdered?

I imagine the Israelites at the base of Mount Sinai may have had similar questions.  How many children were cruelly cast into the Nile by Pharaoh and his decree? Where was God when that was happening? Can they really count on God to protect them now?

Are there words that can adequately express what we are feeling?

There have been a lot of statements put out over the last two days expressinga lot of emotions. Several of them cited passages from our holy texts, in particular the Book of Psalms, to capture what we might want to say to God right now. From Psalm 91, which is traditionally recited while accompanying a body to its final resting place. It expresses faith in God’s justice and protection. 

For He will order His angels
to guard you wherever you go.

Psalm 91:11

Words that may ring hollow in this moment. Next is from Psalm 94, which we recite as the daily Psalm for Wednesday. It is a demand for an absent God of justice to take vengeance against those who commit evil.

God of retribution, LORD,
God of retribution, appear! 
Rise up, judge of the earth,
give the arrogant their deserts! 
How long shall the wicked, O LORD,
how long shall the wicked exult,

Psalm 94;1-3

A Psalm that does not appear in our regular liturgy is Psalm 83. Its words feel terribly fitting.

O God, do not be silent;
do not hold aloof;
do not be quiet, O God! 
For Your enemies rage,
Your foes assert themselves.
They plot craftily against Your people,
take counsel against Your treasured ones. 
They say, “Let us wipe them out as a nation;
Israel’s name will be mentioned no more.” 
Unanimous in their counsel
they have made an alliance against You— 
…May they be frustrated and terrified,
disgraced and doomed forever.

Psalm 83:2-6, 18

And finally, Psalm 147, which we recite every day of the year during Pesukei D’zimra. These words of comfort are perhaps what we need most of all. 

God heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.

Psalm 147:3 

May God grant comfort to the Bibas family, the whole House of Israel, and all who suffer in the world. May God heal those broken in body and spirit. May God restore to their families all of our hostages, and bring home the bodies of those who have been murdered so that their families can begin to mourn.