* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin ([email protected])
Generally speaking, children call their mothers in order to say they got an outstanding grade on a test, that something good or important happened to them. In a recording that was aired by the State of Israel yesterday, an Arab terrorist calls his parents in Gaza -- with excitement and celebration in his voice -- to announce that he has killed Jews. "Your son is a hero," he says to his mother, telling her again and again that he had sent her pictures on WhatsApp from Kibbutz Miflasim.
I am not about to describe the ruthless acts that took place there or the horrific pictures, but only wish to mention the truth that this terrorist revealed in saying: "I killed ten Jews.". Not right-wing or left-wing, not Ashkenazic or Sephardic. He did not check their ballots in the last elections. He didn't care if his victim was a secular Jew from Kibbutz Be'eri or a bearded, national-religious Jew from Kerem Shalom or an old Haredi Jew from Ofakim. "I killed ten Jews," he gloated.
In this week's Torah portion of Lech Lecha, Avraham Avinu appears for the first time on the world stage. He is the first Jew and the first of his people to arrive in the Land of israel. He receives a promise that his children will be a nation with a tremendous role to play in world history. His journey is our common journey until today. But sometimes it's our enemies who remind us that we got confused along the way, forgetting the simple truth, that we are all part of the Jewish nation who share a common history and destiny.
