This morning, I met someone in Baltimore who told me that his children live in Teaneck, New Jersey, and daven at Congregation Rinat Yisrael, with Rabbi Yosef Adler its founding rabbi. He told me that on Sunday morning, following the miraculous survival of the Jewish people in Israel from evil Iran’s attempt to cause thousands of civilian deaths upon the Israelis, that shul recited Hallel in gratitude to Hashem. He asked me if I thought that was the right thing to do. I told him absolutely! In fact, one of my sisters in Yerushalayim told me she could not believe she woke up alive in her own bed the next morning. But we almost yawned through it.
He then told me that he is going for Pesach to visit his children, who are in a kollel in the South. He wanted to know if he could tell them my reaction. I told him of course! In fact, all of us who did not say Hallel (with or without a brachah) should feel embarrassed that it did not occur to us to do so.
The news of the attack by Iran on the civilian population of Israel and the miraculous thwarting of the oncoming hundreds of missiles by the Israel Defense Forces, assisted by other countries, eclipsed almost any other news on the world scene.
What went almost unreported was the brutal murder of 14-year-old Benjamin Achimeir, a cherubic boy tending to his sheep last week. His sheep wandered home, but he did not. After a day’s search, they found his bloodied body, with signs that he put up a valiant struggle against his attackers.
The murder of such an innocent child shows what the Israelis are surrounded by: barbaric Arab terrorists, not in any way limited to Hamas. Go ahead, you students: Applaud his murder like you cheered for the Iranian attack. It’s cool to murder men, women, and children – as long as they are Jewish. Go ahead, world… Ignore this brutality, because it was committed by Muslims against Jews.
Former PM Naftali Bennett, as well as many others, have warned the world. Support Hamas and you will have Islamic terror come right to your door. Witness the calling for “Death to America” right here in Michigan. Except for the conservative pundits, no one seemed to care. Certainly not our president, who did not issue a word of condemnation about that rally.
Our greatest leaders, from our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were shepherds. Moshe was a shepherd in Midian. David was a shepherd. As the Rabbis explain in the Midrash (Sh’mos 3:1), leaders of the Jewish People were often shepherds, as tending to a flock of sheep often is an indication of compassion and kindness, which are essential traits in leadership. Interestingly, Rashi (B’reishis 47:6) refers to shepherds as warriors. Yes, a leader must be thoughtful and kind, but he also has to be resolute in deciding what is best for his flock.
The Torah tells us that when Moshe beseeched Hashem to find a leader of the Jewish People to follow him, he pleaded (BaMidbar 27:17), “And let them not be like sheep that have no shepherd.”
The family of Benjamin Achimeir mourns deeply for their special son, even as world events do not allow proper attention to be paid to them. But the world is bereft of shepherds. We are all lost sheep with no shepherd.
There is no moral clarity. Everything is muddled in confusion. We do not distinguish between good and evil. We have leaders who are like that dog who seems to be in the lead, but always turns around to see what his master orders him to do.
We have leaders in our own country, from the president on down, and throughout the globe who look at every calculation – except what is the right thing to do.
Poor Benjamin was brutally taken from us. But we will not forget his innocence and, in that sense, his leadership – displaying a true moral compass at such a young age. Benjamin, we are the sheep, and you are our missing shepherd. May Benjamin’s memory be a blessing for his family and all of Israel. Amein.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.
