Bible Plus Article

When Does Saving Lives Become a Sin?

January 22, 2025

They’re laughing at us.

As I write this, thousands of well-fed Gazans in crisp Hamas uniforms are surrounding Red Cross vehicles, jeering at traumatized Israeli women hostages inside. They’re chanting “Khaybar, Khaybar” ā€“ celebrating the 7th-century Islamic massacre of Jews while promising to do it again. And Western media calls this a “celebration.”

This isn’t just another hostage deal. This is a stage-managed theater of cruelty where every released terrorist is a promise of the next October 7th, and every freed hostage is forced to run a gauntlet of their would-be murderers. Hamas isn’t hiding their intentions ā€“ they’re screaming them in our faces.

The numbers tell a story more chilling than any Hamas propaganda video. For every Israeli hostage freed, three Palestinian prisoners walk free. But the real exchange rate is measured in future Jewish blood. When Israel made the Shalit deal in 2011, they didn’t just trade 1,027 terrorists for one soldier ā€“ they traded the lives of 1,200 Israelis who would die on October 7th at the hands of the very monsters they released.

This time, the price may be even higher. While Israeli families weep tears of joy at reuniting with their loved ones, Hamas commanders are already planning their next massacre. And thanks to Israel’s desperate bargain, they now have everything they need: freed fighters, renewed supplies, and most importantly, proof that their strategy works.

Look at the footage from Gaza. Those aren’t starving victims of Israeli oppression emerging to greet the Red Cross. They’re well-groomed, well-dressed masses surrounding hostage transfer vehicles, turning what should be a solemn humanitarian mission into a victory parade for terror. Every chant of “Khaybar” reveals their true agenda ā€“ not peace, not coexistence, but the elimination of every Jew they can reach.

The West’s response? Sky News calls it a celebration. Politicians hail it as progress toward peace. But listen to Hamas’s own words: they’re calling this a “hudna” ā€“ a temporary pause modeled after Muhammad’s tactical treaty with the Quraysh, which lasted only until his forces were strong enough to break it. They’re telling us exactly what they plan to do. Why won’t we listen?

To understand the true gravity of this moment, we need to look back at another impossible choice Israel’s ancestors faced. When Moses first confronted Pharaoh demanding Israel’s freedom, Pharaoh responded by making the slavery even harsher. The people’s suffering increased. Moses then turned to God with an anguished cry that echoes through the centuries:

According to the great sage Rabbi Akiva, Moses was saying to God, I know that you plan to save the people, but why haven’t you saved them yet? What about the people who are suffering right now?

This wasn’t Moses questioning God’s future plans for redemption. He knew God would eventually free the people. What tormented him was the immediate suffering ā€“ the slaves being crushed under Pharaoh’s buildings, the children dying today while waiting for tomorrow’s salvation. Our sages teach that God created the world with two competing attributes: Justice and Mercy. Justice demands following the perfect plan, no matter the immediate cost. Mercy cries out to stop the suffering now, even if it means compromising the perfect solution.

God’s original plan was to utterly break Pharaoh’s power, to demonstrate His complete dominion, and to fulfill all His goals for the Israelites through their experience of slavery no matter how long it took. This was Justice. But Moses, hearing the cries of his suffering people, demanded Mercy ā€“ immediate relief, even if it meant an incomplete victory.

Today’s Israel faces the same impossible choice between Justice and Mercy. Justice demands completing the destruction of Hamas, just as God planned to utterly break Pharaoh’s power. Mercy cries out for immediate relief, for saving every hostage we can, now. But here’s what Moses didn’t face: every terrorist we free today becomes tomorrow’s murderer.

History screams warnings at us. When Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg was held for ransom in 1286, he refused to be redeemed, knowing that paying would only encourage more kidnappings of Jewish leaders. He died in prison, but his sacrifice protected future generations. During the 1970 TWA hijacking, Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky ruled similarly ā€“ in wartime, ransoming captives only strengthens an enemy bent on destruction.

We ignored these lessons once before. The Shalit deal freed Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded October 7th. Today’s deal is worse. It’s not just about the terrorists walking free ā€“ it’s about the “humanitarian aid” flowing into Gaza, straight into Hamas’s storehouses. It’s about allowing Palestinians to return north of the evacuation line, creating human shields for Hamas fighters. It’s about transforming October 7th from an atrocity into a winning strategy.

Just as God warned Moses that showing mercy to the Jewish people in Egypt would mean future exiles and suffering since His goals were not yet met, every concession to Hamas plants the seeds of future massacres. The attribute of Justice ā€“ God’s original plan for creating the world ā€“ demands the complete destruction of those who would destroy us. The attribute of Mercy cries out for immediate salvation. But in this war, mercy to the cruel becomes cruelty to the merciful.

When the hostages’ families cry out like Moses ā€“ “why don’t you care about the slaves being crushed under Pharoah’s buildings?” ā€“ they speak with the voice of Mercy. But Justice reminds us: Every society that abandoned genocide as a strategy did so because they were utterly defeated, not because someone negotiated with them. Every deal that preserved a genocidal regime’s power ā€“ from Haman to Hitler ā€“ ended in more Jewish blood.

Yes, God ultimately heeded Moses’s plea for mercy in Egypt. But as the ancient sages warn us, that mercy came with a price ā€“ future battles, future exiles, future suffering. Today’s price may be even higher.

Israel stands at a crossroads. One path leads from temporary relief to future catastrophe. The other demands the courage to finish what October 7th made necessary: the complete destruction of Hamas. Every terrorist freed, every supply truck that enters Gaza, every paused offensive takes us further from that essential goal.

The choice couldn’t be clearer. Neither could the stakes. The only question is whether we’ll learn history’s lesson before history repeats itself ā€“ this time with weapons far deadlier than anything the murderers of Khaybar could have imagined.

After Hamas terrorists slaughtered over 1,200 Israelis on October 7, an unholy alliance of Islamic jihadists and progressive activists joined together to fight an unholy war against the Bible. In The War Against the Bible, Rabbi Mischel offers a prophetic perspective on these dramatic events through the words of the Hebrew Bible itself. If you yearn for spiritual clarity amid today’s turbulence, let the power of the Hebrew Bible’s prophecies and call to action strengthen your faith. Click here to get your copy of The War Against the Bible: Ishmael, Esau and Israel at the End Times now!

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Rabbi Elie Mischel

Rabbi Elie Mischel is the Director of Education at Israel365. Before making Aliyah in 2021, he served as the Rabbi of Congregation Suburban Torah in Livingston, NJ. He also worked for several years as a corporate attorney at Day Pitney, LLP. Rabbi Mischel received rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva Universityā€™s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Rabbi Mischel also holds a J.D. from the Cardozo School of Law and an M.A. in Modern Jewish History from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. He is also the editor of HaMizrachi Magazine.

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