A Taste of Torah in honor of Shabbat
from Rabbi Avi Weiss

Parshat Bereshit
OCTOBER 27-28, 2000/29 TISHREI 5761

IN MEMORY OF RABBI HILLEL LIEBERMAN

THE VOICE OF OUR BROTHERS BLOODS CRIES OUT

After Cain murders Abel, God declares, "the voice of your brothers bloods cries out to me from the ground."  (Genesis 4:10)

Commentators wonder why blood is in the plural (demai) when in fact the singular blood (dam) would have been sufficient.

The simplest approach notes that no one had previously died in the history of the world, thus Cain, unsure of how to kill Abel, struck him in different parts of his body.  In the words of Rashi, "He inflicted upon him many wounds because he knew not from where his soul would depart." 

With the murder of Rabbi Hillel Lieberman, the young rabbi who walked unarmed clothed in his tallit, to protect Josephs Tomb from destruction, this interpretation carries greater meaning. 

Hillel was not simply murdered, he was brutally slaughtered by hand.  He was found unrecognizable with 100 bullets in his body.  It was a murder of "bloods" in the plural, as he was struck over and over again.

In recent weeks the media has focused on the twelve year old Arab boy Mohammed al Durah killed in Gaza.  While we feel deeply the tragedy of loss of any life, there is no moral equivalency between tragic mistakes committed during acts of self defense and vicious, unprovoked premeditated attacks on Jews just because they are Jews -- or any human being because of who they are -- when bloods (plural) are spilled. 

Rashi also quotes the midrash in solving this question of the text.  He says that the plural "bloods" is used because it was not only his blood, but the blood of his possible descendants."

While visiting the Lieberman family last week in Elon Moreh this interpretation found greater meaning.  At Hillel's home I met his son Moshe, a young boy not yet Bar Mitzvah, who according to his mother Yael, has spoken little since his fathers death.  Yael told me that often Moshe says if only Abba had taken me with him I could have protected him at Yosefs tomb.  For me, blood in the plural in Hillels case teaches that not only was Hillel murdered but part of Moshe and his six siblings have suffered profound trauma for they no longer have a father to learn from, to embrace and to love.  They too suffer the trauma of his death.

It could also be added that blood is in the plural because with such a vicious murder not only is a human being killed, but God Himself is diminished.  It is not coincidental that the letter yud which denotes Gods name renders he word dam plural.  Hence the word kol--voice, precedes the word blood in our text, as kol is often associated with the voice of God.  (Genesis 3:8)  In other words, God hears His own voice crying out from the ground.

As we begin a fifth year of writing a weekly Shabbat Forshpeis, for the first time I ask readers for help by sending a contribution to the Lieberman Family Fund set up in our shul -- every penny will go to the family. (Checks can be made payable to the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale Lieberman Fund and sent to 3700 Henry Hudson Parkway, Bronx NY 10463.)  During this time of kol damei ahikha, when Jews like Hillel and Vadim Novech and Yossi Avrahami (the soldiers lynched in Ramallah) are still mercilessly murdered, and when Rabbi Chaim Brovender is brutally attacked only because he is a Jew--may we all recognize our responsibility to do our share to defend the people, the land and the Torah of Israel.

Rabbi Avi Weiss

Shabbat Shalom!