from the heart of jerusalem: rabbi binny freedman

Transforming evil we fight into a source of light

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This week’s column is dedicated to the memory of Ezra Schwartz and Rav Yaakov Don, two lights we will never forget.

Prince Charming doesn’t always find Cinderella, and stories do not always have happy endings, as most of us learn the hard way.

I remember once, after a harried chase, catching a masked Arab who had been heaving rocks and cinderblocks at an IDF position in Hebron. Directed by a “spotter” up on a rooftop, I was running down a narrow alleyway to try and catch him, with my gun cocked and a bullet already in the chamber. Recall that in the intifada of the late eighties, these masked terrorists were the assassination squads and suicide bombers, and chances were good that if you didn’t take them off the streets they would probably kill again.

Coming around a corner in an alley and almost face to face with one of these masked gunmen, it was definitely an act of willpower to keep my finger off the trigger in order to at least try and apprehend him, rather than just open fire. When I caught him and pulled his mask off, I was shocked to discover that he was actually a boy of no more than seven or eight. I can still recall the emotions raging inside of me as we took him back to base in our jeep, extremely relieved I had not killed this boy. On the one hand, how can you really be angry at an eight year old kid, even if he is throwing cinderblocks? Obviously he was educated to hate, right?

On the other hand, every human being, even children, know the difference between right and wrong. Do we dare not view such a child as our mortal enemy?

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