22) which is in the singular. This teaches that if you do not afflict them, I will not afflict you, but if you do afflict them, I will afflict you.
Therefore, the Torah is not only concerned with the overt act of mistreatment, but also with the bystander effect, where those who witness evil and do nothing are held accountable. This is a powerful lesson in the responsibility we all bear to speak out against injustice and to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.
Regenerate 22) because whoever sees a person afflicting the orphan and the widow and does not aid them, is also considered a person who is afflicting the pain.
Blaise Pascal, famously wrote about the âG-d-Sized Holeâ that, if not filled with religion, will be filled with emptiness, and Chazal would add, evil:
âWhat else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by G-d himselfâ (Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII, 425).
To the misguided humans who are concerned about the Gazans, spend fortunes of money and time worrying about some obscure Amazonian rain forest creature that might become extinct, and dutifully compost, (which is G-dly nonetheless, when in proportion), please pay heed. The approximate genocide of one million abortions in America per year, the murder, rape and sexual torture committed by Hamas on Israelis, or the persecution committed against women in many Islamic countries seem to escape your protestations and outrage. Please, instead of being woke, wake up, or those monsters will be blowing up cafes right at your doorstep! And then, that will be a real humanitarian crisis, because you won’t be able to get your sustainably sourced lattes and kale sandwich at Starbucks.