Dear Editor: In the Talmud there is a saying: for anybody who destroys a single life it is counted as if he destroyed an entire world, and for anybody who preserves a single life, it is counted as if he preserved an entire world.
And from the Torah: that which is hateful to you, do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, and the rest is its interpretation.
This principle is echoed in other religious texts, like the Quran.
Isn’t this the reason we humans sometimes endanger ourselves to rescue others? Innocent children?
And in Gaza and the West Bank countless lives are being cruelly snuffed out. Men, women and children. An estimate of the carnage made by UNICEF is that 50,000 children now have been killed! And that doesn’t count those lying dead under the rubble.
How can our hearts bear this?
As a bereaved mother myself, I feel it important to speak out against the mass slaughter of the children in Palestine. This genocide is going on real time, livestreamed even, we cannot say we didn’t know. Finally, the mainstream press is reporting on it, and Americans are becoming aware that it is mainly U.S. money which is paying for the Israeli weapons which are killing these children.
I know the pain of losing a very, very beloved child. I live with it every day. I know that those parents are feeling the same. We all, don’t we, love children? How can we bear to live in this time of mass murder and be complicit with our silence and inaction.
Not in my name! It must stop. Sorrow and outrage should spur our consciences on to forcing our ‘‘leaders’’ to bring this war crime, this tragedy to a halt.
Nancy Metashvili, Sitka
