May G-d save France’s Jews as he saved us in Egypt

For these things I weep; my eye, yea my eye, sheds tears, for the comforter to restore my soul is removed from me; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.” (Eichah 1:17)

About eight weeks ago we gathered in collective mourning for four Jews who were murdered while praying in a synagogue, and for a Druze police officer who was murdered coming to help them. This week we mourn for four Jews who were in a kosher store the day before Shabbos, either working or shopping there in preparation for the Holy Day. And we remember the police who lost their lives trying to save them and other hostages.

Maybe France and the world received a wake-up call two days earlier when a satire magazine was attacked by monsters coming from a similar background — anti West and anti-Semites. I wonder what the media and reaction landscape would be had the order of these attacks been reversed. But perhaps cynicism regarding the world’s attitude to Jewish victimhood is out of place at this time. So we’ll be straightforward.

That almost all the perpetrators must now face their Maker is fitting. That all the loved ones of their victims are left bereaved is worse than tragic.

What does it take to defeat such an enemy? Sadly all-out war is not possible. Depending on whose estimates you follow, there are between 50 million and over 500 million people in the world who support the attacks on France, and would participate in such attacks if they only could. But since they’re not coming out armed and ready to fight, they can’t be met on a traditional battlefield.

In ancient Egypt, there was a similar problem. Who was the enemy? Who deserved punishment? Was all of Egypt at fault, or was it Pharaoh and his taskmasters who bore responsibility?

Certainly the Egyptians were ordained by G-d to be the hosts of slavery, but even G-d recognized that Egypt was taking its job far too seriously and He brought the Israelites out of Egypt 190 years early. There is a way to make Jews suffer, and then there’s the ancient Egypt way.