This Sabbath’s Torah reading of Bamidbar consists of the opening chapters of the book of Numbers, which begins and ends with God commanding Moses to take a census of the Jewish people. To the great 11th-century commentator Rashi, the repeated counting of the Israelites is an expression of God’s love; to his more literal-minded grandson Shmuel ben Meir (known as the Rashbam), it is a practical measure for a people readying to go into battle. Lawrence Kaplan argues that these two approaches are complementary:

Rashi and Rashbam . . . are focusing on different aspects of Jewish peoplehood. For the nature of Jewish existence is twofold. On the one hand, as Rashi notes, the Jewish people is an am s’gulah [“a treasured nation”] with a unique spiritual relationship with God; on the other hand, as Rashbam notes, the Jewish people is a concrete people, living in time, space, and history, and, as such it has to take into account realistic political and military considerations.

This Friday we celebrate Yom Yerushalayim, [the anniversary of Israel’s liberation of Jerusalem from Jordanian rule]. If there is anything which embodies these two aspects of Jewish peoplehood, it is Jerusalem. On the one hand, as is very well known, Jerusalem is ir ha-kodesh, the Holy City—or, perhaps better, the city of the holy sanctuary. On the other hand, as is perhaps less well known, Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.

Throughout our history both these aspects of Jewish peoplehood have coexisted together in an indissoluble unity, but at times the sacral-spiritual aspect came to the fore, at times the political-national aspect.

[In the book of Numbers, which tells the story of] the Israelites wandering in the desert, . . . subsisting on manna from heaven and watched over in a supernatural way by God’s divine providence, the purely religious aspect of Jewish peoplehood was dominant, in accordance with Rashi’s emphasis. [But] when they entered into the Land of Israel, where God’s divine providence watched over them in a natural way, perhaps then the political-national aspect became dominant, in accordance with the emphasis of the Rashbam.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.