Slow Down! - CHRONICLE Online/The WORD 09/04/25

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah

September 4, 2025

11 Elul 5785

Parashat Ki Teitze

Earlier this week, an organization called the International Association for Genocide Scholars declared that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Both PBS and the BBC referred to the IAGS as the “leading” organization of genocide scholars. It turns out that for as little as $30, anyone can join the association and vote on its resolutions. One Israeli registered for a membership using the name Adolph Hitler and was accepted. Needless to say, any retractions that were made generated a lot less interest than the original articles giving voice to this false accusation.

Then, just today, an 8-year-old Palestinian boy whom Tony Aguilar claimed was shot down by IDF soldiers in front of him turned up alive. It turns out that Mr. Aguilar just wanted to make the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation look bad because they fired him. Never mind that he flat-out lied about the conduct of the IDF. Once again, I will not be holding my breath waiting for media outlets to issue corrections as loudly as they repeated Mr. Aguilar’s false accusations.

Somehow, the media never learn to wait a moment before believing a story coming out of a very complicated war zone. Our Torah portion would counsel them take more time before believing what they think they have seen or heard.

In Deuteronomy 21, the Torah describes a situation in which a soldier took a woman captive during a war.   If he wanted to marry her, he had to cut her hair short, cut down her long nails and wait a month while she mourned her parents.  If after all that, he still saw a woman that he wanted to marry, he could proceed.

The Torah understood that in the thick of war you can’t always believe your own eyes.  You may not really have seen what you thought you saw.  Sadly, modern media never learned that media.  Instead, for many western news outlets, if it’s a story that makes Israel look bad, then it must true.  They refuse to slow down and make sure that the accusations against Israel are really true.

And even when retractions are made, the quiet removal of an article from a web site never makes up for the headlines painting Israel in the worst possible light over and over again. 

It’s simply exhausting. 

Shalom,

RAF