On Thursday morning, Feb. 20, HEA Rabbi Sarah Shulman woke up to the news in Israel that caused heartbreak, worldwide.
The bodies of two young boys, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, were returned to Israel in a macabre ceremony in the latest hostage return, but the body of their slain mother, Shiri Bibas, was still in Gaza, though, too, was supposed to have been turned over.
The move by Hamas was yet another, cruel twist after the wait for a total hostage release reached 503 days.
For Shulman, the events of Feb. 20 were unbearable.
“It was heart wrenching,” said Shulman, who has two young daughters. “On some level, we knew that that the Bibas family was probably not with us, because otherwise they probably would’ve been released in November, 2023.
“So on a rational level, I think we’ve been preparing ourselves for this moment, and yet it is so in the nature of the Jewish spirit to have a sense of hope. And so many of us have been saying prayers for 500 days, praying for the release of those beautiful boys, Kfir and Ariel.
“It was heartbreaking to finally know that they were not coming home alive and then just as heart wrenching to watch the barbaric way in which they were paraded by Hamas. It was the disgusting and beyond words the way in which they were returned, and then to learn that their mother’s body was not with them.
“There are a lot of different responses that people have — either sadness or rage or some kind of mix of the two.
“I think all of those are perfectly understandable responses. For me, I go to a place of sadness. For others, it’s rage at the inhumanity of it all.
“We read in this past week’s Torah portion [Mishpatim] that if a person is stolen, which would be kidnapping, that one who steals another person shall be put to death. That’s what it says, right? Not that we follow the law of the Torah as the law of the land, but just reading those words in our Torah reminded me of how absurd and inhumane it is to steal another human.”
Not that Rabbi Shulman is not advocating for such retribution.
“All the hostage releases have been very difficult and very tasteless,” Shulman says. “It was just inhumane the way they made one of the hostages kiss a Hamas soldier. It just lacks a basic humanity and compassion that is so fundamental to our faith.”
On Friday, Feb. 21, Shiri Bibas’ body was returned, which the family confirmed the next day. Any satisfaction out of Shiri’s reunification with her slain children was muted with a logical question: What should Israel do?
“Israel needs to bring all the hostages home,” says Rabbi Shulman.
“So many of us feel so much appreciation, and I think are humbled by the work that so many family members of hostages have done to show up in Hostage Square again and again, day after day, night after night, to call for their release, even when they’ve lost their own family members.
“The resilience and strength of that voice, that cry, that spirit, has been so evident.
“I pray for the release of the rest of the hostages, and this deal is impossibly difficult. Every time we watch a couple people dead or alive come home in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians, many of whom had life sentences for terrorism, that’s a very difficult situation, and you can’t help but worry about the future.”
© IJN 2025
