MEMORIAL DAY

At least 259 women say they were raped by Muammar Gaddafi’s militiamen. "First they tied my husband up," one woman wrote. "Then they raped me in front of my husband and my husband's brother."

What is the connection between sex and war? Soldiers for thousands of years have been raping women as a spoil of war; if war is Hell to a man then rape is Hell for a woman – there is no spiritual Hell, a place where souls suffer forever – Hell is here.

One commonality between sex and war is neither is logical; animals fight for domination but not to kill; Even more ironic, is how death in war promotes life through rape. Rabbi Akiva famous in the Talmud-Book of Law says, Love is the main Torah generality.

Love in Hebrew is Ahava made from the word Hav/Give, the letter Aleph in the beginning makes it, I Give; hatred and war is I Take – taking lives, forcibly taking women. American soldiers are trained to curb their killing and to respect life.

The Torah teaches, In the end the lion will lay down with the lamb; the Cabala explains that the lion will remain a lion and the lamb will remain a lamb, but war and rape will end. While honoring the perpetrators of war it is also needed to remember the victims of war.