Oh that my head was water, and my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep all my days and nights
For the corpses of my babies and infants
And the old people of my community.
Cry aloud "Woe! Oh! Alas!"
And weep; weep and weep still more
For the house of Israel and the people of the Lord, who are slain by the sword.
My eyes weep bitterly, and I will go to the field of weepers.
I will weep with the distraught and the broken hearted.
For the innocent girls and the gentle boys,
Led to the slaughter.
Fairer than coral, sapphire, or turquoise
Trampled and despoiled like mud in the streets.
For the house of Israel and the people of the Lord, who are slain by the sword…….
Kalonymus ben Yehudah, circa 1096
Perhaps coincidentally, the biblical Hebrew word for violence is hamas. As in the book of the prophet Obadiah:
For the violence (hamas) done to your brother Jacob, ignominy will engulf you, and you will be shunned forever.