The release of the holy bodies of the Bibas family Hashem yinkom damam brings back horrific childhood memories. Directly behind my home growing up was an empty reservoir. Behind that reservoir was something called the Spahn Ranch. This was the ranch which housed the depraved Manson Family, led by Charles Manson.
Back then, kids were not so sheltered - we were exposed to it all. We all watched the news together as the horrors unfolded.
Some moments leave an indelible scar on the soul, not only for their depraved brutality but for what they reveal about the terrifying depths of human cruelty. The Manson Family murders and the October 7th, 2023, attack in Israel are two such events—separated by over half a century but bound by the same horrifying threads of depravity and the calculated targeting of the innocent. These were not random acts of violence. They were meticulously crafted nightmares, orchestrated by monsters.
Charles Manson was not just a killer—he was a master manipulator who turned human beings into executioners. His ultimate goal was not just destruction—it was terror, a primal, gut-wrenching fear that would shatter American society.
The nights of the Manson murders, brought that terror to life. Sharon Tate—eight months pregnant, filled with the promise of new life—was slaughtered along with her friends in a frenzied bloodbath. The murderers carved messages in blood, their depravity on full display. Later, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were subjected to a similar fate, murdered with that same cold-blooded evil cruelty.
Fast forward to October 7, 2023. "Yeishev b'ma'arav chatzerim bamistarin yaharog naki einav l'chelcha yitzponu. Ye'erov bamistar k'aryeh v'sukoh - He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent (Tehillim 10:8-9). Hamas murderers launched their depraved coordinated attack on Israeli communities, massacring over 1,200 innocent people in a single day.
There it was once again. That same cold-blooded evil cruelty. As Yirmiyahu HaNavi (6:15) laments, “Hovishu ki to'evah asu, gam bosh lo yevoshu, gam haklim lo yada'u - They acted shamefully because they committed abomination; they were not at all ashamed, they did not know how to blush.” It was that same Manson-esque zombi-ism that not just controlled a cult following behind an empty reservoir, but an entire group of people living in Gaza. The cheering and excitement of what these “heroes” had accomplished. The exultation captured in text messages of the evil perpetrators to their parents.
And the world remained silent.
We cry out with Dovid HaMelech (Tehillim 94:3-4), 'Ad masai reshaim Hashem, ad masai reshaim ya'alozu. Yabi'u yedabru atak, yitamru kol po'alei aven' - How long shall the wicked, Hashem, how long shall the wicked exult? They gush forth and speak arrogantly, bearing themselves haughtily.” Among the most gut-wrenching images of that day was the abduction of Shiri Bibas and her two, sweet red-haired sons—Ariel, 4, and Kfir, just 9 months old—along with their father, Yarden. The image of terrified Shiri, clutching her children, should have seared itself into the world’s conscience.
It didn’t.
The anguish in her eyes, the tiny hands gripping her for protection. To us it was an image of raw, unfiltered horror. And yet, to the world, to those who just yesterday protested in Boro Park, to AOC, it meant nothing. Nada.
And yet, for all its gut-wrenching pain, this moment was only the beginning of their suffering.
For hundreds of agonizing days, we don’t know the exact amount - they remained in captivity. Subjected to the unknown torments of their captors. The world could only imagine the horror of their final moments. A mother, whose every instinct is to shield her children, powerless against the depraved inhumanity around her.
Where are you leftist media? Where was and is the ICC? Where is UNWRA? The UN?
Silence. Cold deafening silence.
Ariel, a boy who should have been playing, his laughter filling a home, instead trapped in a nightmare. Kfir, a baby who had barely begun to experience life, held in his mother’s arms, his cries unanswered. Their suffering defies comprehension. And when the news broke that they had been murdered, that the hope of their return had been extinguished, it was as though the breath had been stolen from all of Klal Yisroel. But not the United Nations. Not the ICC. “Ha'umnam elem tzedek tedaberun - Do you indeed speak righteousness, O silent ones? (Tehillim 58:2)
No. Sadly, they do not. Just indifference.
Aicha yashva badad, the collective grief is immense. A sorrow weighs upon us all. An unbearable storm.
The images of Shiri and her children, once symbols of desperate hope, are now symbols of unbearable loss. When, today, their bodies were finally released, their return was not a homecoming but a funeral procession, a final reminder of the cruelty that had stolen them away. Streets filled with mourners, hearts heavy with sorrow, voices choked with unshed tears. How can we find words for a crime so cruel? How does a people heal from a wound so deep?
In both the Manson murders and the October 7th massacre, the victims were not just killed; they were dehumanized before, during, and after their deaths. Manson’s followers viewed their victims as symbols—representations of what they sought to destroy. Likewise, Hamas and its supporters dehumanized the Bibas family. To them, Ariel and Kfir were not a young toddler and a baby with giggles and dreams. They were not humans.
One of the starkest contrasts between these two horrors lies in the aftermath. Manson and his followers were arrested, tried, and convicted. No ambiguity, no rationalization—Manson was evil – plain and simple. And he was treated as such. His crimes were condemned without hesitation, his name forever linked with the darkest recesses of human depravity.
Not so in the case of October 7th. There, moral clarity has eluded the world. The murder of Shiri Bibas and her children has been met with equivocation. With “context.” An eerie silence from voices that claim to champion human rights.
The sheer inhumanity of their deaths has been diluted. Twisted.
The Manson murders were a wake-up call to America, a chilling reminder of the darkness that festers when extremism and dehumanization take hold. The October 7th massacre should be an even louder alarm. It should be a piercing siren demanding that we refuse to let ideology strip away moral clarity. The murder of Sharon Tate, the slaughter of the Bibas family—these were not just tragedies. They were indictments of the human capacity for evil. And they are warnings—warnings that history repeats itself when we fail to learn from its horrors.
The victims of these atrocities are more than names in history books. They were mothers, fathers, children. People with families. People who laughed. Who loved. Who dreamed.
To forget them, to excuse their suffering, is to allow the dark depravity that took them to spread. We must never let that happen. We must tell their stories, and demand that the world look into the abyss of these horrific crimes and have the courage to call them what they are. Pure, and unadulterated evil.
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