There is a custom to hear a hundred and one based on a line in the Song of Deborah:
Judges Chapter 5 שׁוֹפְטִיםSisera was the leader of an ancient enemy of the Jews. Under the leadership of Deborah and Barak, he was defeated. Deborah imagines his mother waiting at the window, crying, worrying that something may have happened to her beloved son. Actually, he had been killed by Yael who had lured him into her tent, drugged him and executed him.
כח בְּעַד {ר} הַחַלּוֹן נִשְׁקְפָה וַתְּיַבֵּב אֵם סִיסְרָא, בְּעַד הָאֶשְׁנָב: {ס} מַדּוּעַ, בֹּשֵׁשׁ רִכְבּוֹ {ר} לָבוֹא-- {ס} מַדּוּעַ אֶחֱרוּ, פַּעֲמֵי מַרְכְּבוֹתָיו. {ס} 28 Through the window she looked forth, and peered, the mother of Sisera, through the lattice: 'Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?
Chazal, our Sages, say that Sisera's mother let out one hundred cries. Cries sound very much like the sounds that come out of a shofar. With the long תקיעה גדולה tiki'ah g'dola, we cry to G-d more than Sisera's mother.
Now, not to criticize the great Biblical D'vora, but was she projecting her own values and feelings? She does voice the opinions of the other women, who she has comforting Sisera's mother by saying that he's probably too busy raping the Jewish women to rush home to mommy. All I kept thinking of were the celebrations the Arabs hold after murderous terror attacks. Mothers of terrorists are praised:
"Creating a supportive social environment for terrorists has been a critical factor in the Palestinian Authority's successful promotion of suicide terrorism. To this end, PA policy has been to honor terrorists as Shahids (Martyrs for Allah), and to teach Palestinian mothers to celebrate when their children die as terrorist Shahids. Categorizing these dead terrorists as Shahids grants them the highest honor a Muslim can achieve, and is therefore cause for a mother to celebrate, according to this PA teaching." (complete article)
To bring us back to the present, can we really have peace with such people?
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