Religious Zionism Jewish Law And The Morality Of War

Ever since the state of Israel was established in 1948, it has been plagued by war, and that has presented religious Zionists with an immense challenge. Jewish law prior to 1948 includes little material on war because it developed during centuries when Jews had neither a state nor an army. The leading rabbis of the religious Zionist community have therefore had to create an entire body of laws on this subject where practically none had existed beforehand. These rabbis have responded to the challenge with remarkable energy and ingenuity. Religious Zionist rabbis have produced a corpus of laws on war that is both comprehensive and nuanced, and these laws now serve as a critical source of guidance for Orthodox Israelis serving in their country's military. The present study is a pioneering work on this fascinating chapter in the history of Jewish law, a chapter that, up to now, has received relatively little attention from academic scholars. Robert Eisen examines how five of the most prominent rabbis in the religious Zionist community have dealt with key moral issues in war. The figures include R. Abraham Isaac Kook, R. Isaac Halevi Herzog, R. Eliezer Waldenberg, R. Sha'ul Yisraeli, and R. Shlomo Goren. Eisen also examines how the positions of these rabbis compare with those of international law. These explorations provide critical insight into the worldview of religious Zionism, which in recent years has become increasingly influential in Israeli politics.

"With focus centered on the United States' involvement in Iraq and Israel's ongoing war with terrorism, the sixteenth annual meeting of the Orthodox Forum in March 2004 took up the question of War, Peace, and the Jewish Tradition, the papers of which are published here."--BOOK JACKET.

Ever since the state of Israel was established in 1948, it has been plagued by war, and that has presented religious Zionists with an immense challenge. Jewish law prior to 1948 includes little material on war because it developed during centuries when Jews had neither a state nor an army. The leading rabbis of the religious Zionist community have therefore had to create an entire body of laws on this subject where practically none had existed beforehand. These rabbis have responded to the challenge with remarkable energy and ingenuity. Religious Zionist rabbis have produced a corpus of laws on war that is both comprehensive and nuanced, and these laws now serve as a critical source of guidance for Orthodox Israelis serving in their country's military. The present study is a pioneering work on this fascinating chapter in the history of Jewish law, a chapter that, up to now, has received relatively little attention from academic scholars. Robert Eisen examines how five of the most prominent rabbis in the religious Zionist community have dealt with key moral issues in war. The figures include R. Abraham Isaac Kook, R. Isaac Halevi Herzog, R. Eliezer Waldenberg, R. Sha'ul Yisraeli, and R. Shlomo Goren. Eisen also examines how the positions of these rabbis compare with those of international law. These explorations provide critical insight into the worldview of religious Zionism, which in recent years has become increasingly influential in Israeli politics.

This book offers a new insight into the political, social, and religious conduct of religious-Zionism, whose consequences are evident in Israeli society today. Before the Six-Day War, religious-Zionism had limited its concern to the protection of specific religious interests, with its representatives having little share in the determination of Israel's national agenda. Fifty years after it, religious-Zionism has turned into one of Israeli society's dominant elements. The presence of this group in all aspects of Israel's life and its members' determination to set Israel's social, cultural, and international agenda is indisputable. Delving into this dramatic transformation, the book depicts the Six-Day War as a constitutive event that indelibly changed the political and religious consciousness of religious-Zionists. The perception of real history that had guided this movement from its dawn was replaced by a "sacred history" approach that became an actual program of political activity. As part of a process that has unfolded over the last thirty years, the body and sexuality have also become a central concern in the movement's practice, reflection, and discourse. The how and why of this shift in religious-Zionism - from passivity and a consciousness of marginality to the front lines of public life - is this book's central concern. The book will be of interest to readers and scholars concerned with changing dynamic societies and with the study of religion and particularly with the relationship between religion and politics.

What does it mean to fight an ethical war? This has become an essential question as Israel defends itself on the battlefield and in the court of public opinion. After centuries of military powerlessness, Jews in the 20th century began to ask themselves fundamental questions of military ethics. Wars - including current conflicts in Israel - are inherently brutal. How, then, should Jews respond to the great Arab revolt? What does Judaism say about the bombing of Dresden, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, or how to push the British out of the land of Israel? Is "land for peace" a moral option? What about preemptive attacks in 1967 or after 9/11? Can we fight terrorists in urban settings while protecting our soldiers, avoiding non-combatants, and preserving our public image? Ethics of Our Fighters tells the story of these political dilemmas and moral debates. It draws from the pivotal historical moments of the last one hundred years to weave together the most important ideas of contemporary ethicists with the insights of the greatest rabbinic scholars. This book systemically presents, for the first time, a holistic Jewish perspective on military ethics. Jews and non-Jews alike, from the halls of Congress and West Point to batei midrash and IDF bases, can draw from Jewish wisdom on these life-and-death matters. This worldview that is at once distinctly Jewish and more broadly insightful can help all civilized nations fight wisely and act nobly.

In Ethics in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond, Susan Niditch takes soundings among those who have recently approached ethics in the Hebrew Scriptures, their methodological interests, their goals, and their definitions of "ethics" itself. By means of close exegesis of specific passages from the Hebrew Bible and a discussion of the interpretation and application of these ancient texts by post-biblical Jewish writers and other creative contributors from outside the Jewish tradition, this volume explores topics in religious ethics, social justice, political ethics, economic ethics, issues in ecology, gender and sexuality, killing and dying, and reproductive ethics. Certain goals inform all chapters: interest in tracing recurring themes concerning the definition of the good, and the various ways in which Jewish thinkers rely on the more ancient material, interpret, and appropriate it; the links between areas in ethics, for example, between gender and reproductive ethics or war-views and attitudes to political ethics and environmental ethics. Niditch carves out specific biblical texts and themes in order to explore them in depth with special interest in the meanings and messages that emerge from ancient Israelite writers' varied treatments of issues in ethics. Ethics in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond provides a thoughtful discussion of biblical composers' treatment of ethical issues and an engaging overview of the ways in which these texts have been appropriated, in particular by Jewish contributors. This volume serves to challenge readers' own assumptions about biblical ethics, the applicability and the various meanings and messages that might be derived from engagement with key biblical texts.

This book answers how mortality and morality figure and intertwine in the life and death of nations - both in theory and in practice.

After half a century of occupation and tremendous costs of the conflict, Israel is still struggling with the idea of a Palestinian state in what is often perceived as the Biblical Eretz Israel. Mapping Zionism, enemy images, peace and war policies, as well as democracy within the Jewish State, the present study offers original insights into Israel’s role in this conflict. By analyzing Israeli history, politics and security-oriented political culture as it has been evolving from 1948 on, this book reveals the ideological and political structures of a Zionist-oriented state and society. In doing so, it uncovers the abyss between the Zionist vision of Eretz Israel on the one hand and the aspiration to achieve normalization, peace and security on the other. In view of this conflict-laden bi-national reality, the Palestinian question is identified as the Achilles‘ heel of Jewish statehood in the Land of Israel. Thus, Zionist Israel and the Question of Palestine provides a fresh, innovative, critical and yet accessible perspective on one of the most controversial issues in contemporary history.