VJJL - O.T. 
 
★ To disseminate knowledge about Jews and 
 Judaism and to create better understanding 
 between Jews and Christians, these pamphlets 
 are published and distributed through the 
 
 ALFRED FREUDENTHAL MEMORIAL . 
 FOUNDATION of trinidad, Colorado, 
 
 in cooperation with the Union of American 
 Hebrew Congregations 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 BY SAMUEL S. COHON, d.d. 
 
 W HAT is the attitude of Judaism toward war? 
 
 Does Judaism in its emphasis on the sanctity 
 of human life condemn war unreservedly as 
 organized mass murder or does it recognize circum- 
 stances under which war is legitimate and even 
 commendable? And what is Judaism’s conviction re- 
 garding the permanence of war as a factor in human 
 relations? 
 
 The answer to these questions must be sought not 
 in abstract Jewish teaching but in the history of the 
 Jewish people, which shows how the religious ideas 
 of war and peace came to life and how they operated 
 in actual experience. In the light of history it becomes 
 evident that the attitude of Judaism toward war un- 
 derwent a number of significant changes. 
 
 Religion Recognizes and Sanctions War 
 
 Judaism emerged at a period of history when warfare 
 was generally recognized as a legitimate instrument 
 of tribal and national policy. Hungry and homeless 
 tribes broke into fertile lands, and with armed might 
 dispossessed the settlers, even as they in turn had pre- 
 
4 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 viously dispossessed the older inhabitants. Those who 
 resisted their aggression were fought to annihilation. 
 Such is the gruesome story of most ancient and mod- 
 ern peoples. Such, too, is the story of Israel’s conquest 
 of Canaan. The desert tribes, famished and starved, 
 had entered into a covenant with their God. As re- 
 ward of their loyalty and obedience, they expected 
 Him to lead them in their wanderings and to help 
 them come into possession of a habitable land. In 
 their struggles to gain for themselves a foothold in 
 Canaan, they expected Him to help them fight their 
 battles and to secure them victory. Their wars, so they 
 believed, were also His wars. Consequently, they re- 
 garded Him as a "Man of War,” as "Mighty in Bat- 
 tle,” and as "the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies 
 of Israel.”^ They carried His ark in battle to assure 
 themselves of victory. The battles were started with 
 proper ceremonies, consulting the will of God, blow- 
 ing of trumpets in order to be remembered by Him, 
 with priestly exhortations and with sacrifices.^ The 
 warriors were "sanctified” (i.e. set aside) for battle, 
 and remained under the tabu until the end of the 
 fighting.® 
 
 The narratives of the Conquest in the books of 
 Joshua and Judges are animated with the belief that 
 the wars were carried on in accordance with the will 
 of God and that He Himself fought on their side 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 5 
 
 against their enemies. The Deuteronomic philosophy 
 of history and its legislation give a religious interpre- 
 tation to the expropriation of Canaan from the seven 
 nations that had occupied it. God had allotted the 
 land to Israel. Hence it became a religious duty to 
 evict the occupants of Canaan or to destroy them. Any 
 leniency toward them constituted dereliction toward 
 God’s command.^ An ideological motive, too, is intro- 
 duced. The Canaanites are idolators. War on idola- 
 tors, even if they be Israelites, is rendered a duty.® 
 A priestly writer further charges the Canaanites with 
 moral corruption and degeneracy which could not be 
 tolerated by Israel.® The fighting was carried on with 
 the usual ferocity and ruthlessness. Cities were burned 
 and pillaged and their populations put to the sword. 
 The stories of Joshua, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, 
 Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, etc., abound in acts of 
 cruelty which were interpreted as being in accord with 
 God’s commands. Even the great reforming prophets 
 display something of the same viewpoint. For Amos, 
 the conquest of Canaan constituted a sign of God’s 
 special favor for Israel.'^ 
 
 Religious Conscience Aroused against War 
 
 We recognize in these presentations attempts at ration- 
 alizing the practice of warfare, whereby tribes secured 
 
6 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 oases or wells, and nations their territories on which 
 to live. Hard experience soon taught the people of 
 Israel to distinguish between their conquest of the 
 land and having their land conquered by others. They 
 became the frequent victims of the marauding Midi- 
 anites, Amalekites, Philistines, Arameans, etc., and 
 came to recognize the cruelty and horror of warfare. 
 Amos, while still taking war for granted, condemns 
 the inhumanity and cruelty displayed by some of the 
 nations toward their victims.® In his vision of doom, 
 war looms large as an instrument of Divine retribu- 
 tion for Israel. Hosea, too, looks to war to wash away 
 the blood-guilt incurred by the revolution of Jehu, 
 a revolution which had the blessing of the earlier 
 prophet Elisha.® That war is the weapon of Divine 
 wrath to punish the wicked nations is the conviction 
 of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. 
 
 This idea takes on impressive forms in the teaching 
 of Isaiah. Israel, the little nation dwelling in the 
 ancient cockpit, where for long centuries the great 
 military powers of the Tigris-Euphrates and of the 
 Nile valleys met in bloody combat, had tasted the 
 bitter cup of devastation and ruin. The prophet wit- 
 nessed the overflowing torrent of destruction that 
 swept over the land. He saw the Assyrian hosts de- 
 scending upon Judah as a flood. His sensitive mind 
 envisaging the calamities brought on by war, looks 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 7 
 
 for deliverance only to Godd** Hosea’s hope in the 
 coming day, when all warfare will cease, reappears 
 in Isaiah’s preaching. Like Hosea, so Isaiah sees the 
 alternative to war in Israel’s reliance upon God. He 
 brought on the scourge of Assyria to chastise sinful 
 Israel, and, in due time, He will destroy Assyria itself 
 in retribution for its wickedness. 
 
 Prophets Avoid Extremes of Pacifism 
 AND Militarism 
 
 An examination of the pre-prophetic, as well as pro- 
 phetic attitudes toward war, shows them to be free 
 from the two extremes of militarism on the one hand, 
 and of pacifism on the other. No out and out mili- 
 tarism, as the modern world has come to understand 
 it, appears even in the earliest phases of Israel’s re- 
 ligious thinking. Nowhere is war recognized as an 
 indispensable instrument, not only of the state, but 
 also for the improvement of the racial stock. No un- 
 due prominence was given to military training and 
 military glory characteristic of predatory nations, 
 whether ancient or modern, nor were large armies 
 maintained by Israel as by Assyria or Babylonia, for 
 the conquest of neighboring nations. The few at- 
 tempts in that direction evoked the protest of the 
 religious leaders of Israel. The Chronicler disquali- 
 
8 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 fies David from building the Temple at Jerusalem 
 because he had shed bloodd^ The war god of ancient 
 Israel acquired the attribute of "peace.” While 
 Israel inherited from the past and shared with its con- 
 temporaries the general belief in the legitimacy of 
 warfare-a belief not yet discarded despite the passing 
 millennia of suffering and stmg^c-lsrael’ s distinc- 
 tive religious ideal crystallized itself in the hope of 
 the ultimate cessation of warfare under God’s rule of 
 righteousness. 
 
 Neither did Israel go to the other extreme of paci- 
 fism in the sense of non-resistance to aggression as a 
 permanent policy of the state. Isaiah (ch. 31) cannot 
 be regarded as pacifistic in the sense of denouncing 
 war as an act of murder, which is repugnant to the 
 religious consciousness. The prophet merely de- 
 nounces the warlike activities of his people as useless, 
 since the wicked nation would not escape punishment, 
 and unnecessary, since God himself will bring down 
 their foes. This, too, is the attitude which the prophet 
 took in the Syro-Ephraimitic war.^® Israel need not 
 trouble itself about defensive alliances with other 
 nations nor look to its own defenses, for the Lord of 
 Hosts is Israel’s shield and deliverer.^'^ The call, 
 "keep calm and keep quiet,” grew out of the prophet’s 
 conviction that the only security which Israel can have 
 is reliance upon God, who, in His own good time, 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 9 
 
 will bring the nations that war upon Jerusalem to 
 destruction.^® Hence, he declares in God’s name: 
 
 In sitting still (or: returning) and rest shall ye be saved, 
 
 In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. 
 
 Jeremiah, too, did not counsel non-resistance under 
 all circumstances, but only under the special condi- 
 tions in which the nation found itself during the 
 Babylonian peril.^° Submission to the colossus of the 
 north seemed to him to be the will of God. At the 
 same time, the prophet was certain that the Divine 
 cup of wrath would be passed in turn to the Baby- 
 lonians, whose own land would be reduced to ever- 
 lasting ruin.^^ An extreme application of this belief 
 in God’s judgment of the nations found expression in 
 apocalyptic literature.^- 
 
 Neither was Jeremiah blind to the actualities. He 
 denounces the priests and prophets, who were healing 
 the hurt of Israel lightly, calling: "Peace, peace,” 
 when there is no peace.^® Ezekiel attacks similarly the 
 blind guides of the people, who indulge in wishful 
 visions of peace, where none exists. The watchman, 
 who sees the sword coming and does not sound the 
 alarm to warn the people, shall be responsible for the 
 calamity.^® In a time of peril, Joel called: 
 
10 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 Proclaim ye this among the nations, 
 
 Prepare war ; 
 
 Stir up the mighty men ; 
 
 Let all the men of war draw near, 
 
 Let them come up. 
 
 Beat your plowshares into swords. 
 
 And your pruning-hooks into spears ; 
 
 Let the weak say: 'I am strong.’ 26 
 
 The urgency of resistance to force was recognized 
 also by the authors of the historical books of the 
 Bible. The idealized picture of Abraham presents him 
 rushing to the aid of his nephew Lot against Kedar- 
 laomer and his confederates without deriving personal 
 benefit from the exploit.^'^ Moses strikes down an 
 Egyptian taskmaster who smote an enslaved Israel- 
 ite.^® Subsequently, he interceded on behalf of his 
 people in the battle against the Amalekites.®® Pro- 
 phetic figures participated in the wars of their people 
 against the enemies. The Ode of Deborah curses 
 Meroz for not coming to the aid of their own in the 
 struggle against the foe.®® The clemency of Saul to 
 Agag, the king of Israel’s inveterate foe Amalek, and 
 of Ahab to Ben Hadad, who constantly menaced 
 Israel, drew sharp protest from prophets.®^ 
 
 The Prophetic Ideal of Peace 
 While the prophets did not preach pacifism, they 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 11 
 
 held out the ideal of peace, based on justice, in both 
 national and international relations as the goal of the 
 future. Hosea looks to an era of unbroken peace to 
 be ushered in by Israel’s betrothal to God through the 
 practice of justice, mercy and faithfulness. The sword 
 and the bow and war will be banished from the 
 earth.®^ Isaiah announces that "the work of righteous- 
 ness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, 
 quietness and confidence forever.” In the practice 
 of justice, he beholds the condition and foundation 
 of peace. It serves as the means of eliminating strife 
 between the conflicting classes within the nation as 
 well as of removing friction between nations.®^ Justice 
 shall form the basis of the social order and of inter- 
 national security. A prophecy appearing in Isaiah 
 2.1-4 and in Micah 4.1-4 points to the union of all 
 nations under God: 
 
 And He shall judge between the nations, 
 
 And shall decide for many peoples ; 
 
 And they shall beat their swords into plowshares ; 
 
 And their spears into pruning-hooks ; 
 
 Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. 
 
 Neither shall they learn war any more. 
 
 But justice is not without some severity. In its defense 
 of the victim, it puts restraints and penalties upon the 
 assailant. While prohibiting murder, justice demands 
 
12 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 that the offender pay for his crime with his life. The 
 Torah, which teaches the sanctity of human life, de- 
 clares: "Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall 
 his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He 
 man.’’®® Willful murder is not only a crime, but also 
 a heinous sin, the desecration of the Divine in man. 
 Letting the murderer go free may encourage him or 
 others to further crimes. Kindness to the offender may 
 mean further cruelty to his victims. The Code of Holi- 
 ness commands further: "Thou shalt not stand idly 
 by the blood of thy brother.’’®® Like the defense of 
 one’s fellow man so the protection of one’s nation 
 against violence constitutes a positive duty. Instead 
 of teaching "resist not evil” (Matthew 5.39) , Judaism 
 emphasizes, in the words of Deuteronomy 13.6, "thou 
 shalt remove the evil from the midst of thee.” As 
 crimes against individuals are checked by police force, 
 so must violence and aggression against nations be 
 resisted by military force for the good of society. 
 Consequently, when the life of a people is threatened, 
 it becomes the duty of its citizens to take up arms in 
 its defense. 
 
 Religion Mitigates the Horrors of War 
 
 At the same time, the Torah endeavors to mitigate 
 some of the horrors of warfare. It lays down certain 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 13 
 
 rules for exemptions from military service. These in- 
 clude persons, who built a new house and had not 
 yet dedicated it, who had planted a vineyard and had 
 not yet enjoyed its fruit, or who had betrothed a wife 
 and had not married her. The hearts of such men, it 
 was believed, would not be in the battle. Likewise 
 "the fearful and faint-hearted” were rejected from 
 the army, "lest his brethren’s heart melt as his heart.” 
 In attacking a hostile city (i.e., not a Canaanite city, 
 the conquest of which is a duty) an offer of peace 
 should first be made to its inhabitants. Only if they 
 reject the offer, may they be treated with severity. 
 Even then only the adult males may be slain, but the 
 lives of the women and children must be spared and 
 they be made tributary. When laying siege to a city, 
 its fruit-bearing trees may not be destroyed. Only trees 
 which do not supply food may be cut down for build- 
 ing bulwarks against the city. Most revealing of the 
 respect for human beings, even in war, is the provision 
 regarding a woman captive. Before she may be taken 
 to wife, she must be allowed a month in which to 
 "bewail her father and her mother.” If subsequently, 
 "thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her 
 go whither she will ; but thou shalt not sell her at all 
 for money, thou shalt not deal with her as a slave, 
 because thou hast humbled her.”®’ While the treat- 
 ment of a conquered city appears harsh when meas- 
 
14 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 ured by absolute humanitarian standards, it is-as S.R. 
 Driver points out-' 'lenient as compared with the 
 barbarities often practiced in ancient warfare upon a 
 conquered people; the law implies no sanction or 
 excuse for such atrocities as are alluded to in Amos 
 1.3, 13; Hosea l4A; II Kings 8.12, or for torture of 
 prisoners, and other cruelties, perpetrated, as their 
 own monuments declare, by the Assyrians.”^® It is 
 mildness itself as compared with the horrors of mod- 
 ern, so-called "civilized” warfare. 
 
 Wars of Religion 
 
 While the warmaking that we have considered so far 
 was of the usual political variety, the Jewish wars 
 against the Syrian Greeks and the Romans may well 
 be considered holy wars of religion. The forced 
 Hellenization of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes 
 called forth the resistance of the religious elements. 
 With the zeal of a Phineas and an Elijah, the aged 
 priest Mattathias struck down the Jew who brought 
 sacrifice to the heathen altar, and unfurled the banner 
 of revolt. The pious rallied to his call: "Let everyone 
 that is zealous for the Law and would maintain the 
 covenant come forth after me.”®® The enemy attacked 
 on the Sabbath when the Jews would not resist, and 
 scored an easy victory. The Jews were compelled to 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 15 
 
 recognize that "If we do as our brethren have done, 
 and do not fight against the gentiles for our lives and 
 our ordinances, they will soon destroy us from the 
 earth.” They, therefore, resolved that henceforth 
 "whoever attacketh us on the Sabbath day, let us fight 
 against him, that we may not in any case all die, as 
 our brethren died in their hiding-places.” 
 
 Among the most resolute defenders of the cause of 
 religious liberty were the Chasidim, who are char- 
 acterized by the historian as "mighty men of Israel 
 who willingly offered themselves for the Law, every 
 one of them.”^® These peace-loving saints, recogniz- 
 ing that all that they cherish was at stake, took up 
 arms against the foe. They embodied the spirit of 
 Psalm 149.6-7, "high praises of God were in their 
 mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hands to exe- 
 cute vengeance upon the nations, and chastisements 
 upon the peoples.” They fought bravely and reso- 
 lutely under Judah Maccabee during the first phase of 
 the Maccabean struggle, i.e., as long as they were 
 fighting for religious freedom. As soon, however, as 
 the struggle entered upon its second phase of purely 
 political character, the Chasidim withdrew. They also 
 kept out of the civil war that raged between the fac- 
 tions of Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus IP®“ and short- 
 sightedly welcomed the "protection” of Pompey in 
 the hope of ridding themselves of internal strife. 
 
16 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 Only when they found that allegiance to Rome de- 
 manded homage to the deified emperors did they take 
 a stand against their conquerors. 
 
 Judah of Galilee and his Zealot followers, differed 
 from the submissive Chasidim in regarding active 
 opposition to wicked Rome a religious duty. Josephus 
 presents them as the left wing of Pharisaism, who, 
 in their "inviolable attachment to liberty . . . acknowl- 
 edged God alone as their Ruler and Lord, and readily 
 sacrificed themselves rather than call any man lord.”^^ 
 They fanned the flames that resulted in the catastro- 
 phic war against imperial Rome and in the consequent 
 fall of the state and of the Temple. In this disastrous 
 conflict even the quietistic Essenes-who in peace 
 times would not engage in any occupation connected 
 with war -participated.^^ Only the Judeo-Christians, 
 who were drawn more and more toward Rome, ab- 
 stained from the conflict. Johanan b. Zakkai and his 
 followers, who left Jerusalem in the midst of fight- 
 ing, represented a "passivist” rather than a "pacifist” 
 viewpoint. Like Jeremiah during the Babylonian peril, 
 so Johanan regarded submission to the world con- 
 queror a necessity for sinful Israel in accordance with 
 the will of God. At the same time, he, too, was confi- 
 dent that the ascendance of the kingdom of evil was 
 but temporary, and that God would, in due course, 
 sweep it away and establish His own kingdom over all. 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 17 
 
 The "activists” had their way also in the Bar 
 Kochba rebellion, and stubbornly fought the last dis- 
 tinctly Jewish war. It, too, was a struggle for religious 
 as well as for political independence. Jewry, wrecked 
 and scattered in consequence of these disastrous ven- 
 tures, was compelled to abandon all hope of regaining 
 its independence by means of military power. The 
 Messianic hope was transferred from earth to heaven. 
 Not by human arms, but by God’s will alone will re- 
 demption come to Zion. Removed from earthly power, 
 dispersed among the nations, and treated everywhere 
 as aliens, the Jewish people could only indulge in 
 apocalyptic dreams of a regenerated world order from 
 which all wars would be banished, but were deprived 
 -save in very few instances -of the political instru- 
 mentalities of establishing on earth a social order free 
 from the scourge of war. 
 
 The hard realities under which the Jewish people 
 have lived were not conducive to develop in them 
 either a militaristic or pacifistic outlook. Josephus, for 
 example, who played a brief role of war leader before 
 turning quisling, in his survey of the Jewish law, 
 limits Jewish warmaking to their own borders and 
 only as a last resort, after striving to come to terms 
 with the enemy. If war becomes unavoidable it must 
 be fought courageously but without cruelty.^® 
 
18 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 Rabbinic Ideas of Warfare 
 
 The Rabbis, for whom war was no longer a matter 
 of practical politics but merely a subject of biblical 
 exegesis, generally apply a high religious standard 
 to humanize the brutal institution. As in the case of 
 personal attack, so in war, they take the realistic view 
 that "if one comes to slay you, hasten to slay him.”^^ 
 It is naturally more important to save one’s own life 
 and the lives of those dear to him, than to spare the 
 life of the would-be murderer. On facing the enemy, 
 one should be ready, like Jacob before meeting Esau, 
 for prayer, for appeasing him with a gift, and -if 
 these fail -for war.^® The biblical laws of warfare, 
 mentioned above, were taken to apply to voluntary 
 wars of oS.tnsc-milhemet reshut. "In obligatory wars 
 of deicnsc-milhemet mitsvo-a\\ must go to battle, 
 even the bridegroom from his chamber and the bride 
 from her canopy.”^® R. Eliezer b. Jacob prohibits 
 women from going to war with weapons.^'^ The Mac- 
 cabean rule regarding fighting on the Sabbath was 
 retained by the Rabbis. They harmonized the old law 
 with the new in this wise: "If gentiles besiege Jewish 
 cities, the Jewish people do not go forth against them 
 with weapons and thus profane the Sabbath. Under 
 what conditions does this rule apply? When the ene- 
 mies come for money, but if they come to kill, they 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 19 
 
 are resisted with weapons on the Sabbath. And in 
 cities close to the border, even if the enemies come 
 with no intention of killing, but only of foraging 
 straw or hay, they are resisted with weapons on the 
 Sabbath.” At first the fighters used to leave their 
 weapons on the Sabbath in a place near the defense 
 wall as they returned from battle, but unfortunate 
 consequences compelled them to carry the weapons 
 back to their positions.^® The Mishna prohibits carry- 
 ing a sword, bow, shield, club, or spear on the Sab- 
 bath. A violation of this rule incurs a sin offering. 
 R. Eliezer took a more lenient view of the matter, on 
 the ground that they may be carried as ornaments, 
 but he was overruled by the sages, who held that 
 weapons are a disgrace, for it is written: "And they 
 shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their 
 spears into pruning-hooks.”^® 
 
 The rabbinic ideas of warfare are codified by Mai- 
 monides in Hilchot Melachim V.1-6; VI-VIII. War 
 is still recognized by him as an instrument of inter- 
 national relations. "A king fights first only obligatory 
 wars, i.e., wars against the seven Canaanite nations, 
 against Amalek, and in defense of Israel against at- 
 tacking foes. After that he may engage in voluntary 
 wars, that is in wars on other nations in order to 
 widen the border of Israel and to magnify his great- 
 ness and fame. For obligatory wars he does not require 
 
20 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 the permission of the Sanhedrin, but undertakes them 
 himself at any time, and compels the people to fight. 
 Offensive wars he may wage only with the consent 
 of the Sanhedrin of seventy-one.”®® Lands thus con- 
 quered become like Palestine in all matters. On enter- 
 ing the battle, let the warrior "rely on Him who is 
 the hope of Israel and His helper in times of distress. 
 And let him know that he is fighting for the Unity 
 of God, and risk his life without fear or trembling, 
 and without thought of his wife and children, but 
 remove them completely from his mind and be un- 
 deterred by anything in war. But he who begins to 
 reflect and to hesitate and to frighten himself, trans- 
 gresses the prohibition; 'let not your heart be faint; 
 fear not, nor be alarmed, neither be ye affrighted at 
 them.’ Nay more, the blood of all Israel depends upon 
 him. And if he has not conquered nor fought with all 
 his heart and all his soul, it is accounted unto him as 
 if he has shed the blood of all, for it is said; 'And 
 ye shall not cause the heart of his brethren to melt 
 like his own heart.’ And it is clearly stated in pro- 
 phetic tradition; 'Cursed be he that doeth the work 
 of the Lord with a slack hand, and curseth be he that 
 keepeth back his sword from blood.’ But he who 
 fights wholeheartedly and fearlessly, wholly set upon 
 sanctifying God’s name, may be assured of being 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 21 
 
 Spared of injury or evil, and he will establish a firm 
 house in Israel.” 
 
 Jewish Realism and Peace 
 
 The rabbinic views of war are theoretically applicable 
 only under conditions of Jewish political independ- 
 ence. Under the actual circumstances of Jewish dis- 
 persion, Judaism exercised no power whatever over 
 the issues of war and peace. These were determined 
 by governments under the rule of Christianity, Islam, 
 etc. Only to a limited degree did Judaism affect the 
 consciences of Jews engaged in war. With few ex- 
 ceptions, Jews have not engaged as mercenaries, and, 
 in consequence of their bitter experience, as victims 
 of the warmaking of other peoples, as well as of their 
 religious teachings, came to loathe the art of war. In 
 modern times they have been drawn into the citizen 
 armies of the nations of which they form a part, and 
 have striven to do their duty in defense of their coun- 
 tries. As citizens of their respective homelands, they 
 have been guided by the rule of patriotism on the 
 established Jewish principle of dtna d’malchuta dina- 
 the civil law of the land is binding upon the Jew.®^ 
 Even certain ritual laws may be temporarily set aside 
 to meet the needs of military service. Thus soldiers 
 are permitted to discharge their military duties on the 
 
22 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 Sabbath and Holy Days and to disregard the dietary 
 laws.®® Jews of priestly descent - - are not 
 
 deprived of their priestly holiness if in line of duty 
 they kill or are defiled by dead bodies.®® 
 
 With its realistic view of the world, Judaism has 
 not run away from the grim facts of experience, of 
 human wickedness, cruelty and hate, and recognizes 
 the tragic actuality of war with all its horrors. Hence 
 it has not condemned taking up arms in defense of 
 one’s country and has not disowned the Jew who was 
 conscripted or who volunteered as soldier. Modern 
 exponents of Judaism refuse to lump together all wars 
 and to brand all of them as crimes. If wars of aggres- 
 sion are an offense against God and humanity, wars 
 to ward off aggression or to prevent the enslavement 
 or slaughter of the population appear as melancholy 
 necessities. Resistance to assault may be the only 
 means of a people’s survival. Similarly patriotic wars 
 of liberation or even of punishing aggression with a 
 view to preventing its repetition belong to a different 
 category from wars prompted by lust of conquest, 
 domination, and imperialistic expansion. 
 
 Recognizing the immediate duty to resist aggres- 
 sion, Judaism does not lose sight of the more distant 
 goal of banishing all war. Though some wars are just 
 and even necessary, all wars are calamities. Judaism 
 revolts against the repugnant idea of Hegel that by 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 23 
 
 war "the ethical health of a people is preserved. Just 
 as the movement of the ocean prevents the corruption 
 which would be the result of perpetual calm, so by 
 war, people escape the corruption which would be 
 occasioned by a continuous or eternal peace.” Juda- 
 ism utterly repudiates the savage doctrine of Nietzsche 
 that "war and courage have done more great things 
 than charity.” It rejects his pagan counsel: "Your 
 enemies shall ye seek; your war shall ye wage, and 
 for the sake of your thoughts! ... Ye shall love peace 
 as a means to new wars -and the short peace more 
 than the long. You, I advise not to work, but to fight. 
 You, I advise not to peace, but to victory. Let your 
 work be a fight, let your peace be a victory.” Despite 
 some incidental virtues which war may evoke, of sub- 
 ordination of the individual to the well-being of the 
 nation, of personal discipline, courage and sacrifice, 
 etc., war is no school of virtue or religion. Judaism 
 sees no glory in the welter of blood and ruin. It re- 
 gards with abhorrence the slaughter and maiming of 
 the flower of youth and the destruction of the accu- 
 mulated treasures of human genius and toil. It is a 
 loathsome and diabolical device, which kills the very 
 things we love -the soul of justice, compassion, and 
 freedom. Civilization staggers under its burden. It 
 suspends the normal processes of civilization, and re- 
 leases the forces of vengeance and hate, of cruelty 
 
24 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 and cunning, of greed and brutality, of treachery and 
 violence. Right is displaced by might. The sword is 
 enthroned in place of reason. Even when fought in 
 self-defense, war is trailed by endless evils. 
 
 Though human history rings with the clash of arms, 
 warfare cannot in justice be considered part of the 
 conflict which runs all through nature as a condition 
 of the self-preservation of the race. Here man’s com- 
 bative instincts are exercised not against his natural 
 foes, cold, hunger, disease, poisonous reptiles, wild 
 beasts, etc., but against his own kind. The fittest 
 members of the race are killed off in war. Cain is bent 
 on the murder of his brother. The blood-stained rec- 
 ords of the past are replete with the sorrowful tales 
 of nations that rose to power by the sword and were 
 brought down by the sword. Whole civili2ations have 
 been wiped out by man’s unbridled brutality. 
 
 In the face of these grim facts the highest hope of 
 Judaism, as voiced by its prophets, has been the ulti- 
 mate abolition of warfare. It denies the inevitability 
 of war and fervently looks to the creation of condi- 
 tions wherein the forces of reason, of good will, and 
 of justice will triumph over barbarism and wherein 
 international cooperation and amity will replace sui- 
 cidal competition and mortal combat. Judaism refuses 
 to consider men as set off in separate hostile bodies. 
 All men of whatever race or religious fellowship are 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 25 
 
 bound to one another by ties of brotherhood. Amid 
 carnage and destruction, Judaism affirms the superior- 
 ity of spiritual to physical force and pins its faith in 
 the moral regeneration of man that will banish all 
 bloodshed. One of the objectives of the first World 
 War was to end war, an objective that was reduced 
 to naught by the forces of selfishness and folly. The 
 dream to outlaw war from civilized society and to 
 replace it with judicial procedure and collective secur- 
 ity persists. Upon its realization rests the future of 
 humanity. The travail of the centuries shall have been 
 in vain, if it does not usher in the prayed-for era of 
 undisturbed peace for all the children of man. 
 
 The Rabbis well expressed the conviction of Juda- 
 ism that "the world rests upon three things: on jus- 
 tice, on truth and on peace. And all three are one, 
 for where there is justice, there is also truth and there 
 is peace.” The priestly benediction ends with the 
 prayer for God’s bestowal of peace upon the people. 
 The Psalmist concludes his majestic picture of the 
 manifestation of God’s glory and might with the 
 tender words: "The Lord will grant strength unto 
 His people, the Lord will bless His people with 
 peace.”®® "Great is peace, for there is no vessel con- 
 taining blessings save peace.” ®i Indeed it is the cli- 
 max of all blessings. It outweighs all the command- 
 ments of the Torah. "The entire Torah exists only for 
 
26 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 the sake of peace, as it is written, 'its ways are ways 
 of pleasantness and all its paths are peace.’ ” In the 
 words of Rabban Gamaliel II, it is "the glory of the 
 world.’’®® Hence, we ceaselessly pray: "Grant us 
 peace. Thy most precious gift, O Thou eternal source 
 of peace, and enable Israel to be its messenger unto 
 the peoples of the earth.’’ ®^ 
 
 In the words of the "Guiding Principles of Reform 
 Judaism” of the Central Conference of American 
 Rabbis (adopted in 1937): 
 
 Judaism, from the days of the prophets, has pro- 
 claimed to mankind the ideal of universal peace. 
 
 'The spiritual and physical disarmament of all nations 
 has been one of its essential teachings. It abhors all 
 violence and relies upon moral education, love and 
 sympathy to secure human progress. It regards jus- 
 tice as the foundation of the well-being of nations 
 and the condition of enduring peace. It urges organ- 
 ized international action for disarmament, collective 
 security and world peace. 
 
 While engaged in a war for the preservation of our 
 very lives and of the highest human values, our ulti- 
 mate goal and mission is universal peace. We dare 
 look to its fulfillment only as we strive courageously 
 and self-sacrificingly to remove the ills that breed 
 strife among nations. Peace will not come of itself or 
 as the result of our sentimental wishing, but must be 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 27 
 
 created and preserved by the consecrated endeavor of 
 humanity to apply its intelligence and constructive 
 statesmanship to establish a social and political order 
 based on good will and on justice, transcending all 
 limitations of race, color and creed, on the recognition 
 of the sanctity of human life, and on the replacement 
 of cut-throat economic competition among nations 
 with mutual helpfulness and cooperation. 
 
28 
 
 JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 NOTES 
 
 'Ex. 15.2; Ps. 24.9; ISam. 17. 
 45 ; Deut. 20.4. 
 
 'Judg. 1.1; 20.18, 23f.; ISam. 
 4.1f.; 13.8-12; 14.18; Num. 
 10.9, 35-36; 20.2-4; Jos. 6.6f. 
 'Cf. ISam. 21.5; IlSam. 11. Ilf. 
 ‘ISam. 15.2f.; Deut. 12.1-3. 
 ®Deut. 13.11-19. 
 
 'Lev. 18.24. 
 
 ’Amos 2.9. 
 
 'Amos 1.3, 9, 13; 2.1; 9.10. 
 “Hosea 1.4; 14.1. 
 
 “Is. 5.26-30; 6.11-13; 7.18-20; 
 
 8.7-9; 9.4. 
 
 “Hos. 2.20ff. 
 
 “Is. 10.24ff. 
 
 “See ISamuel 8.11-20. 
 
 “ IChronicles 28.2-3. Cf. IlSam. 
 24.1-10. 
 
 “ Judges 6.24. See Psalms 46,76. 
 “ Is. 7.4-9 ; 37. 
 
 ” Is. 7.4. 
 
 “Is. 10; 31.4-9. 
 
 “Is. 30.15. 
 
 “Jer. 27. 
 
 ”Jer. 25.12.ff. 
 
 “ Ezek. 38-39. 
 
 “Jer. 6.13-14. 
 
 “Ezek. 13.19ff. 
 
 “Ezek. 33.6. 
 
 “Joel 4.9-10. 
 
 “Genesis 14. 
 
 “Ex. 2.11. 
 
 “Ex. 17.8-13. 
 
 “Judges 5.23. 
 
 “ISam. 15.17-26; IKings 20.35- 
 
 43. Cf. IIKings 8.12. 
 
 “Hos. 2.2-22. 
 
 “Is. 32.17. 
 
 “Is. 11. 
 
 “Gen. 9.6. 
 
 “Leviticus 19.16. 
 
 “Deut. 20; 21.10-14. 
 
 “International Critical Com- 
 mentary, Deuteronomy, p. 239. 
 
 “IMaccabees 2.27. 
 
 ‘°IMacc. 2.40-48; Josephus, An- 
 tiquities, XII. 6,2. 
 
 Josephus reports that the saint- 
 ly Onias not only refused to 
 pray for the victory of one side 
 in this strife, but petitioned 
 that God hearken not to the en- 
 treaties of either party against 
 the other. In consequence he 
 was stoned to death. Antiqui- 
 ties, XIV.2,1. 
 
 "Antiquities, XVIII. 1,6; Wars, 
 II, 8,1. 
 
 ‘’Wars, II, 8,10; Philo, ed. 
 Younge, III, 523ff. 
 
 ‘’Antiquities, IV. 8,41-43. 
 
 ‘‘Numbers R. 21. 4-6 on Num. 
 25.16; Ber. 58a. 
 
 ‘'Ecclesiastes R. 9.25; Tanhuma, 
 Vayishlah, 6; Rashi to Gen. 
 32.9. For Rabbinic views on 
 war, see Sifre to Deut. 20 ; 20. 
 10-14; Mishna, Sota, VIII and 
 Gemara to this section. 
 
 “Sota 44b. 
 
 ‘’Sab. 60a; Erubin 45a, 
 
JUDAISM AND WAR 
 
 29 
 
 ^®Erubin 45 a. See Orah Hayyim 
 329.6. See Josephus, Antiquit. 
 XIII.12,4; XIV.4,2; Wars II. 
 19,2; cf. Jubilees 50.13. 
 
 Isaiah 2.4; Sabbath 6.4. 
 
 ®®Sanh. 2a; 20b. 
 
 ''Deut. 20.3,8. 
 
 ®"Jer. 48.10. 
 
 ^^Hilchot Melachim VIL15. 
 ®^Baba Kamma 113b. 
 
 ®®Erubin 17b; Hul. 17a. 
 "^IIMacc. 12.39. 
 
 Grundlinien der Philosophie 
 des Rechts, Engl, tr., London, 
 1896, p. 331, cited by Wester- 
 marck, Christianity & Morals, 
 p. 324. 
 
 ®®Thus Spake Zarathustra, Mod- 
 ern Library, pp. 62-3. 
 
 ^^Abot 1.18; Jer. Taanit 4.2. 
 Psalm 29.11. 
 
 ®^Sifre, Numbers, 42. 
 
 ^^Gittin 59b. 
 
 ®"Abot R. Nathan, II, 24, ed. 
 Schechter, p. 49. 
 
 Union Prayerbook paraphrase 
 of the last benediction of the 
 Amidah. For a compendium of 
 Rabbinic teachings on peace see 
 Perek Shalom in M. Higger’s 
 The Treatise Derek Erez 
 (1935), pp. 248-264 and Eng- 
 lish translation, pp. 84-94. See 
 also A. Cohen, Everyman’s Tal- 
 mud (1932), pp. 216-222. 
 
ADDITIONAL 
 POPULAR STUDIES 
 
 Additional Studies grouped under the following 
 general themes are now in preparation: 
 
 The Social Ideal in Judaism 
 Judaism and Other Modern Religions 
 Judaism and Modern Thought 
 Post-Biblical Judaism 
 The Jewish Prayerbook 
 Jewish Theology 
 Jewish Literature 
 
T his is one of a series of pamphlets published by the 
 Union of American Hebrew Congregations. These 
 essays are designed to convey information on the Jewish 
 religion and Jewish history, and are intended for general 
 distribution. They are prepared by the Commission on 
 Public Information about Jews and Judaism appointed 
 jointly by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations 
 and the Central Conference of American Rabbis. 
 
 ★ 
 
 THE COMMISSION ON 
 
 PUBLIC INFORMATION ABOUT JEWS 
 AND JUDAISM 
 
 MERCHANTS BUILDING, CINCINNATI 
 

 i 
 
 1. What Do Jews Believe? Rabbi H. G. Enelow, D. D. 
 
 2. The Jew in America. Rabbi David Philipson, D. D. 
 
 3. Jew and Non-Jew. Rabbi Martin A. Meyer, Ph. D. 
 
 4. Jewish Ethics. Rabbi Samuel Schulman, D. D. 
 
 5. The Universal Lord. Rabbi Maurice H. Harris, D. D. 
 
 6. Humanitarianism of the Laws of Israel. Rabbi Jacob Raisin, Ph. D. 
 
 7. Post^Biblical Judaism — I. Its Biblical Foundation — ^The Midrash. 
 
 Rabbi Israel Bettan, D. D. 
 
 8. Judaism’s Influence in the Founding of the Republic. Rabbi Morris M. 
 
 Feuerlicht, A. B. 
 
 9. Philanthropy in Rabbinical Literature. Rabbi Abraham Cronbach, D. D. 
 
 10. The Jewish Prayerbook. Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof, D. D. 
 
 11. Judaism and Democracy. Rabbi Louis Witt, A. B. 
 
 12. Jewish Philanthropic Institutions in the Middle Ages. 
 
 Rabbi Abraham Cronbach, D. D. 
 
 13. Judaism and Socialism. Rabbi Jacob Tarshish, A. B. 
 
 14. The Jewish Holidays. Rabbi William Rosenau, Ph. D. 
 
 15. Post-Biblical Judaism — II. Its Spiritual Note. Rabbi Israel Bettan, D. D. 
 
 16. Judaism and Unitarianism. Rabbi Abraham J. Feldman, A. B. 
 
 17. Judaism and International Peace. Rabbi Joseph S. Kornfeld, A. B. 
 
 18. A Layman’s Jewish Library. Rabbi Israel Bettan, D. D., Rabbi Louis I. 
 
 Egelson, M. A., Rabbi Jacob R. Marcus, Ph. D., Chairman. (Tem- 
 porarily out of print.) 
 
 19. Judaism and Marriage. Rabbi Felix A. Levy, Ph. D. 
 
 20. Post-Biblical Judaism — III. Its Healthy-mindedness. Rabbi Israel Bettan, 
 
 D. D. 
 
 21. Immortality in Judaism. Rabbi Israel Mattuck, A. M., D. H. L. 
 
 22. Isaac M. Wise. Rabbi David Philipson, D. D. 
 
 23. Jewish Philanthropy in the Biblical Era. Rabbi Ephraim Frisch, Ph. D. 
 
 24. Post-Biblical Judaism — IV. Its Conception of Israel’s Place in the World. 
 
 Rabbi Israel Bettan, D. D. 
 
 25. The Social Outlook of Modern Judaism. Rabbi Abraham Cronbach, D.D. 
 
 26. What Is the Talmud? Rabbi Max Reichler, A. B. 
 
 27. What Is Reform Judaism? Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof, D. D. 
 
 28. The Jewish Idea of God. Rabbi Samuel S. Cohon, A, B. 
 
 29. Contributions of Judaism to Modern Society. Rabbi Abraham J. Feld- 
 
 man, A. B. 
 
 30. The Faith and Message of the Prophets. Moses Buttenwieser, Ph. D. 
 
 31. The Jewish Concept of the Chosen People. Rabbi Bernard Heller, Ph. D. 
 
 32. Judaism and War. Rabbi Samuel S. Cohon, A. B. 
 
 7