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War and Peace in the Jewish Tradition

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War and Peace in the Jewish Tradition War and Peace in the Jewish Tradition edited by Lawrence Schiffman and Joel B. Wolowelsky Robert S. Hirt, Series Editor THE MICHAEL SCHARF PUBLICATION TRUST of the YESHIVA UNIVERSITY PRESs New York OOFF 1166 WWarar aandnd PPeaceeace rr0909 ddraftraft 6 iiiiii iiiiii 229/01/20079/01/2007 111:40:591:40:59 THE ORTHODOX FORUM The Orthodox Forum, initially convened by Dr. Norman Lamm, Chancellor of Yeshiva University, meets each year to consider major issues of concern to the Jewish community. Forum participants from throughout the world, including academicians in both Jewish and secular fields, rabbis,rashei yeshivah, Jewish educators, and Jewish communal professionals, gather in conference as a think tank to discuss and critique each other’s original papers, examining different aspects of a central theme. The purpose of the Forum is to create and disseminate a new and vibrant Torah literature addressing the critical issues facing Jewry today. The Orthodox Forum gratefully acknowledges the support of the Joseph J. and Bertha K. Green Memorial Fund at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary established by Morris L. Green, of blessed memory. The Orthodox Forum Series is a project of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, an affiliate of Yeshiva University OOFF 1166 WWarar aandnd PPeaceeace rr0909 ddraftraft 6 iiii iiii 229/01/20079/01/2007 111:40:591:40:59 Published by KTAV Publishing House, Inc. 930 Newark Avenue Jersey City, NJ 07306 Tel. (201) 963-9524 Fax. (201) 963-0102 www.ktav.com [email protected] Copyright © 2007 Yeshiva University Press This book was typeset by Jerusalem Typesetting, www.jerusalemtype.com * * * Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Orthodox Forum (16th : 2004 : New York, NY) War and peace in the Jewish tradition / edited by Lawrence Schiffman, Joel B. Wolowelsky. p. cm. – (Orthodox forum series) ISBN 0-88125-945-4 1. War – Religious aspects – Judaism. 2. War (Jewish law) 3. Just war doctrine. 4. Peace – Religious aspects – Judaism. 5. Reconciliation – Religious aspects – Judaism. I. Schiffman, Lawrence H. II. Wolowelsky, Joel B. III. Title. BM538.P3O78 2004 296.3’6242 – dc22 2006038084 OOFF 1166 WWarar aandnd PPeaceeace rr0909 ddraftraft 6 iivv iivv 229/01/20079/01/2007 111:40:591:40:59 Contents About the Editors and Contributors ix Series Editor’s Preface xiii Introduction xv David Shatz Just Wars, Just Battles and Just Conduct in Jewish Law: Jewish Law Is Not a Suicide Pact!* 1 Michael J. Broyde Philosophical Perspectives on Just War 45 Herb Leventer From a Chessboard to the Matrix: The Challenge of Applying the Laws of Armed Conflict in the Asymmetric Warfare Era 93 Yosefi M. Seltzer “What is this Bleeting of Sheep in My Ears”: Spoils of War / Wars that Spoil 133 Moshe Sokolow The Origin of Nations and the Shadow of Violence: Theological Perspectives on Canaan and Amalek 163 Shalom Carmy Amalek and the Seven Nations: A Case of Law vs. Morality 201 Norman Lamm v OOFF 1166 WWarar aandnd PPeaceeace rr0909 ddraftraft 6 v v 229/01/20079/01/2007 111:40:591:40:59 International Law and Halakhah 239 Jeremy Wieder International Law, Israel, and the Use of Force: Historic Perspectives/Current Perplexities 265 Michla Pomerance “Dilemmas of Military Service in Israel: The Religious Dimension 313 Stuart A. Cohen Attitudes Towards the Use of Military Force in Ideological Currents of Religious Zionism 341 Elie Holzer Military Service: Ambivalence and Contradiction 415 Judith Bleich War in Jewish Apocalyptic Thought 477 Lawrence H. Schiffman Models of Reconciliation and Coexistence in Jewish Sources 497 Dov S. Zakheim The Orthodox Forum Sixteenth Conference List of Participants 533 OOFF 1166 WWarar aandnd PPeaceeace rr0909 ddraftraft 6 vvii vvii 229/01/20079/01/2007 111:40:591:40:59 Other Volumes in the Orthodox Forum Series Rabbinic Authority and Personal Autonomy edited by Moshe Z. Sokol Jewish Tradition and the Non-Traditional Jew edited by Jacob J. Schacter Israel as a Religious Reality edited by Chaim I. Waxman Modern Scholarship in the Study of Torah: Contributions and Limitations edited by Shalom Carmy Tikkun Olam: Social Responsibility in Jewish Thought and Law edited by David Shatz, Chaim I. Waxman, and Nathan J. Diament Engaging Modernity: Rabbinic Leaders and the Challenge of the Twentieth Century edited by Moshe Z. Sokol Jewish Perspectives on the Experience of Suffering edited by Shalom Carmy Jewish Business Ethics: The Firm and Its Stakeholders edited by Aaron Levine and Moses Pava Tolerance, Dissent, and Democracy: Philosophical, Historical, and Halakhic Perspectives edited by Moshe Z. Sokol Jewish Spirituality and Divine Law edited by Adam Mintz and Lawrence Schiffman Formulating Responses in an Egalitarian Age edited by Marc D. Stern Judaism, Science, and Moral Responsibility edited by Yitzhak Berger and David Shatz Lomdus: The Conceptual Approach to Jewish Learning edited by Yosef Blau Rabbinic and Lay Communal Authority edited by Suzanne Last Stone and Robert S. Hirt OOFF 1166 WWarar aandnd PPeaceeace rr0909 ddraftraft 6 vviiii vviiii 229/01/20079/01/2007 111:40:591:40:59 About the Editors and Contributors Judith Bleich is associate professor of Judaic Studies at Touro Col- lege in New York City. She has written extensively on modern Jewish history. Michael Broyde is senior lecturer at Emoy University School of Law, where he is also director of the Project on Law, Religion, and the Family and a member of the Law and Religion Program. Ordained yoreh yoreh v-yadin yadin, he is author of The Pursuit of Justice and Jewish Law: Halakhic Perspectives on the Legal Profession, as well as numerous other works. Shalom Carmy teaches Bible, Jewish thought, and philosophy at Yeshiva University and is editor of Tradition. He has published extensively and is the editor of two volumes in the Orthodox Forum series, most recently Jewish Perspectives on the Experi- ence of Suffering. Stuart A. Cohen is a professor Political Studies at Bar-Ilan Univer- sity in Israel. Robert S. Hirt is the senior advisor to the president of Yeshiva University and vice president emeritus of its affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He occupies the Rabbi Sidney Shoham Chair in Rabbinic and Community Leader- ship at RIETS. Elie Holzer is Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Bar Ilan University and a Senior Research Associate at the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University, MA. His fields of research and publications are hermeneutics and the teaching and learning of Jewish texts, professional de- velopment in Jewish education, philosophy of Jewish education, and Religious Zionism. Norman Lamm is the Rosh ha-Yeshivah of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan OOFF 1166 WWarar aandnd PPeaceeace rr0909 ddraftraft 6 vviiiiii vviiiiii 229/01/20079/01/2007 111:41:001:41:00 War and Peace in the Jewish Tradition ix Theological Seminary and the Chancellor of Yeshiva Univer- sity. Herbert Leventer is an adjunct instructor of Philosophy at Yeshiva University. Michla Pomerance is the Emilio von Hofmannsthal Professor of International Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her areas of expertise include international adjudication, the prin- ciple of self-determination, and international legal aspects of the use of force. Lawrence H. Schiffman is Chairman of New York University’s Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and serves as Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. He is also a member of the University’s Hagop Kevork- ian Center for Near Eastern Studies and Center for Ancient Studies. Yosefi Seltzer is an active duty Judge Advocate with the United States Army Legal Services Agency. He is also the founder and president of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists Military Bar Committee. David Shatz is professor of philosophy at Yeshiva University, editor of The Torah u-Madda Journal, and editor of the series MeOtzar Horav: Selected Writings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. He has published many books and articles relating to both general and Jewish philosophy. Moshe Sokolow is the Fanya Gottesfeld-Heller Professor of Jewish Education at the Azrieli Graduate School of Professional Edu- cation and Administration and Editor of Ten Da’at. Jeremy Wieder teaches at Yeshiva University, occupying the Joseph and Gwendolyn Straus Chair in Talmud at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Joel B. Wolowelsky is Dean of the Faculty at the Yeshivah of Flat- bush, where he teaches math and Jewish philosophy. He is associate editor of Tradition, The Torah u-Madda Journal, and the series MeOtzar HoRav: Selected Writings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Dov Zakheim is a consultant in McLean, VA. OOFF 1166 WWarar aandnd PPeaceeace rr0909 ddraftraft 6 iixx iixx 229/01/20079/01/2007 111:41:001:41:00 OOFF 1166 WWarar aandnd PPeaceeace rr0909 ddraftraft 6 x x 229/01/20079/01/2007 111:41:001:41:00 Series Editor’s Preface The Orthodox Forum is dedicated to addressing consequential is- sues currently confronting our community, while drawing upon the insights and wisdom contained in Jewish textual sources from the Biblical period to our own day. After the six-day war, a sense of euphoria engulfed the Jewish world awaiting the onset of a Messianic era. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world anticipated the end of global hostility. Yet, it wasn’t too long before age old ethnic, religious and national conflicts resurfaced and hopes for peace gave way to cycles of violent conflicts in many regions of the world. This volume, the fourteenth in the Orthodox Forum Series, War, Peace and the Jewish Tradition, brings together the thinking of a wide range of distinguished American and Israeli academicians and religious leaders from various disciplines, to shed light on the historical, philosophical, theological, legal and moral issues raised by military conflict and the search for peaceful resolution.
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