Elements of Violence and Nonviolence in Judaism: A Contemporary Israeli Perspective

Introduction

About a thousand years ago, the great Spanish-Jewish poet and philosopher Yehuda HaLevi wrote what became a central text of medieval Jewish thought, The Kuzari. The Kuzari is a major text for the teaching of Jewish thought in the Israeli school system, especially in the state-religious schools. Apparently based on a historical incident, it describes how the king of an Eastern European tribe called the Khazars invited scholars from the three Abrahamic faiths to come before him. He posed questions to each of them. Ultimately, being most satisfied with the answers offered by the Jewish scholar, he converted himself and his entire tribe to Judaism.

The Kuzari recounts the discussions between the king and the Jewish scholar, but twice in the book the king asks questions that the scholar cannot answer satisfactorily. In one case, he asks about the deep connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. If the land is so crucial to Jewish faith and practice, then how can we explain the fact that most of the Jews live outside of Israel? To which the Jew replies: “You have found my Achilles heel.” In the second case, the king asks about Jewish morality, which developed historically in a situation of powerlessness. If you were to acquire military power, asks the king, would you not then become just as violent as any other people? To this also the Jewish scholar had no adequate answer, responding, “I am embarrassed, as you have discovered my weak point.” ¹

Unfortunately, in our own time, there seems to be a connection between these two issues—the centrality of the Land of Israel in Jewish life and the moral use or abuse of power. Jews have returned to the land, and it is within that context that we must confront the challenge of military power. What resources do we have to draw upon from Jewish traditional culture that would inform violent or nonviolent responses? Can biblical and rabbinic traditions be helpful in resolving the bloody conflicts in the Middle East?

Prophetic Visions and Legal Traditions

Some of the most beautiful descriptions of a world at peace are drawn from prophecies in the Hebrew Bible. The most famous of these, a sentence from which is engraved on the United Nations building in New York, is taken from the prophet Isaiah 2:1–4:

This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall happen in the latter days that the mountain of Yahweh’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning 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.

Several chapters later, the vision is elaborated (Is. 11:6–9):

The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat; the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.

These are certainly among the finest and most noble visions we have of global harmony, epitomized by...