LAW OF WAR
J. David Bleich, "Preemptive War in Jewish Law", Tradition
21/1 (1983), 3-41. - The author analyses the Jewish law on warfare with
regard to the Israeli operations in Lebanon in the summer of l982. He argues
that determination of the halakhic propriety of the Israeli incursion into
Lebanon is contingent both upon accurate analysis of points of fact as well
as resolution of questions of Jewish law. Nevertheless, he contends, it
is beyond dispute, as a matter of fact and a matter of halakhah, that once
hostilities have commenced Israel must prevail because it can not afford
the luxury of military defeat. When the threat of such defeat looms military
action assumes the guise of obligatory war "to deliver Israel from
the enemy." (S.M.P.)
J. Muffs, "Abraham the Noble Warrior: Patriarchal politics and
Laws of War in Ancient Israel", JJS 33:1-2 (1982: Yadin Festschrift),
81-107. - Each element in Gen. 14 has its exact counterpart in the
laws of war and the etiquette of booty restoration found in the international
treaties of Boghazkoi and Ugarit. While this discovery enhances the authenticity
of the text, it does not prove that the text itself comes to us directly
from its second millennium forbears. (S.N.R.)
Joseph Polak, "Arms Transfer, The State of Israel, and Halakha",
Tradition 24/3 (1989), 67-82. - This paper argues in favour of the
dispensation for the manufacture of military hardware by Israel and the
sale of it to other nations. Halakhic parameters for the dispensation are
specified and a further basis for the dispensation grounded in economic
and political considerations is advanced. The author also suggests "halakhic
eventualities and circumstances under which the dispensation would break
down", and what needs to be done to monitor them. (S.M.P.)
A. Rofé, "The Laws of Warfare in the book of Deuteronomy:
Their Origins, Interest and Positivity", JSOT 32 (1985), 23-44.
- A comparison of the Deuteronomic laws of warfare with practices which
are recorded as obtaining before the monarchy shows that the Deuteronomic.
laws are much later and date from the mid-monarchic period. For all that
they are now scattered in the law code the war laws were once a unified
corpus. They can be traced to three levels of redaction. The first comprised
24:5, 23:10-14, 20:14, 19-29, 21:10-14. This was redacted by Ds (sphetÓm)
whose work appears in 20:5-7,1. Two further Deuteronomic additions occur,
D2 (20:15-18) and Dp (priest) portraying the role of the priest in battle.
These three redactional levels span the period of Josiah's reform. The Deuteronomic
laws calling for humanity in war were addressed to the militia, not to professional
soldiers. This accounts for their theoretical nature, one element of which
was the call not to fear even before large armies. It was this quixotic
understanding which led to Josiah's defeat and death. (R.A.M.)
Aaron Soloveichik, "Waging War on Shabbat," Tradition
20/3 (l982), 179-187. The author considers warfare on Shabbat from three
perspectives: legitimate war per se; the saving of human life; and
the murderous pursuer. He asserts that war can be waged on Shabbat from
all three perspectives provided the war is a milhemet mitsvah. (S.M.P.)
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