Religious Zionism, Jewish Law, and the Morality of War
How Five Rabbis Confronted One of Modern Judaism's Greatest Challenges
Seiten
2017
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-068709-0 (ISBN)
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-068709-0 (ISBN)
This study is a pioneering exploration of how rabbis in the religious Zionist community in Israel constructed a body of Jewish law on war. It focuses on five leading rabbis in this camp and how they dealt with a number of key moral issues that the waging of war raised.
When the state of Israel was established in 1947, it was immediately thrust into war, and rabbis in the religious Zionist community were confronted with the formidable challenge of constructing a body of Jewish law to deal with this turn of events. A body of law had to be "constructed" here because Jewish law had developed mostly during prior centuries when Jews had neither a state nor an army, and therefore it did not include much material on war. Leading rabbis in the religious Zionist camp responded to this challenge with remarkable ingenuity and creativity. They used their interpretive skills to greatly expand the little material on war in Jewish law that already existed. They also used those skills to draw out insights from other areas of Jewish law that could be applied to war. The result was a substantial corpus of law on war where almost none had existed before.
The work of these rabbis represents a fascinating chapter in the history of Jewish law and ethics, but it has attracted relatively little attention from academics. This book is a pioneering attempt to make up for that shortfall. It examines how five leading rabbis in the religious Zionist community in the twentieth century dealt with key moral issues in war. Chapters are devoted to R. Abraham Isaac Kook, R. Isaac Halevi Herzog, and R. Eliezer Waldenberg, R. Sha'ul Yisraeli, and R. Shlomo Goren. The moral issues examined include the question of who is a legitimate authority for waging war, why Jews in a modern Jewish state can be drafted to fight on its behalf, and under what circumstances the killing of enemy civilians is permitted. This study also examines how the positions of these rabbis on such issues compare to those of international law.
When the state of Israel was established in 1947, it was immediately thrust into war, and rabbis in the religious Zionist community were confronted with the formidable challenge of constructing a body of Jewish law to deal with this turn of events. A body of law had to be "constructed" here because Jewish law had developed mostly during prior centuries when Jews had neither a state nor an army, and therefore it did not include much material on war. Leading rabbis in the religious Zionist camp responded to this challenge with remarkable ingenuity and creativity. They used their interpretive skills to greatly expand the little material on war in Jewish law that already existed. They also used those skills to draw out insights from other areas of Jewish law that could be applied to war. The result was a substantial corpus of law on war where almost none had existed before.
The work of these rabbis represents a fascinating chapter in the history of Jewish law and ethics, but it has attracted relatively little attention from academics. This book is a pioneering attempt to make up for that shortfall. It examines how five leading rabbis in the religious Zionist community in the twentieth century dealt with key moral issues in war. Chapters are devoted to R. Abraham Isaac Kook, R. Isaac Halevi Herzog, and R. Eliezer Waldenberg, R. Sha'ul Yisraeli, and R. Shlomo Goren. The moral issues examined include the question of who is a legitimate authority for waging war, why Jews in a modern Jewish state can be drafted to fight on its behalf, and under what circumstances the killing of enemy civilians is permitted. This study also examines how the positions of these rabbis on such issues compare to those of international law.
Professor of Religion and Judaic Studies and Chair of the Department of Religion at George Washington University
Preface
Abbreviations
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: War in Jewish Law Before Zionism
Chapter Three: R. Abraham Isaac Kook
Chapter Four: R. Isaac Halevi Herzog
Chapter Five: R. Eliezer Yehudah Waldenberg
Chapter Six: R. Sha'ul Yisraeli: The Essay on Kibiyeh
Chapter Seven: R. Sha'ul Yisraeli: The Later Writings
Chapter Eight: R. Shlomo Goren
Chapter Nine: Summary and Conclusions
Works Cited
| Erscheinungsdatum | 15.11.2017 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | New York |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 155 x 239 mm |
| Gewicht | 658 g |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-19-068709-6 / 0190687096 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-19-068709-0 / 9780190687090 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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