Rabbi Daniel S. Brenner co-directs the CLAL Internship Program, an extensive pluralist training program for rabbinical students and emerging Jewish educators from HUC, JTS, Yeshiva University, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, RRC, the Academy for Jewish Religion and the Drisha Institute.

Age Appropriateness: Grade school - Adult
Format: Essay with texts and thought-provoking questions
Goals:

• To help students understand the origins of violence, as well as the Jewish attitude to war and weapons of mass destruction, through the use of Jewish texts.
• To help students use texts to understand the Torah’s view of war.

Introduction: In this essay, Daniel Brenner helps us understand how to grapple with the difficult task of trying to teach about war, without a real, personal understanding of war. He lays out several important Torah stories as a way of understanding war. Daniel Brenner takes us through a discussion of the origin of violence, warfare, and the very current issue of weapons of mass destruction. With thought-provoking questions strewn throughout, he has presented a piece that can be adapted to all ages.

As I have spent the last year teaching Jewish ethics regarding war and conflict, on more than one occasion I’ve had to stop and ask myself: What in the world qualifies me to teach about war?

I’ve never marched into battle or even had to wear an army uniform. In my generation in America (I was born in 1969), there hasn’t even been the threat of being drafted into service. As a result, I know almost nothing about war -- the closest I’ve ever been to battle is as a bystander to bloodshed in the first Intifada and as a chaplain in lower Manhattan on 9/11.

Yet, I have devoured meditations on war in film and in novels like The Things They Carried, Slaughterhouse Five, and Catch-22. I have spoken with veterans of war and heard tales of anguish, loss, and heroism. Each of these experiences has not only led me back to the traditional Jewish sources on war (I often teach Deuteronomy 20, the Talmudic discussion in Sotah, and the commentary by Rambam, Rashi, and the Meiri), but also to the stories of conflict that we read of in Genesis.

If I take my cue from the Torah, then any discussion of war needs to begin with a discussion of the origins of violence. What stories serve this purpose? The two stories that I keep returning to in teaching the origin of violence are taken from the pre-Abrahamic stories in Genesis: the murder of Abel by Cain and the tower of Babel. In teaching I pair them both with some dramatic midrashim.

The murder of Abel in Genesis 4:1-16 is a familiar story:

Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the LORD , “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” But the LORD said to him, “Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

In teaching the murder of Abel, I use the following midrash on Genesis 4:8:

Cain said to Abel his brother-- What did Cain say? Come and let us divide the world between us. Abel replied: I agree. So Cain said: You take the animals, I’ll take the land. Then Abel’s animals began to graze on Cain’s land. Cain said: This is my land! Abel replied: So give me your jacket – it is made from wool and is mine! Cain chased Abel from hill to valley and hill to valley until they wrestled. Abel was on top, and Cain, knowing that he would soon lose, began to cry: “What will you tell our father?” Abel had compassion on Cain, and let him go. Then Cain rose up against Abel his brother.
adapted from Tanchuma, Bereshit, Genesis Rabbah 22:9

This midrash not only addresses the reasons why conflicts begin and escalate, but it also serves as a springboard to questions of trust.

• Why does Cain wish to divide the world? How are the world’s resources divided now? What is the result of the division in their time and in ours? Are the brothers justified in making their claims? What justifies our claims to land or wealth? What should Abel have done?

These questions and others can not only be connected to the conflicts that students witness on the nightly news, but to the experiences of conflict they have in their family and social lives.

While the Cain and Abel story helps students to grasp the roots of violence, I think that it needs the complement of the tower of Babel tale to address social violence –- violence that goes beyond a sibling rivalry. I begin with Genesis 11:1-9.

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the people were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel - because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

On the surface, this story has very little to do with social violence. But, in teaching about the Tower of Babel, I use the following two midrashim to clarify exactly why this tower building needed to be stopped:

The tower had two sides – one to bring bricks up and one to take them down. If a man fell down and died, no one cared. But if a brick fell they stopped and said “How terrible! We will have to wait for more!”
Pirkei D’Rebbe Eliezer 24

Confused the language – What does this mean? When one said to another “Bring me water,” the other would bring him mud. Then the one who asked for water cracked the other man’s skull.
Genesis Rabbah 38:10

After reading these midrashim, I ask, “What kind of people were these tower builders?”

Students have commented that the first of these midrashim turns the tower tale into a parable on fascism. When any society places construction of anything (palaces, military machines) over human life, they are setting a pretext for more violence. The second midrash relates the true nature of the tower builders – their deep lack of understanding for one another triggered violence.

The other question that emerges from this tale is “What does this story tell us about the nations of the world?” We continue to live in a world of confused tongue and skull cracking. And, as much as we want to affirm the teaching that “One who spills blood is as if that person has diminished the divine image!” (Mechilta Shmot 20:13), there always seems to be a need to stand up to the violent and destructive leaders of the world. Jews are not taught to “turn the other cheek,” but if we do have to go to war, what ethics inform that battle?

Genesis not only addresses violence, but warfare itself. It is no coincidence that the site of the tower, Shinar, becomes the place of origin of one of the kings who battled Abraham, Amraphel.

In Genesis 14: 11-24 we read:

The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they went away. They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom. One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram. When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people. After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.” But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me - to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre. Let them have their share.”

Here I ask the questions:

• What are the motivations for Abram to wage war? What is Melchizedek’s reaction to Abram’s victory? What does Abram teach us with his response?

Abram’s war experience serves as a good model for discussing the proper role of war: Abram attacks only when the lives of his family are in danger and he does not plunder the people he defeats. Few of today’s battles are conducted with this level of ethical consciousness.

The next story I draw on from Genesis is to address what has become in today’s parlance “weapons of mass destruction.” To me, the ultimate warning about use of these weapons is found in Genesis 18: 16-33, another story of Abraham (whose name had been changed from Abram in Genesis 17.

When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD . Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing - to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.” Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.” Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

There are many midrashim that address the evils of Sodom. One of the most vivid is:

There was a girl in Sodom who once brought bread to a poor, sick and hungry man. When the man did not die, the people of Sodom figured out that she was feeding him. They smeared honey over her and placed her on the rooftop so that bees came to sting her until she died.
Talmud, Sanhedrin 109b

By simply asking “If Sodom is such an evil place, what is Abraham trying to tell God?” students will begin to articulate the ideas of compassion and the value of saving innocent life. Clearly Abraham’s reasoning is a moral argument against any future Hiroshimas.

There is certainly more in Genesis on both violence and war –- the stories of Jacob and Esau are rife with it - but I offer these four tales as a place to begin. For Jewish educators like myself, who have not engaged in military battle, teaching about war should not simply be teaching about what those who do go to battle or the politicians above them should be doing. Teaching about war becomes personal when it addresses the fundamental issues that underlie all conflicts and the responsible use of force required to bring about justice and peace.