Parashat Shoftim deals with war (and I feel in my heart, that the time is long overdue that Israel declares war on its enemies, with all of the many ramifications). In Parashat Shoftim the Torah tells us ?vikarata lishalom? - we have to make a peace bid to our enemies. Both according to the commentary of the Ramban on the parasha and according to the Rambam, in Hilchot Melachim, chapter 6, this applies even to a war against Amalek and even to a war against the seven indigenous nations of the Land of Canaan. We must make our bid for peace. That bid for peace, according the Rambam, includes the enemies? acceptance of the seven Noahide laws of morality. That condition, I think, is very important. They have to believe in ?Lo tirtzach? (?Thou shalt not murder?). They have to do more than give mere lip-service to the idea ? their media, their textbooks, everything has to give expression to the seven laws of morality. Then, we can make peace with them.
However, if they refuse to make peace with us, ?hachrem tachrimem? - ?they must be utterly destroyed,? including women and children. This, obviously, is difficult to accept. The midrashim and all the latter day commentaries deal with this issue. How can we accept, even command, the murder of innocent children?
There are, however, two other laws in parashat Shoftim that do not seem in consonance with utterly destroying everyone, including women and children. Right after the laws of ?hachrem tachrimem? ? ?you shall utterly destroy them? - two sentences later, the Torah tells us ?ki tatzur ?al ?ir yamim rabim?? - ?if you are laying siege to a city [of your enemies]?? ? ?lo tashchit et etzah lindoach alav garzen?? ? you aren?t allowed to destroy the fruit trees, because the tree is likened to a man. Either because it is not proper gratitude, for, after all, human beings derive sustenance from the fruit tree, or because we have compassion for the fruit tree. It is not a human being that can run away or protect himself. So, you cannot destroy the fruit trees. What is the Torah telling me - innocent children I don?t have compassion for, but fruit trees I do have compassion for?
Then there is the very last law in parashat Shoftim: eglah arufah - the broken-necked heifer. If one individual is found murdered and we don?t know who the murderer is, and he?s found murdered in an open place, like a field, then the elders from the nearest city must bring a sacrifice - that?s the broken-necked heifer ? and they have to cry out, ?Our hands have not shed this blood.? You generally bring a sacrifice when you feel some measure of guilt. Indeed, the Talmud Yerushalmi explains that if there was a crime committed in a city that you were responsible for, then you are responsible also for that crime. It means that you could have prevented it - perhaps by having greater welfare services, or perhaps by having greater security forces. The Torah goes to great lengths about one unsolved murder of one individual, how, then, can the Torah speak of mass killings ? ?hachrem tachrimem? - ?you shall surely destroy them??
It is fascinating that in his masterful Torah commentary, HaEmek Davar, in the beginning of the seventh chapter of Devarim (Deuteronomy), where the Torah had also stated that we must destroy our enemies, the seven indigenous nations, including women and children, the Netziv, Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, specifically stipulates that the intention is those children who stand in war against us and not those who are sitting at home, innocently. It is almost as if the Netziv could see into the intifada mentality of our present-day enemy. It is almost as if the Netziv ? through the Torah, of course ? prophetically understood that there would come a time when the enemy would use children as decoys, children as suicidal-homicide bombers, children as soldiers. It is to these children and of these children that the Torah speaks. You must destroy anyone who comes to kill innocents, even when those who come to kill innocents are themselves children. They, too, fit into the rubric of ?haba lehargecha, hashkem lehorgo? - ?he who comes to kill you, you must kill him first? ? even if they are children, in order for right and good to triumph over evil.
I would go a step further. If the evil people who are perpetrating their crimes are protecting themselves by hiding out in apartments where they place innocent children, because they believe that they will not be killed by us as long as there are children nearby, then, too, the enemy must be utterly destroyed and stopped if good is to triumph. If we have an enemy who targets innocents, if we have an enemy who has made the home and the car and the school and the university the object of their destruction, then in order to destroy the destroyer, tragically, we may sometimes have to kill the children with whom he is hiding out in his hope that it will give him immunity. It dare not give him immunity. We dare not apologize for destroying evil, even when it uses children for protection. If we do not destroy that evil, then the evil will destroy us and, with us, the entire free world.
For, ultimately, the worst evil imaginable is committing suicide.
----------------------------------
Rabbi Riskin is the Chief Rabbi of Efrat and founder and Dean of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs. His weekly Torah commentary on Arutz Sheva Israel National Radio can be heard on our On Demand Audio page.
However, if they refuse to make peace with us, ?hachrem tachrimem? - ?they must be utterly destroyed,? including women and children. This, obviously, is difficult to accept. The midrashim and all the latter day commentaries deal with this issue. How can we accept, even command, the murder of innocent children?
There are, however, two other laws in parashat Shoftim that do not seem in consonance with utterly destroying everyone, including women and children. Right after the laws of ?hachrem tachrimem? ? ?you shall utterly destroy them? - two sentences later, the Torah tells us ?ki tatzur ?al ?ir yamim rabim?? - ?if you are laying siege to a city [of your enemies]?? ? ?lo tashchit et etzah lindoach alav garzen?? ? you aren?t allowed to destroy the fruit trees, because the tree is likened to a man. Either because it is not proper gratitude, for, after all, human beings derive sustenance from the fruit tree, or because we have compassion for the fruit tree. It is not a human being that can run away or protect himself. So, you cannot destroy the fruit trees. What is the Torah telling me - innocent children I don?t have compassion for, but fruit trees I do have compassion for?
Then there is the very last law in parashat Shoftim: eglah arufah - the broken-necked heifer. If one individual is found murdered and we don?t know who the murderer is, and he?s found murdered in an open place, like a field, then the elders from the nearest city must bring a sacrifice - that?s the broken-necked heifer ? and they have to cry out, ?Our hands have not shed this blood.? You generally bring a sacrifice when you feel some measure of guilt. Indeed, the Talmud Yerushalmi explains that if there was a crime committed in a city that you were responsible for, then you are responsible also for that crime. It means that you could have prevented it - perhaps by having greater welfare services, or perhaps by having greater security forces. The Torah goes to great lengths about one unsolved murder of one individual, how, then, can the Torah speak of mass killings ? ?hachrem tachrimem? - ?you shall surely destroy them??
It is fascinating that in his masterful Torah commentary, HaEmek Davar, in the beginning of the seventh chapter of Devarim (Deuteronomy), where the Torah had also stated that we must destroy our enemies, the seven indigenous nations, including women and children, the Netziv, Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, specifically stipulates that the intention is those children who stand in war against us and not those who are sitting at home, innocently. It is almost as if the Netziv could see into the intifada mentality of our present-day enemy. It is almost as if the Netziv ? through the Torah, of course ? prophetically understood that there would come a time when the enemy would use children as decoys, children as suicidal-homicide bombers, children as soldiers. It is to these children and of these children that the Torah speaks. You must destroy anyone who comes to kill innocents, even when those who come to kill innocents are themselves children. They, too, fit into the rubric of ?haba lehargecha, hashkem lehorgo? - ?he who comes to kill you, you must kill him first? ? even if they are children, in order for right and good to triumph over evil.
I would go a step further. If the evil people who are perpetrating their crimes are protecting themselves by hiding out in apartments where they place innocent children, because they believe that they will not be killed by us as long as there are children nearby, then, too, the enemy must be utterly destroyed and stopped if good is to triumph. If we have an enemy who targets innocents, if we have an enemy who has made the home and the car and the school and the university the object of their destruction, then in order to destroy the destroyer, tragically, we may sometimes have to kill the children with whom he is hiding out in his hope that it will give him immunity. It dare not give him immunity. We dare not apologize for destroying evil, even when it uses children for protection. If we do not destroy that evil, then the evil will destroy us and, with us, the entire free world.
For, ultimately, the worst evil imaginable is committing suicide.
----------------------------------
Rabbi Riskin is the Chief Rabbi of Efrat and founder and Dean of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs. His weekly Torah commentary on Arutz Sheva Israel National Radio can be heard on our On Demand Audio page.