By Rabbi Shlomo M. Brody
Review by Ch, 1LT Heshel Mangel, USAFR
In this book, Rabbi Shlomo Brody takes on the insurmountable task of trying to condense thousands of years of Jewish thought, tradition, and ethics into a single comprehensive book covering the Jewish view on war and morality. While the task is daunting, Rabbi Brody endeavors to take us on a journey through Jewish history, by way of telling the stories of major conflicts from Biblical times to modern struggles.
Ethics of Our Fighters tackles many issues within warfare as well as the very need and justification for battle in the first place. Issues such as preemptive strikes and preventative military action; what is proportionality and distinction; when do we start a war and when do we end it; does the end justify the means; and what is the role of politics in warfare.
Rabbi Brody argues for the imperative need to provide a moral framework and have ethical clarity when entering, engaging, and completing warfare. The stakes are too high for ambiguity, the dynamics too complex for emotional and rash decisions. War is inherently foggy, and it requires a multi-value framework for deciphering the correct path and decision at that time, for that situation. The “JMF” (Jewish multi-value framework), becomes the foundation he sets through which he sees every scenario, and based on which the rest of the book is written. He argues that there is no single “value” that can trump and override everything else. Falling into that trap is to doom oneself to error and can lead to untold death and suffering. As time has gone on, our societal norms of polarization have made warfare increasingly dangerous, where the world expects a certain value to be prominent over everything else, on both sides—be it “individual human rights” on one end, or “nationalism” on the other. Jewish history and halachic tradition gives us a moral framework and a variety of values that are all interconnected and need to “talk” to each other constantly.
The book includes an incredible amount of history and sources. I decided to read the notes just to try and piece together the main sources—both from Jewish history, and the modern day discussions amongst Torah leaders. The historical Torah sources start from Shimon and Levi’s destruction of Shechem and Yaakov’s response and proceed to our relationship with our arch enemies such as Amalek and Midian, Yehoshua’s conquest of Canaan, Shaul and Dovid Hamelech’s attitude toward war, destruction, and politics, the place of the Maccabees, Bar Kochka, and Masada in Jewish history. Halacha continues with discussing what is a Milchemet Mitzvah versus Reshut, prominently being the Rambam and Ramban on warfare and the place of Eretz Yisroel, and on to the modern discussions surrounding the holocaust, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and the Jews taking up arms; from Rav Kook, his son Rav Tzvi Yehuda, to Rav Goren, Rabbi Herzog, and other Torah leaders of our times. I did find the layout to be somewhat confusing in the beginning of the book, and would have appreciated a more linear approach of going through the Torah sources and seeing how Halachic sources have evolved through each of the sources. The back and forth jumping between sources seemed to make the point quite ambiguous at first, where everyone had a voice regardless of their halachic, military, or political standing. Making distinctions between the “source of the source” would have made it clearer on what was the absolute (Torah), and what was a personal opinion of an individual.
One primary source in the contemporary Halacha and moral discussion, not brought in the book that I’d like to bring light to, is the Rebbe in his myriad of talks both publicly and privately, about the single and focused moral and Torah obligation to protect Jewish lives. The Rebbe spoke on many occasions that military and security experts live head and shoulders above political debate when it comes to when and how to engage in warfare. At another point in the book, Rabbi Brody frames a dispute between Rav Tzvi Yehuda and Rabbi Herzog as a “land versus lives” argument. What is more important; the land or the lives of the people. Should we put conquest above all else, or peace above all else? Is it a religious war or a defense war? The Rebbe has taught us that it isn’t either/or, one is not complete without the other. The land itself protects the lives of the Jewish people.
In summary, Rabbi Brody makes an incredible argument and lays out the ramifications from a lack of moral clarity and how a reaction may seem to come from a place of kindness, but is actually immoral, unethical and ultimately unkind. With the Torah as our guide, we have the responsibility to make clear decisions, be decisive, and have the appropriate clarity and pride to explain to the world the correct moral framework for battle and as a light onto the nations, to project this outward as opposed to trying to placate and live to the (unethical) standards of others.
May we merit a time of true peace, peace for our fellow brothers and sisters in Israel, through and with our Torah, speedily in our days, Amen.
Originally published in the Shavous/Three Weeks issue of The Jewish American Warrior.
