During the war in Gaza following the October 7 massacre (a day, citing FDR, that will live in infamy) I received a powerful communication from a distraught congregant who was demanding an end to the fighting. A better way to address the issues had to be found. This was not disguised support for Hamas terrorism, which is often the case with those demanding a ceasefire. Rather it was a sincere and powerful cri de coeur, a “cry of the heart,” a visceral and justifiable and, in fact, admirable, revulsion at the horror of war.
I respect my congregant, and honor his purity. But I disagree with the assertion that violence, even deadly violence, is simply unacceptable. And so does our tradition. Every single day, when we recite the Song of the Sea, Az yashir, we read, “Ad-nai is a man of war, Ad-nai is His name.”
This parallels a point made in Ecclesiastes, “There is a time for every purpose under heaven…a time for loving and a time for hating, a time for war and a time for peace.”
What does it mean for us that we view G-d this way, and accept the legitimacy of war? This certainly clashes with our liberal sensibilities (“Imagine there’s no countries/It isn’t hard to do/Nothing to kill or die for/And no religion, too/Imagine all the people/ Livin’ life in peace…”). At the same time, though, it serves as an important psycho-social corrective.
If we repress the legitimacy of hatred and war, and imagine ourselves to be “above it all,” such repression will create a virtual volcano of violence that can erupt uncontrollably. On the other hand, our tradition tells us that if we do recognize the potential for violence within ourselves, and the danger of it spilling over into the outside world, we can attempt to set boundaries for it. Or as Sun Bin wrote in The Lost Art of War, almost 17 centuries ago, “Those who despise violence are warriors fit to work for kings.”
This is the reason that military experts are nearly unanimous in declaring that, as one put it “Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history.” No one needs to tell us that “war is hell.” We know it all too well. But just as we know there is a time for war, we know there is a time for peace as well.
May it come soon.