https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4842-0544
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ABSTRACT
This paper explores the vernacular roles that religious practices and experiences play within contemporary combat units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). We argue for an anthropological perspective that highlights the modes through which rituals serve efficacious – as opposed to semiotic – ends. In this way, we seek to push back against what we term the ‘faith in a foxhole’ paradigm, where religion is primarily seen as a meaning-making system whose nearly sole function is to aid soldiers in coping with the chaos and uncertainty of combat. We demonstrate how amidst the low-level and long-term style of contemporary asymmetrical warfare, ritual practices can often function less as the matrix for broader meaning making systems but are rather mobilized in ways that are meant to support certain practical and pragmatic goals. The article concludes that while scholars have mostly focused attention on the institutional forces and political consequences of ‘religionization’ within Israeli society, they have missed the many vernacular ways in which Israelis mobilize and instrumentalize their use of ritual and religious practices in both military and civilian contexts.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Montgomery McFate and our colleagues at the Anthropology of Small Wars and Insurgencies Workshop at the Naval War College, for their comments on previous drafts of this article. For Daniel and Eitan, may you know peace and strength.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. The complete recording can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcapUKiSTFs Accessed June 6, 2018.
2. Levy, “The Clash Between Feminism And Religion In The Israeli Military”; Levy, “The Israeli Military: Imprisoned By The Religious Community”; and Levy, “The Theocratization Of The Israeli Military.”
3. Kipa News Site, “Have You Gone Mad?”; and Tawil, “Shock: IDF Apologizes.”
4. The modern version of the Ani Maamin is loosely based on Maimonides’ thirteen principles of faith which are enumerated in his commentary on the Mishna. See Kellner, “Heresy And The Nature Of Faith.”
5. Young, “The Moral Function Of Remembering”; Milhaud And Wiesel, “Ani Maamin”; and Adler, “No Raisins, No Almonds.”
6. Flueckiger, In Amma’s healing room, 2.
7. For an overview of the concept of vernacular religion see Primiano, “Vernacular Religion and the Search for Method in Religious Folklife,” 44; and Bowman, “Vernacular Religion and Nature,” 286.
8. For a discussion of anthropological approaches towards “ritual efficacy” see Quack and Töbelmann, “Questioning Ritual Efficacy.”
9. For a discussion of meaning making systems as a way of coping with chaos see: Snape, “Foxhole Faith And Funk Religion”; Park, “Religion As A Meaning-Making Framework”; and Geertz, The Interpretation Of Cultures.
10. See: Levy, “The Israeli Military,” 69; Levy, “The Theocratization Of The Israeli Military”; Harel, “Is The IDF Becoming An Orthodox Army?”; and Lubell, “Israeli Military Struggles With Rising Influence Of Religious-Zionist.”
11. Kellett, Combat Motivation, 194; and Watson, “Religion And Combat Motivation In The Confederate Armies.”
12. Røislien, “Religion and Military Conscription.”
13. For a review of the national religious participation in the IDF see Cohen, “Dilemmas of Military Service in Israel”; Cohen, “Relationships Between Religiously Observant and Other Troops in the IDF.”
14. For a theological overview of the national religious community in Israel see, Ravitzky, Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish religious radicalism; For an anthropological overview, see Stern, First Flowering of Redemption.
15. Cohen, Kampinsky, and Rosman-Stollman, “Swimming Against the Tide.”
16. A major IDF incursion into the Gaza Strip lasting some three weeks.
17. Rontzki, “Sits in Tents.”
18. Levy, “The Theocratization of the Israeli Military,” 281; and Harel, “IDF Rabbinate Publication During Gaza War.”
19. Rontzki, “The Military Rabbinate in Operation Cast Lead,” Unnumbered.
20. Rosman-Stollman, “Mediating Structures and the Military”; and Rosman-Stollman, For God and Country?
21. Cohen, “The Hesder Yeshivot in Israel”; and Cohen, “From Integration to Segregation.”
22. For more on cultural mediation between the military and other “greedy institutions” see Segal, “The Military And The Family As Greedy Institutions.”
23. Masortim in Hebrew. Jews mainly of Middle Eastern descent who refrain from making sharp distinctions either in philosophy or practice between the ‘religious’ and the ‘secular’. These individuals practice Judaism in what is seen by the dominant hegemonic Orthodox Jewish standards in Israel, in an eclectic and inconsistent fashion. For an ethnographic typology of the Masortim, see Goldberg, “The Ethnographic Challenge of Masorti Religiosity”; For a critique of the term, see Yadgar, “Jewish Secularism And Ethno-National Identity In Israel.”
24. See for example, Ben-Ari, Mastering Soldiers; and Aran, “Parachuting.”
25. For the origins of the phrase itself see Steckel, “Morale and Men,” 339.
26. Kuehne, Faith and the Soldier.
27. Linderman, Embattled Courage, 102.
28. Stouffer et al., The American Soldier, 75.
29. Snape, Foxhole Faith and Funk Religion; and Richardson, Fighting Spirit, 44.
30. Snape, Foxhole Faith and Funk Religion, 230–1.
31. Levav, Kohn, and Billig, “The Protective Effect Of Religiosity Under Terrorism,” 48; Ellison, “Religious Involvement And Subjective Well-Being”; and Ano and Vasconcelles, “Religious Coping And Psychological Adjustment To Stress.”
32. Seeman, “Otherwise than Meaning,” 58.
33. Das, “Sufferings, Theodicies, Disciplinary Practices,” 564.
34. Fussell, The Great War and modern memory, 124; Judaic Studies in the 19th and early 20th centuries exhibited a similar paradigm with its emphasis on rationality and reason and elision of Jewish mysticism. See Biale, Gershom Scholem.
35. Malinowski, Magic, Science and Religion.
36. Sosis and Handwerker, “Psalms and Coping With Uncertainty”; and Sosis, “Psalms for Safety.”
37. Homans, “Anxiety and Ritual”; Radcliffe-Brown, Taboo; and Hammond, “Magic.”
38. Evans-Pritchard, Theories of primitive religion, 27.
39. Segal, “The Myth-Ritualist Theory of Religion.”
40. McPherson, For Cause and Comrades, 56; Becker, War and Faith; and Doubler, “American Soldiers.”
41. Coker, Waging War Without Warriors?
42. Luttwak, “Toward Post-Heroic Warfare”; and Ben-Shalom, “Introduction: Israel’s Post-Heroic Condition,” 2.
43. Levy, “An Unbearable Price.”
44. Kober, “The Israel Defense Forces in The Second Lebanon War,” 7.
45. Kober, “The Israel Defense Forces in the Second Lebanon War”; Kober, “From Heroic to Post-Heroic Warfare”; and Lebel and Ben-Shalom, “Military Leadership.”
46. Inbar and Shamir, “Mowing the Grass.”
47. Ben-Shalom, “Introduction: Israel’s Post Heroic Condition.”
48. A military conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip lasting some 50 days.
49. These implicit understandings of faith among soldiers who may not self-identify as ‘religious’ echoes the complicated relationship that exists within Israeli society between ‘traditional’ and ‘secular’ conceptions of faith and belief. See Yadgar, “Jewish Secularism and Ethno-National Identity in Israel.”
50. On Jewish philosophical traditions regarding practice and belief, see Nadler, Spinoza’s Heresy; and Shapiro, The Limits of Orthodox Theology.
51. On the rationalist trend within Judaism, see Biale, Gershom Scholem; and Huss and Linsider, “Ask No Questions.”
52. For a broad theological overview of Breslov Hasidism, see Magid, God’s Voice from the Void.
53. Ritual fringes worn under one’s clothing.
54. Spiegel, “Preventive Psychiatry With Combat Troops”; Kirke, “Military Cohesion, Culture And Social Psychology”; Manning, “Morale, Cohesion, And Esprit De Corps.”
55. Shils and Janowitz, “Cohesion and Disintegration in the Wehrmacht in World War II,” 281.
56. Lebel, “Settling the Military”; Mashiach, “Going on the Offensive”; and Leon, “Heroic Texts in a Post-Heroic Environment.”
57. A blessing over wine or grape juice recited before the ritual meal that ushers in the weekly Jewish Sabbath on Friday nights.
58. Kippot – Jewish Skullcaps. Bread is used for the second ritual element of the Friday night meal.
59. A poem welcoming in the ‘Sabbath Bride’ composed by Solomon Alkabetz in the 16th century.
60. Adler, “Kabbalas Shabbos.”
61. Leather boxes containing biblical passages which are strapped to the head and arm and are generally worn during morning prayers.
62. Robson, “Signs of Power”; and Schaverien, “Gifts, Talismans and Tokens in Analysis.”
63. A 2002 IDF military operation in the West Bank meant to halt the spate of deadly Palestinian terror attacks into Israel.
64. IDF soldiers are instructed to slip their metal dog tags and chains into a dark piece of cloth. This creates a small space in which one can carry keepsakes such as small pictures or prayers.
65. Geertz, “An anthropology of religion and magic.”
66. See for example, “Ask the Rabbi – Mother Rachel.” https://www.kipa.co.il/%D7%A9%D7%90%D7%9C-%D7%90%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%91/%d7%a8%d7%97%d7%9c-%d7%90%d7%99%d7%9e%d7%a0%d7%95 [Hebrew] Accessed March 7, 2018.
67. Cohen, “I asked her, Who are you? She said, Mother Rachel.” Arutz 7. https://www.inn.co.il/News/News.aspx/189655 [Hebrew] Accessed March 7, 2018.
68. Jeremiah 31: 14–16.
69. See for example “Mother Rachel appears in the Gaza War” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrHAx9vn6Xo&t=323s [Hebrew] Accessed March 7, 2018; Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Parshat Vayeira 5778 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8n3BK9i9o4 [Hebrew] Accessed March 7, 2018.
70. Lior, “A soldier that saw Mother Rachel.”
71. The implication here is that the story is false. Cherlow, “More on Mother Rachel.”
72. Aviner, “Rumors of Mother Rachel’s Appearance in the Gaza War Against Hamas.” Emphasis in original.
73. For a wider typology of miracle tales in combat, see Rosman, “Towards a Typology of Battlefield Miracles.”
74. Finlay, Angels in the Trenches; and Snape and Parker, “Keeping Faith and Coping.”
75. Cook, “Grave Beliefs.”
76. Winter was a graduate of the Or Etzion military high school as well as the pre-military seminary, Bnei David, in the West Bank Settlement of Eli. Both are well known national religious educational institutions within Israel.
77. Sharon, “Religious Overtones in Letter From IDF Commander.”
78. For another expression of this idea, see Revivi, “The Givati Colonel is the Real Army.”
79. Jewish dietary laws.
80. Fischer, “Yes, Israel Is Becoming More Religious.”
81. Yadgar, “The Need for an Epistemological Turn.”
82. Lomsky-Feder and Ben-Ari, Military and Militarism in Israeli Society, 2.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Nehemia Stern
Nehemia Stern is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ariel University
Uzi Ben Shalom
Uzi Ben Shalom is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ariel University