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Abstract
Throughout Jewish history, religious tradition has had a dialectical relationship with violence. Judaism is neither more nor less violent than any other religion. In this essay, however, we offer a comprehensive and integrated survey of the components of Jewish ethos and mythos relating to violence while analyzing and illustrating their development and influence over the course of three millennia, from biblical times to the contemporary Jewish world, particularly in the Jewish State. We analyze the various transformations that Jewish religious violent norms, values, moods, and symbols have undergone, their linkage to ever-changing social and cultural circumstances, their social-political roots and implications, and their relationship to other Jewish traditions. We trace how ancient violent motifs have emerged and have been processed over time, and observe present-day violent behavior in light of these motifs. Along the way, we explicate the dynamics that characterize the tradition of Jewish religious violence and its paradoxical nature. Our argument implies a general theoretical model of religious violence that can be applied in a comparative context: Actors engage in a constant evaluation, selection, and reinterpretation of religious ideas and practices from an ever-growing reservoir and in so doing contribute to that reservoir. Religious tradition is adaptable but it also places limits on the violence agents can justify at any point in time.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Robert Alter, Limor Darash, Claude Fischer, Zali Gurevitch, Paul Hamburg, Daniel Schwartz, and the students in the MA seminar on Terror and Religion at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for comments on previous drafts of this article.
Notes
This article is a revised and substantially expanded version of Ron E. Hassner and Gideon Aran, “Religion and Violence in the Jewish Traditions,” in Mark Juergensmeyer, Margo Kitts, and Michael Jerryson, eds., Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 78–99. The present version is especially adapted to relate the legacy of Jewish violence to its contemporary manifestations.
See, for example, Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo, trans. Abraham Arden Brill (New York: Moffat, Yard, and Co., 1919); Rene Girard, Violence and the Sacred (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977); and “Mimesis and Violence: Perspectives in Cultural Criticism,” Berkshire Review 14 (1979): 9–9; and Walter Burkert, “The Problem of Ritual Killing,” in Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly, ed., Violent Origins: Walter Burkert, Rene Girard, and Jonathan Z. Smith on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987), 149–176.
See, for example, Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations (New York: Touchstone, 1996); Raphael Israeli, Islamikaze (London: Taylor & Francis, 2003); John Esposito, Unholy War (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003); and Bruce Hoffman, Holy Terror: The Implications of Terrorism Motivated by a Religious Imperative (Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corp, 1993).
See, for example, Robert Pape, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (New York: Random House, 2005); and Scott Atran, “Genesis of Suicide Terrorism,” Science 299 (2004): 1534–1539.
Religious movements in Israel that are opposed to Jewish violence include Netivot Shalom (Oz Ve'Shalom), the Reform Movement, and the Conservative Movement. Prominent Orthodox Israelis who are champions of Jewish non-violence include Yeshayahu Leibovitch, Aviezer Ravitzky, and Avrum Burg.
In the fourth section, we shall refer also to verbal and symbolic violence, and discuss its relation to physical violence.
On religious violence, see, for example, Scott Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000); Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000); and Martin Marty and Scott Appleby, eds., Fundamentalisms Observed (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).
We draw these findings from a comprehensive database compiled by Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, in Jewish Terrorism in Israel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), 175–192.
For details about the various cases of political terror in Israel, see Pedahzur and Perliger, ibid., as well as Ehud Sprinzak, Brother Against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to Rabin Assassination (New York: Free Press, 1999); and Shaul Zadka, Blood in Zion: How Jewish Guerrillas Drove the British Out of Palestine (London: Brassey's, 1995).
Brit Hakana'im (The Covenant of the Zealots) consisted of Ultra-Orthodox Jews who operated mostly spontaneously and on an individual basis to turn Israel into a Halakha-abiding state. They harassed and damaged private and public symbols of Jewish secularism like transportation companies that worked on the Sabbath and butchers that sold non-kosher meat. The underground members were arrested after planning to throw a smoke bomb into parliament during a session devoted to establishing compulsory military service for women. One of the imprisoned members was Mordechai Eliahu, many years later to become the Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel and spiritual leader of Gush Emunim. He recently confessed that he still strongly believes in the mission of the underground though he regrets its violent tactics. Malchut Yisrael (The Kingdom of Israel) succeeded Lehi. It murdered Count Folke Bernadot in 1949 and Rudolf Israel Kastner in 1957, in addition to more minor acts of violence against diplomats and public officials. Though infused with a messianic character and borrowing metaphors from ancient Israel, none of its members, including prominent right-wing intellectuals and eccentric ex-combatants, were observant Jews.
Several indicators suggest that, of those whose degree of observance was unknown, at least half were observant Jews.
See David Weisburd, Jewish Settlers Violence (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania University Press, 1989).
See Hagai Segal, Dear Brothers: The West Bank Jewish Underground (Jerusalem: Keter, 1987).
See: Juergensmeyer (note 7 above), 49–59.
Michael Ben-Horin, ed., Baruch Hagever: Sefer Zikaron la-Kadosh Baruch Goldstein [Baruch Hagever: In Memory of Goldstein Who Sanctified the Name of God] (Jerusalem: Shalom Al Israel, 1995). This is a collection of essays written by Rabbi Meir Kahane and his followers, including a chapter on “The Commandment of Taking Revenge from the Gentiles” and “Examining Halakhic Rulings Concerning Killing Gentiles.”
Yoram Peri, ed., The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000); and Michael Karpin and Ina Friedman, Murder in the Name of God: The Plot to Kill Yitzhak Rabin (London: Granta Books, 2000).
The issue of rodef will be discussed below, in section II, part 3.
David C. Rapoport, “The Fourth Wave: September 11 in the History of Terrorism,” Current History 100, no. 650 (2001): 419–424.
Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, “The Fourth Wave: Comparison of Jewish and Other Manifestations of Religious Terrorism,” in Jean E. Rosenfeld, ed., Terrorism, Identity and Legitimacy: The Four Waves Theory and Political Violence (London: Routledge, 2011), 103–111.
See Michael Feige, “Rabin Assassination and the Ethnic Periphery of Gush Emunim” (Unpublished Paper).
Omitted cases include the Lifta Underground, TNT Underground, DOV and GAL Undergrounds, Yoel Lerner's scheme, and more. The second category includes the uprooting of Palestinian olive trees, shattering the windshields of Palestinian cars, puncturing Palestinian water-heaters by means of gunshots, and more. For an exhaustive roster of such cases see Pedahzur and Perliger (note 19 above).
Ron E. Hassner, War On Sacred Grounds (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009).
Janet Dolgin, Jewish Identity and the JDL (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977).
Yair Kotler, Heil Kahane (New York: Adams Books, 1986); Jerald Cromer, “The Debate over Kahanism in Israeli Society,” Occasional Papers No. 3 (New York: Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, 1988); and Ehud Sprinzak, The Ascendance of Israel's Radical Right (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
Though Kahane was assassinated, his party outlawed, and his organization disbanded, Kahane's spirit still persists in Israel and the Middle East. A group of his loyal, loud, and aggressive followers maintains a prominent presence in Arab-Jewish friction zones. They number only a few dozen but effectively create tension by means of racist pronouncements, especially provocative demonstrations, and clandestine sabotage.
They strictly abided by Torah precepts, such as keeping the Sabbath, observed various fast days, observed kosher dietary laws, prayed three times daily, donned phylacteries every morning, wore skull-caps and ritual fringes (tzitzit), etc.
Israel's 7.3 million population is only 75–80% Jewish, of which more than half are secular, 12% are Modern Orthodox, and 8% are Ultra-Orthodox. About 30% of Israel's Jews define themselves as “traditional” (mesortim).
See Gideon Aran, “Religiosity and Super-Religiosity: Measures of Radical Religion,” Numen 60 (2013): 155–194; and Emmanual Sivan, Gabriel Almond, and Scott Appleby, Strong Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).
There is no evidence of Jewish religious violence perpetrated by Reform, Conservative, or any other kind of religious Jews. This is not to say, of course, that all Orthodox Jews are right-wing, hawkish, or violent, or that all right-wing and hawkish Jews are Orthodox.
This is in line with the conspicuous role played by converts in the history of religious radicalism in general.
Menachem Friedman, “Haredi Violence in Contemporary Israeli Society,” Studies in Contemporary Jewry 18 (2003): 186–197; Menachem Friedman and Samuel Heilman, “Religious Fundamentalism and Religious Jews: The Case of the Haredim,” in Martin Marty and Scott Appleby, eds., Fundamentalisms Observed (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 197–264; and Sprinzak, 1999 (see note 9 above).
Gideon Aran, Nurit Stadler, and Eyal BenAri, “Fundamentalism and the Temptation of Action,” Religion 38 (2008): 25–53.
Jacob Katz, Out of the Ghetto: The Social Background of Jewish Emancipation, 1770–1870 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973); and Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Society at the End of the Middle Ages (New York: Schocken Books, 1971).
Allen Dowty, The Jewish State: A Century Later (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989).
Chaim Waxman, “Religion in the Israeli Public Square,” in Uzi Rebhun and Chaim Waxman, eds., Jews in Israel: Contemporary Social and Cultural Patterns (Hanover: Brandeis University Press, 2004), 221–239.
Gideon Aran, “Jewish-Zionist Fundamentalism,” in Martin Marty and Scott Appleby, eds., Fundamentalisms Observed (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 265–344; and Akiva Eldar and Idit Zertal, The Lords of the Land (New York: Nation Books, 2009).
Anita Shapira, Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881–1948 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); and Anita Shapira, Yehudim, Tsiyonim, u-Mah she-Benehem [Jews, Zionists, and in between] (Tel Aviv, Israel: Am Oved, 2007).
Sprinzak, The Ascendance of Israel's Radical Right (see note 24 above).
Cf. James Lewis and Olav Hammer, eds., The Invention of Sacred Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Moshe Samet, “The Beginning of Orthodoxy,” Modern Judaism 8, no. 3 (1988): 249–269; Haim Soloveitchick, “Rupture and Reconstruction,” Tradition 28, no. 4 (1994): 64–131; Michael Silber, “The Emergence of Ultra Orthodoxy,” in Jack Werthheimer, ed., The Uses of Tradition: Jewish Continuity in the Modern Era (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1992), 23–84; and Aviezer Ravitzky, Jewish Orthodoxy: New Perspectives (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2006).
See Arye Naor, The Whole Land of Israel: Belief and Policy (Haifa, Israel: Haifa University Press, 2001).
Modern bible scholarship has recognized that the scriptures are composed of several layers, each representing a different set of authors, interests, and values. In the following pages, however, we treat the bible as a coherent and unified text, as would believers, since we are interested in exploring the role of the bible in their worldview.
Here and throughout, we use the Authorized King James Version of the Bible, unless otherwise stated.
Robert Eisen, The Peace and Violence of Judaism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
The recent protest movement against circumcision includes members of Jewish communities who wish to replace ritual circumcision with a symbolic act, “as has been done for other bloody practices, such as the sacrifices.” See also Jacob Katz, Divine Law in Human Hands: Case Studies in Halakhic Flexibility (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1998).
Reuven Firestone, “Conceptions of Holy Wars in Biblical and Quranic Traditions,” Journal of Religious Ethics 24, no. 1 (1996): 99–123.
Gerard von Rad, Holy War in Ancient Israel (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 72.
Max Weber, Ancient Judaism (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1952).
von Rad, Holy War in Ancient Israel (see note 47 above), 42; Susan Niditch, War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethics of Violence (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 152.
Eisen, The Peace and Violence of Judaism (see note 44 above), 25; and James Barr, Fundamentalism (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978).
Meir Sternberg, “Delicate Balance in the Story of Dinah's Rape,” Hasifrut 4, no. 2 (April 1973): 193–231 (in Hebrew).
Elliott Horowitz, “Genesis 34 and the Legacies of Biblical Violence,” in Andrew R. Murphy, ed., The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence (Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 163–182.
Niditch refers to this as the “bardic” tradition (see War in the Hebrew Bible, note 49 above), 90–105.
Niditch, War in the Hebrew Bible (see note 49 above), 135.
Here, and throughout this article, we rely on Isidore Epstein, trans., The Babylonian Talmud (London: Soncino Press, 1935–1952) for translations of the Talmud and Mishnah.
For Judah Loew's commentary on Tractate Avot (3:17) see Tuvia Basser, ed., Maharal of Prague: Pirkei Avos: A Commentary Based on Selections from Maharal's Derech Chaim (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, 1997).
Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silverman, The Bible Unearthed (New York: Free Press, 2001); Zeev Herzog, “Deconstructing the Walls of Jericho: Biblical Myth and Archeological Reality,” Prometheus 4 (2001): 72–93; and Nadav Neeman, Ancient Israel's History and Historiography (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2006).
Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People (London: Verso, 2009), Ch. 2.
Anita Shapira, The Bible and Israeli Identity (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University, 2005), in Hebrew.
The Palestinians have recently joined the ranks of Middle Eastern nations who claim descent from an ancient people. Their choice is the Canaanites who preceded the Israelites in settling the holy land.
See Gideon Aran, “Jewish Zealotry” (unpublished manuscript). Available from the author.
See for example the attack on the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center by Buford Furrow in August 1999. For other cases, see Richard Hoskins, Vigilantes of Christendom: The Story of the Phinehas Priesthood (Lynchburg, VA: Virginia Pub., 1997).
See Gideon Aran, Israeli-Jewish and American-Protestant Fundamentalist Violence (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, forthcoming 2013).
Compare Charles Liebman, “Extremism as a Religious Norm,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 22 (1983): 75–86.
Interestingly enough, Maimonides does address the law concerning zealotry in Mishne Torah, Sanhedrin, Ch. 18, Halakha 1.
See for example R. Ovedya of Bartenora's discussion of the necessary conditions for permitted zealotry (B. Sanhedrin, Ch. 9).
Roni Eilon-Hirsch, Shabbat: Parashat Phinehas (Jerusalem, July 13, 2011) (in Hebrew).
Rumor has it that the rabbis quoted an exegesis on Numbers 25 by Rashi, the most prestigious interpreter of the Bible and the Talmud. See Rashi's commentary on the Baylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin, 82a.
Gideon Aran, “The Father, The Son and the Holy Land: The Spiritual Authorities of Jewish-Zionist Fundamentalism in Israel,” in Martin Marty and Scott Appleby, eds., Spokesmen for the Despised (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), 294–327; Benny Ish-Shalom, Rabbi A. Y. H. Kook: Between Rationalism and Mysticism (New York: SUNY Press, 1993); Benzion Bokser, ed., The Essential Writings of Abraham Isaac Kook (Teaneck, NJ: Ben-Yehuda Press, 2006); and Zvi Yaron, The Philosophy of Rabbi Kook (Jerusalem: World Zionist Organization, 1992).
Bezalel Bar-Kochva, Judas Maccabaeus: The Jewish Struggle Against the Seleucids (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); Arie Kasher, ed., The Great Revolt(Jerusalem: Shazar, 1983) (in Hebrew); and Aaron Oppenheimer and Uriel Rappoport, eds., Bar Kochva: New Research (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi, 1984) (in Hebrew).
Yehuda Devir, Bar Kochva: The Man and the Messiah in Light of the Sages (Jerusalem: Kyriat-Sefer, 1964) (in Hebrew); and Yigal Yadin, Bar Kochva: The Rediscovery of a Legendary Hero (New York: Random House, 1971).
This includes the celebrated debate between two late intellectuals, Yehoshafat Harkavi and Yisrael Eldad. See: Yehoshafat Harkavi, Reality and Fantasy: The Lessons of Bar Kochva Revolt and Present-Day Geo-Politics (Jerusalem: Domino, 1982); and Yisrael Eldad, Polemics: How Should We Understand The Bar Kochva Revolt and Its Aftermath (Jerusalem: Van Leer, 1982).
Avraham Kahana, Hasfarim Ha'khitzonim: Text, Introductions and Interpretations, (Jerusalem: Beit-Hilel, 2004) (in Hebrew).
Yigal Yadin, The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness Scroll: Text with Introduction and Interpretation (Jerusalem: Bialik, 1955).
See, for example, Jacob Licht, Ezra's Vision: Translation and Interpretation (Jerusalem: Bialik, 1968) (in Hebrew); and James Vanderkam, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1984).
Sidney Tedesche, trans., The Book of Maccabees (Hartford, CT: Prayer Book Press, 1962).
Second Maccabees, 7:24 (New American Bible translation). Though she is not named in the narrative, she has come to be known in Jewish folklore as “Hannah.”.
The origins of the Oral Torah are in the Mishnah, composed in the shadow of Roman rule. It consists of six volumes composed by sages in the Land of Israel in the 2nd–3rd century C.E. In the 4th–6th century C.E., Jewish scholars added the Gemarah, thus forming the Palestinian and the Babylonian Talmud, of which the latter is the more complete, influential, and authoritative. The Talmud is organized by topics (matters of agriculture, crime, purity, etc.) expressed through two genres: the halakhic and the aggadic. The halakhic consists of religious law, particularly the 613 traditional commandments and prohibitions. This legalistic component is intertwined with the aggadic genre, which offers spiritual and ethical guidelines. Its educational lessons are based on a collection of theological debates, stories about biblical heroes and important rabbis, and homiletic expositions. Alongside the Talmud, the sages also contributed the Midrash, a narrative or homiletical exegesis of parts of the Bible.
Solomon Ganzfried, Code of Jewish Law: Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (New York: Hebrew Publications Company, 1961); Menachem Elon, ed., The Principles of Jewish Law (Jerusalem: Encyclopedia Judaica, 1975); David Bleich, Contemporary Halakhic Problems (New York: Ktav, 1977–89); Hanina Ben Menahem and Neil Hecht, eds., Selected Topics in Jewish Law (Ramat Aviv: The Open University, 1999); and Adin Steinzaltz, The Essential Talmud (New York: Basic Books, 2006). An illustration of the massive and variegated dimensions of the halakhic corpus can be witnessed in the computerized “Responsa Project,” http://www.biu.ac.il/jh/Responsa/.
One idiosyncratic passage that betrays this violent impulse is the report, factual or allegorical, that eighty witches were hung in one day in Ashkelon (Sanhedrin 45b). In another curious passage, the Talmud seems to encourage even extra-legal violence: It mentions priests who chose not to bring a fellow priest before court for serving in the temple in a state of impurity. Instead, they split his skull with clubs (Sanhedrin 81b).
Michael S. Berger, “Taming the Beast: Rabbinic Pacification of Second-Century Jewish Nationalism,” in James K. Wellman, ed., Belief and Bloodshed: Religion and Violence across Time and Tradition (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield), 53.
Berger, ibid., 55.
Stuart A. Cohen, “‘Unlicensed’ War in Jewish Tradition: Sources, Consequences and Implications,” Journal of Military Ethics 4, no. 3 (2005): 198–213.
Cf. Michael Walzer, “War and Peace in the Jewish Tradition,” in Terry Nardin, ed., The Ethics of War and Peace (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 95–114. See also Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations (New York: Basic Books, 1992).
Maimonides, Laws of the King, Vol. 5, No. 1; Nachmanides, commentary on Deuteronomy 20; and Judah Loew, Gur Aryeh al HaTorah, Commentary on Genesis 32:18. For a general discussion see Walzer (1996), ibid.
Maimonides, Sefer Hamitzvot (The Commandments), Commentary on Commandment 290.
For example, Eisen, The Peace and Violence of Judaism (see note 44 above) dedicates a mere page and a half to violence in the Kabbalah.
Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Schocken, 1995); Danny Matt, The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism (San Francisco: Harper, 1996); and Joseph Dan, Gershom Scholem and the Mystical Dimension of Jewish History (New York: New York University Press, 1987).
Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988).
Maureen Bloom, Jewish Mysticism and Magic (London: Routledge, 2007).
Moshe Idel, Enchanted Chains: Techniques and Rituals in Jewish Mysticism (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2005); and Gershom Scholem, Devils, Demons, and Souls: Essays on Demonology (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi, 2004) (in Hebrew).
For example, the authors are familiar with a charismatic leader who used his knowledge and control of the mysteries of Kabbalah in order to place a curse on Palestinian terrorist leaders.
Yehuda Liebes, The Epic Exploits of the Divine: Essays and Researches (Jerusalem: Carmel, 2008) (in Hebrew); and Haviva Pedaya, The Myth in Judaism (Beer Sheva: Ben Gurion University Press, 1996) (in Hebrew).
Gershom Scholem, On Kabbalah and its Symbolism (New York: Schocken, 1965).
Nathan Wolski, A Journey into the Zohar: An Introduction to the Book of Radiance (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2010).
Jonathan Garb, Observations on 20th Century Kabbalah (Jerusalem: Carmel, 2005) (in Hebrew).
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Orot (Beit El: Me'avnei Hamakom, 2004), 156 (in Hebrew).
Gershom Scholem, Lurianic Kabbalah: Collection of Essays (Los Angeles: Chruv Pub, 2008); Joseph Avivi, Lurianic Kabbalah (Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 2008); and Moshe Idel, Messianic Mystics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).
Gershom Scholem, The Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays (New York: Schocken, 1972).
See David Rapoport, “Messianic Sanctions For Terror,” Comparative Politics 20, no. 2 (1988): 195–213; and Michael Barkun, ed., Millenialism and Violence (London: Frank Cass, 1996).
Joseph Dan, Jewish Apocalypse: Past and Present (Tel Aviv: Yedioth-Hemed Press, 2000) (in Hebrew).
Aaron Eshkoli, The Messianic Movements in Jewish History (Jerusalem: Bialik, 1957) (in Hebrew).
See Haim Hazaz's short story “The Sermon” (HaDrasha) in The Sermon and Other Stories (New Milford, CT: Toby Press, 2005), 231–250.
Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626–1676 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973); Jacob Barnai, Sabbatianism: Social Aspects (Jerusalem: Shazar Center, 2000); and Rachel Elior, ed., Messianism and Sabbatianism (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, Jewish Studies Institute, 2001).
Gershom Scholem, “Redemption through Sin,” in The Messianic Idea in Judaism (New York: Schocken Books, 1971), 78–141.
Joseph Dan, Modern Jewish Messianism (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense Pub., 1999) (in Hebrew).
Dov Schwartz, Religious Zionism: Between Rationality and Messianism (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1999) (in Hebrew); Aran, “Jewish-Zionist Fundamentalism” (see note 36 above); and Menachem Friedman, “Messiah and Messianism in Chabad Hasidism” (Unpublished manuscript).
See Ezekiel 36, for example.
David Ariel-Yoel, ed., Gog and Magog: Messianism and Apocalypse in Judaism (Tel Aviv: Miskal, 2001).
Incidentally, Israeli officials have often referred to the 1973 October War as the “Day of Judgment War” (milkhemet yom hadin).
Ben Sasson, History of the Jewish People (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976), Vol. II; and Ben Sasson, Jewish Society Through the Ages (New York: Schocken, 1971).
Aviezer Ravitzky, Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious Radicalism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
Rivka Shatz, Hasidism and Mysticism: Quietistic Elements in 18th Century Hasidism (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1968).
East European Jews used to eat in Purim poppy seed-filled pouches called Mohntaschen in German. In folk etymology the latter is the source of the term Hamantaschen still in use by Ashkenazi Jews. Later in modern Israel the Yiddish name of these Purim pastries changed to the Hebrew oznei haman, meaning Haman's ears, in light of the tradition that this archenemy of the Jewish people and his ten sons were hung by their ears.
Elliott Horowitz, Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006). Naturally, given the patterns we have identified, these incidents are not commemorated, let alone celebrated, in Jewish chronicles but appear in Christian accounts, some of which may be polemical.
Ben Sasson, History of the Jewish People (see note 112 above).
Jeremy Cohen, Sanctifying the Name of God (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004); Motti Arad, ed., Dying for God: A Reader (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, 2004) (in Hebrew); and Simha Goldin, Yigal Levin, and C. Michael Copeland, The Ways of Jewish Martyrdom (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008).
Yisrael Yuval, Two Nations in Your Womb (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 200); and David Biale, Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol Between Jews and Christians (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).
Oz Almog, The Sabra: The Creation of the New Jew (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).
Nachman Ben Yehuda, The Massada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel (Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995).
Gideon Aran, “The Beginnings of the Road from Religious Zionism to Zionist Religion,” in Jonathan Frankel, Peter Medding, and Ezra Mendelsohn, eds., Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. II (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 116–143.
Amos Eilon, The Israelis: Founders and Sons (Toronto: Bantam Books, 1972); and Dalia Gavriely-Nuri, “Rainbow, Snow, and the Poplar's Song: The ‘Annihilative Naming’ of Israeli Military Practices,” Armed Forces and Society 36, no. 5 (August 2009): 825–842.
Gideon Aran, “Return to the Scriptures in Modern Israel,” L'Annuair de l'Ecole Practique des Hautes Etudes, Section des Sciences Religieuses 99 (1993): 101–133.
Michael Feige, “Gush Emunim and Shalom Achshav” (Ph.D. Dissertation, Hebrew University, 1996); Baruch Kimmerling, The Invention and Decline of Israeliness: State, Society and the Military (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001).
Horowitz, Reckless Rites (see note 116 above), chapters 7 and 8.
Compare Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Compare Mahmood Mamdani, “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism,” American Anthropologist 104, no. 3 (2002): 766–775.
Dan Horowitz and Moshe Lissak, Trouble in Utopia: The Overburdened Polity of Israel (Albany: SUNY Press, 1989).
Sprinzak, Brother Against Brother (see note 9 above).
Nachman Ben Yehuda, Political Assassination by Jews (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993).
See, for example, Menachem Friedman, “Haredim and the Holocaust,” Jerusalem Quarterly 53 (Winter 1990): 321–375.
See, for example, Dorit Natan, “Victimhood as an Obstacle to Conflict Resolution: The Israeli Case” (M.A. Thesis, Hebrew University, Political Science Department, 2004).
Peter Medding, ed., Issues in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. XVIII (Oxford University Press, 2002).
Some of these wars have employed religious symbolism (e.g., the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, named the “Yom Kippur War”). Interestingly, a minority among Israelis grasp these wars in retrospect as if they were sacred events ex ante. Thus Messianic Orthodox Zionists declared the 1948 War, twenty years later, and the 1967, a day later, as “wars of redemption.”
See, for example, David Biale, Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History: The Jewish Tradition and the Myth of Passivity (New York: Schocken Books, 1986).
Edna Lomsky-Feder and Eyal Ben Ari, eds., The Military and Militarism in Israel (Albany: SUNY Press, 1999).
Kimmerling, The Invention and Decline of Israeliness (see note 125 above).
Ehud Luz, “The Moral Price of Sovereignty: The Dispute about the Use of Military Power within Zionism,” Modern Judaism 7 (1987): 51–98.
See Stuart Cohen, “Israel,” in Ron Hassner, ed., Religion and the Military Worldwide (New York: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2013); and Aaron Kampinsky, “Religion, Army and Society in Israel: Changes in the Military Rabbinate 1948–2006” (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Bar Ilan University, 2008).
See for example Yagil Levi, “Violence as a Competitive Test: The Influence of the Social Composition of the IDF on the Moderating Mechanisms in the Al-Aksa Intifada,” Israeli Sociology 9 (2008): 325–335 (in Hebrew).
This text should not be confused with Maimonides' Laws of the King, from which it draws its inspiration and materials. See also Yosef Peley, ed., Mishne Torat Hamelekh: Essays Following the King's Teaching, Including Synopsis and appendix (Yitzhar settlement: Yeshivat Od Yoseph Chai, 2011).
All translations are our own. Maimonides distinguishes between three methods for executing Noahides: by sword, by stoning (if the Noahide has coupled with a Jewish woman who is engaged to another man), and strangling (if he has coupled with a married Jewish woman who has not consumed her marriage).
Ariel Finkelstein, Derekh Hamelekh (Netivot: Yeshivat A'havat Yisrael, 2010).