It may be said that a society is defined by its literature, by the way it treats its elderly and sick, by the way people care for their animals or by its use of natural resources. There are many ways that we as humans construct our shared lives and demonstrate our values. Unfortunately, our world sees more than its share of violence and warfare. Perhaps the manner in which we fight defines us also.
Last week’s Torah reading concludes with a well-known and evocative mitzvah. “When you besiege a city do not cut down the fruit trees because you eat of them-and are the trees people who are able to come against you to lay a siege upon you?”
We can point to this sentence as illustrating our respect and appreciation for nature yet, I hear a simultaneous tone of wonderment concerning the ‘need‘to attack people. This confused and confusing message concerning war continues in the portion read in synagogues throughout the world beginning the day after tomorrow.
‘If and when you enter the land in war against your enemy and you see a beautiful woman whom you desire you may not have your way with her. Marry her but allow her to mourn for her parents and family for 30 days and she will refrain from adorning herself with makeup and finery. Only thereafter may you be intimate with her.”
On the face of it, the lesson is to curtail the appetites of Israelite warriors and to instill within the nation a sense of respect for foreign people. In the face of the horrors of war Torah seeks to teach a bit of restraint. Yet, we all recognize that war is only ’won’ if one power exercises less restraint than the other. It is confusing. Are we to fight at all costs in order to win or are we to fight in a humane manner thereby distinguishing us from the enemy and perhaps falling victim to less ethical warriors?
Perhaps the Torah’s message of not destroying trees is our best method of opening a conversation about the limits of war.
I pray that all of us, our loved ones and those loved ones in many lands be safe from war this Shabbat.
Shalom,
Rabbi Steve Silberman
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