Rabbi Steve Segar's message in Havurah Happenings
The newsletter of the Reconstructionist Havurah of Cleveland   April 2003

Thinking about war.

As I sit down to write this column in the middle of March, it is strange to acknowledge that by the time this newsletter is received in the mail, our world may be in a very different situation, for better or for worse, than our current holding pattern of stalemate between the U.S. government and some of our European allies over how to proceed with Iraq. I wrote last month about the range of existential anxieties that the various scenarios of resolving this crisis generate. This month, I would like to focus a bit more on developing a response to the crisis, however it may unfold and wherever each of us may be on the spectrum of support and opposition.

One of the most common arguments that is made for the value of engaging with Jewish tradition is that it contains a richness of ethical and moral deliberation that may be unique among the cultures of our world. Especially in our day and age, when the acquisition and use of a moral compass are harder to come by than ever, our tradition offers us a solid place to begin to pose some of the thorny questions that have arisen in the context of modern life.

One of the refreshing and challenging aspects of the wisdom of our people is that it rarely accords exactly with either of the two polarized positions that tend to exist in many of our modern ethical/political disputes. For example, in the debate over abortion, Jewish tradition clearly disagrees with the Pro-Life argument that a fetus is to be considered a life in the same sense that a baby is once it has been born. On the other hand, Jewish law also does not recognize an absolute right of a mother to end a pregnancy. There is a similar situation regarding questions of war and peace. While it cannot be disputed that peace is placed at the pinnacle of the Jewish values system, our tradition also believes that there are situations in which the pursuit of peace must be deferred due to evil that must be confronted.

Jewish tradition takes a strong position on the importance of defending oneself. Therefore, wars of self-defense are seen not only as desirable but as obligatory. There is a range of opinion however, when it comes to pre-emptive wars of defense. Most of these opinions come from the Medieval or Modern period and support the notion of pre-emptive strike only after certain conditions have been met. These conditions include agreement between the King (executive branch) and the Sanhedrin (legislative branch), a high likelihood for a successful outcome and approval from the Divine oracle. Thus, while warfare is not ridiculed, its initiation is dependent on a number of factors. The less urgent the context, the more checks and balances there are on the decision to go to war.

The two paragraphs above are not intended to convey the "Jewish view of war" but to offer a glimpse into Jewish categories of thinking about this issue. I would strongly encourage anyone interested in delving deeper into this to visit either of the following websites, www.myjewishlearning.com and www.uahc.org, both of which contain rich resources. It seems highly probable, given where things are now, that our conversations this year around the Seder table will sooner or later turn to this issue.

As we look at these various views from our tradition on the concept of a just war, we will come to our own diverse conclusions about how we might want to respond to the current situation, however it may have evolved by then. May the inspiration we receive from our annual return to our people's core story of freedom give us the motivation and the courage to participate as Jews in the public debate around the Iraq crisis, and, in the process, bring the wisdom of our tradition to bear on today's world, to which it has much to offer.

Rabbi Steve