From: strom@watson.ibm.com (Rob Strom)
Subject: The Canaanites(was Re: Achilles heels for religion?)
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 1992 21:08:27 GMT
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM Research

In article <graham.702262529@bizet>, graham@maths.su.oz.au (Graham Matthews) writes:
|> Me:
|> >>				       You could start by telling
|> >>us what your interpretation of the passage about the Caanites is!
|> 
|> (Matthew P Wiener) writes:
|> >The Canaanites were the pod people in THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.
|> 
|> Why the reluctance to explain this passage? It begins to sound like
|> you will not explain because you do not have an explanation.
|> 
|> Would you like to give it a go Rob? It might make a change from
|> Matthew's evasion tactics.
|> 
I was hoping not to get involved in this discussion.  I'll
give my contribution with the disclaimer that it's my
personal view, not necessarily the "traditional Jewish view".
Remember, I'm not Orthodox.  If you want traditional Jewish
views, Matthew has already posted two sources which you
can look up.  Since he did post the sources, I disagree
that he's been evasive.

When I teach my children Judaism, I give a historical
perspective, and a progressive perspective.  That is,
I reject the views which assert either that (a) the
words of the Bible are universal for all time, or
(b) that through history man has degenerated from
a state of perfection.  So in the view I teach,
men were pretty barbaric to start with.  Then they
proceeded to become slightly more civilized, and
have become more and more civilized ever since.  One
of my children's duties is to further this process.
The trends from the pre-biblical period through
the patriarchs through the prophets through the
modern sages indicate the direction I think this
process should take.

One message in the Bible is that the righteousness
of a nation will have an effect on its ability to
endure.  An unrighteous nation will begin to deteriorate.
This was a progressive teaching, in that righteousness,
rather than brute strength, became the quality to
admire in heroes.  Notice that even the military
heroes, like David, were not admired for their
strength or military prowess --- remember David and Goliath?
There are no holidays celebrating military victories
as such --- the minor holiday of Hanukkah is the
closest to that, and even then the emphasis is
that the Jews regained their rights to worship
as Jews, not on the victory which enabled it.

The Canaanites (the mythical ones described in
the story, not necessarily the real ones) are
described as being a people of depraved but
attractive *practices*, not merely beliefs.
That they fall before the Israelites is expressed
via God causing them to lose.  There are episodes
where some from among them appreciate the
righteousness of the Israelites and help the
cause.  

So the story is an improvement for its time, in
that it emphasizes the triumph of righteousness
over unrighteousness, rather than glorifying
brute strength per se.  And it comes packaged
with warnings not to be lured by the attractiveness
of the behaviors around them.  I think that's
where Matthew's analogy of the Canaanites to
the pod people comes from.  God is warning that
if the Israelites don't stay morally alert, they
could easily turn into the kind of people the
Canaanites were.  There are modern analogs to
these temptations.  This is a springboard for
a discussion of these modern analogs.

However, in explaining all this to my kids (I don't
use the pod people analogy), I point out the dangers
that all kinds of wars of conquest can be and have
been rationalized as wars between the "forces of
light and the forces of darkness".  We've just seen
an example last year in our country.  Over the
course of the time span from the book of Joshua to today,
the message has mutated from destroying those we
think are evil to avoiding assimilating with evil
and setting an example of our own righteousness.
So I also teach the Canaanite conquest in the
negative context --- of how the concept of holy
war has led to large amounts of war and very
small amounts of holiness.  This is a springboard
for a discussion of these wars.

-- 
Rob Strom, strom@watson.ibm.com, (914) 784-7641
IBM Research, 30 Saw Mill River Road, P.O. Box 704, Yorktown Heights, NY  10598