Holy war in Judaism
Subtitle: the fall and rise of a controversial idea
By: Reuven Firestone
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 365
ISBN-13: 9780199860302
Subjects: Rabbinical literature; Judaism; Biblical teaching; War in literature; History and criticsim; Arab-Israeli conflict; War
Description: The transformations brought about by modernity required Jews to re-examine the traditional rabbinic prohibition against war in the light of the times. Within a hundred years the traditional safeguards were effectively removed for the majority of religious Jews that continued to take Jewish traditional exegesis seriously. This full process, from removing holy war from possibility to reviving holy war as a paradigm for action, is the topic of this study.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Pt. I. The ancient Jewish world: holy war in practice; title: Holy war in the Bible; title: Jewish holy war in practice: early success; title: Holy war fails; title: Pt. II. The world of the rabbis: holy war interrupted; title: Rabbinic responses to war's failure; title: Rabbinic typology of war; title: Who is the enemy?; title: Maimonides' counting of the commandments; title: Nahmanides' critique, and other thinkers; title: Pt. III. The emergence of Jewish modernity: holy war on hold; title: The crisis of modernity and Jewish responses; title: From practicality to a new messianism; title: The new Jew; title: From Holocaust to holy war: Israel's war of independence; title: Pt. IV. The Jewish State: holy war revived; title: 1948 to 1967: from defensive war to preemptive war; title: 1967 to 1973:the miracle of conquest and the test of Yom Kippur; title: The 1980s: holy war and its excesses; title: Conclusion: the resurrection of holy war.