Some laws and prescriptions of the Torah can at first glance appear not only strange and paradoxical, but even plainly absurd. Indeed, everyone knows that...
Some laws and prescriptions of the Torah can at first glance appear not only strange and paradoxical, but even plainly absurd. Indeed, everyone knows that in wartime everyone capable of bearing arms is treated with utmost strictness and given no indulgences. War is war, mobilization is mobilization, and during war it is necessarily universal; here no allowances are made for moral or psychological unreadiness. Any act of cowardice is regarded as desertion, with all the consequences that follow from it in wartime.
The Torah, meanwhile, prescribes something directly opposite: it requires that everyone who is "fearful in heart" have the opportunity calmly to leave the battlefield - to leave altogether, return home, and remain there until the end of the war, and without any punishment, even without any public reproach; the Torah by no means considers these people worthy of contempt.
What is this: pacifism? Clearly not: the matter is not a refusal of war, but only those who are weak for it. Weak above all spiritually: the expression "fearful in heart" means precisely this. And the matter is not necessarily fear and the cowardice that flows from it, although this is significant too: everyone who imagines what panic on the battlefield is knows perfectly well what the appearance of even one panicker in the ranks of fighters can lead to. But spiritual weakness can express itself differently as well: a person can simply become brutalized by war, turn into a killing machine, enter such a spiritual state that he begins to enjoy killing. And even if the matter concerns killing an armed enemy on the battlefield, such a spiritual state is still destructive for a person. Any war will end someday, but the habit of killing and, still worse, enjoying the fear that a person experiences before the face of inevitable death, will remain. And the former soldier will carry it home, into peaceful life. If so, then pacifism is better.
Can one be a pacifist before the face of an enemy during war? Perhaps, but not for very long. Or for long enough, but then already at someone else's expense - at the expense of those who reject pacifism and take up weapons in order to defend both themselves and those who cannot defend themselves, or do not want to, like the pacifists themselves. But if a person knows with certainty that war will break him, turning him not into a coward, no, but into a killing machine, if a person knows that he will not be able to remain human in war, then his pacifism is justified. To remain human before God is more important than to become a hero in the eyes of this world. In the end, God needs our heart, not our heroism.
20 The exhortation of the priest to them who were going to battle, Deu 20:1-4.
The dismission of them who were engaged in business, or faint - hearted, Deu 20:5-9.
How they were to treat distant cities, Deu 20:10-15.
The cities of the Canaanites, Deu 20:16-18.
Fruit - trees not to be destroyed, Deu 20:19-20.
20:2 Speak unto the people - Probably to one regiment of the army after another.
20:5 What man - This and the following exceptions are to be understood only of a war allowed by God, not in a war commanded by God, not in the approaching war with the Canaanites, from which even the bridegroom was not exempted, as the Jewish writers note.
20:6 A vineyard - This and the former dispensation were generally convenient, but more necessary in the beginning of their settlement in Canaan, for the encouragement of those who should build houses or plant vineyards, which was chargeable to them, and beneficial to the common - wealth. Eaten of it - Heb. made it common, namely, for the use of himself and family and friends, which it was not, 'till the fifth year.
20:9 Make captains - Or rather, as the Hebrew hath it, they shall set or place the captains of the armies in the head or front of the people under their charge, that they may conduct them, and by their example encourage their soldiers. It is not likely they had their captains to make when they were just going to battle.
20:16 Nothing - No man. For the beasts, some few excepted, were given them for a prey.
20:19 Thou shalt not destroy - Which is to be understood of a general destruction of them, not of the cutting down some few of them, as the conveniency of the siege might require. Man's life - The sustenance or support of his life.