Jewish Wars
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Innocent Casualties of War
What are the Torah’s rulings on war? Is it ok to kill women and children in a war? There are different types of wars. It’s not OK to kill women and children intentionally, but it depends on the circumstances. Thus,…
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Killing of Canaanite Children
I want to know if there is any source through which I can get information relating to the evil of the Canaanite nations.They used to sacrifice their children, etc. and of course their evil was to be destroyed but why…
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Laws of war
The book of Deuteronomy says that when we go to war with the faraway nations we are to give its people a chance to surrender. If they do, then they are to become our slaves and do forced labor for…
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Genocide
How are we to understand, and justify, the Torah’s injunction to engage in genocide against the indigenous inhabitants of Canaan? Granted the Canaanites were very evil and as the Torah states, their evil behavior was (at least one of) the…
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Amalek Descendants
If Amalek was descended from esau- do we know who his descendants are? Does HaShem (G-d) dislike them by automatically or were they also warmongers? Hi, Traditionally, we understand that the descendents of Esau were represented by the Romans, then…
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War and Conquest in the Torah
Why does the Torah condone war and conquest? Though the Torah is timeless, it particularly addresses the people who lived at the time it was given (“the Torah spoke in human language”). In this context, war was a fact of…
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Destroying Amalek
What are we commanded about Amalek? We are commanded to “remember” what Amalek did to us, but also to wipe out the “memory” of Amalek. Evidently, “memory” is not meant literally here; rather, it refers to wiping out the descendants…
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Jews Ruling Other Nations
Do the Jews want to rule over other nations? The Jews’ conquest of Eretz Yisroel in the times of Joshua and David was not driven by territorial expansionism; it was a fulfillment of G-d’s promise to Abraham. The Messiah will…
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Wars of Extermination in Biblical Times
Did the Jews fight wars of extermination in Biblical times? The Jews were commanded to fight specific wars of annihilation against the Canaanites and the Amalekites; but even in those wars, terms of surrender were offered first, and no one…