Parsha Pearls: Parshas Tetzaveh

 Parsha Pearls: Parshas Tetzaveh

Fighting a Defensive War

… Some Jews admit that the Zionist state is forbidden, but justify its wars on the grounds that they are defending Jewish lives. But there are three fundamental errors here: 1) The gentile nations who fight the Zionists are fighting because they wish to control the land instead of the Zionists. Thus the Zionists are fighting not to defend Jewish lives, but to defend their statehood and their political control of the land. Since the Three Oaths forbid statehood and political control over the land during exile, it follows that any war fought to maintain that statehood is also a violation of the oaths. 2) Most of the Zionists’ wars were not defensive; the Zionists were the ones who initiated hostilities. 3) The Shulchan Aruch is talking about Jews fighting to defend their host country against outside attackers. They are defending a Jewish city that is part of a non-Jewish country, and thus they are fighting not as Jews but as citizens of that country. In other cases, they are defending themselves against criminals in a non-Jewish country whose government would like to control crime. Thus they fight as a service and assistance to their government. But there is no permission for Jews during exile to fight against the gentile nations among whom they live; that is a violation of the Oaths.

https://torahjews.org/2023/11/24/parsha-pearls-parshas-tetzaveh/

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