As I write this, 703 days have passed since that horrific day on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists unleashed a bloodbath in Israel on innocent civilians—men, women, and soldiers—and took approximately 251 people hostage.  703 days have also passed since Israel began retaliating: bombing, sending in ground troops, and decimating the Gaza Strip and killing over 60,000 people, many of them also innocent men, women, and children who were not in any way responsible for what Hamas had done. 

While it is true that Israel did not start this war, it is also true that the Israeli government has continuously refused to rise to the high ideals that Judaism demands of all Jews to address the humanitarian needs of innocent and vulnerable people. Every day that the bombing and killing continues, and thousands of people face starvation, illness, displacement, and trauma, the Israeli government brings not only bloodguilt but also shame upon the Jewish People.  It seriously calls into question what it means for Israel to have been founded as a “Jewish State.”

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in the land of Israel. On March 15, 1948, thirty-seven people, members of the Provisional Council, signed Israel’s Declaration of Establishment, which declared the establishment of a Jewish State, to be known as The State of Israel. It based this on the claim that the Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish People, where the spiritual, religious and political identity of the Jewish People was shaped.

Shaped by what? The Jewish People’s identity was shaped by the events of history, by the cultural and religious ideas and practices of its peoples, which continued to evolve over time, and by the ethics and values preached by its leaders and its prophets—ethics and values that were preserved and later canonized in our sacred texts.

Those texts sought to determine how to create a more just and equitable society for those living within its borders.

The ancient rabbis, for example, attempted to distinguish between different types of war:  those that are “just or obligatory” [milchemet mitzvah] and those that are “permitted but optional” [milchemet reshut].  An obligatory war, milchemet mitzvah, is commanded; in fact, it is required by Jewish law.  Jews must engage in this type of war when they are attacked by an aggressor.  Jewish law specifies that in such circumstances Jews have an unequivocal right to defend themselves.  Such a war is understood within Jewish law as a religious or moral imperative: even those normally exempt from participating in war must participate.

There is one additional category within Jewish law that specifies when a war is obligatory:  when that war fulfills a “divine command.” The ancient wars against Amalek and the Canaanite nations, for example, were understood as divinely commanded. 

An optional or permitted war, milchemet reshut, on the other hand, is a discretionary war, one usually engaged in for political or economic reasons.  This kind of war is permitted only under certain conditions.

Many Jews throughout the world initially supported Israel’s response to Hamas’ attack in October 2023 as an obligatory war.  703 days later, however, many now believe that it has morphed into an optional war:  one that is not politically, strategically, or morally justified in any way.

Still others, like many of the more extremist members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, are driven by a kind of messianic fervor to fulfill God’s command to drive out the enemy of Hamas and take control of the Gaza Strip (as well as the West Bank).  They erroneously believe that this will ensure the survival of the Jewish People.  It will not. On the contrary: the safety and security of the Jewish People—throughout the world—are now seriously jeopardized because of the actions of the Israeli Government.

Of course, not all Jews look to Jewish Law to justify engaging in war.  Core ethics and values of Judaism also guide us.  These include the belief, first and foremost, that all people are created b’tzelem Elohim—in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27), and therefore deserve to be treated with dignity and respect; the requirement bakesh shalom v’rodfehu:  to seek peace and pursue it (Psalms 34:15; Chapter on Peace, Minor Tractates of the Talmud); the obligation lo ta’amod al dam rey’echa:  not to stand idly by the blood of our neighbor (Lev. 19:16; T.B. Sanhedrin 73a); the expectation that we will act with chesed and rachamim, lovingkindness and compassion, toward all, especially those who are disadvantaged or vulnerable (Zecharia 7:9, Isaiah 58:10, Hoseah 2:21; T.B. Sabbath 151b; T.B. Bezah 32b; T.B. Sotah 14a), as the prophet Isaiah said:  “And [when] you offer compassion to the hungry and satisfy the famished creature—then shall your light shine in darkness, and your gloom shall be like noonday” (Isaiah 58:10).

The core ethics and values of Judaism also guide us hochai’ach tocheach: to rebuke others when we see that they are making terrible mistakes (Lev. 19:17; Gen. Rabbah 54).

Whether we are motivated by a particular interpretation of Jewish Law, or the call of Jewish ethics and values, millions of us around the world, both in Israel and the diaspora, demand that the Israeli Government rise to the high ideals of Judaism and bring an end to this war. We demand that the Israeli Government bring the hostages or their remains home to their families.  We demand that the Israeli Government take the lead in helping those who have survived these last 703 days, Palestinians in Gaza as well as Jews in Israel, begin to rebuild their lives and build a shared future where all “can sit beneath their vine and fig tree, with no one to disturb them.” (Micah 4:4). We demand that the Israeli Government restore the core ideals of Judaism to the Jewish State, as its founders envisioned. Anything less is a travesty.