Skip to content

Holy war in Judaism

by Reuven Firestone

Cover of Holy war in Judaism
Popularity 2

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.

Rabbinical literatureJudaismBiblical teachingWar in literatureHistory and criticsimArab-Israeli conflictWarHistory and criticismJudentumHeiliger KriegWar, religious aspectsRabbinical literature, history and criticism