Alt+SHIFT: R. Druckman’s Moderation
Alt+SHIFT is the keyboard shortcut allowing us quick transition between input languages on our keyboards—for many readers of TRADITION that’s the move from Hebrew to English (and back again). Yitzchak Blau offers this supplemental entry in this Tradition Online series offering his insider’s look into trends, ideas, and writings in the Israeli Religious Zionist world helping readers from the Anglo sphere to Alt+SHIFT and gain insight into worthwhile material available only in Hebrew. See the archive of all columns in this series.
R. Haim Druckman, Be-Hayyil uve-Ru’ah: Pirkei Iyyun u-Mahashava be-Inyanei Milhama, Tzeva u-Vitahon be-Dorenu (Or Etzion, 5783), 542 pp.
If R. Yehuda Amital represented a more dovish view within the Religious Zionist rabbinate and R. Dov Lior reflects an aggressively militant approach, one wonders where the mainstream middle stands. The publication of R. Haim Druckman’s Be-Hayyil uve-Ru’ah provides some insight regarding this question. R. Druckman (1932-2022) was Rosh Yeshivat Hesder at Or Etzion, head of the Yeshivot Bnei Akiva system, a Knesset member, and a highly respected voice in the Religious Zionist community. This volume, published the year of his death, reveals his position on a host of issues related to the military.
The first section lists most of the classic sources on the value of the Land of Israel such as Ramban on how the ideal performance of all commandments exists only in Eretz Yisrael, Kuzari on prophecy being limited to presence in Israel, and the first Rashi on the Torah about Jewish rights to the land. This section provides no surprises.
The second and third sections present a militaristic version of Jewish tradition. King David reports that God told him he could not build the Temple because he had spilled much blood (I Chronicles 22:8). R. Druckman mentions an obscure midrash (Pesikta Rabati 2) that puts a positive spin on “you have spilled much blood.” Jacob says that he took land from the Amorite with his sword and bow (Genesis 48:22). Hazal reinterpret the “sword and bow” as different forms of prayer (Bava Batra 123a). One might think that Hazal are downplaying Jacob’s military exploits, but for R. Druckman they are equating the worth of fighting just wars with the commandment to pray. Finally, he cites sources supporting Jews rejoicing at the downfall of an enemy without mentioning traditional sources on the other side of this question (Kol Bo 52). If we stopped reading here, it would seem that R. Druckman inclines towards a hawkish viewpoint.
R. Druckman quotes the first two passages of R. Kook’s Orot ha-Milhama in which R. Kook sees wars as advancing humanity towards the messianic era and notes how our Biblical heroes engaged in warfare. It would be worthwhile to study how many times students of R. Zvi Yehuda Kook cite the third section where his father writes positively about Am Yisrael leaving the political arena because politics invariably requires barbaric behavior. “It is not fit for Jacob to be involved in sovereignty at a time when it demands being filled with blood.” Somehow, this passage does not typically appear in various Religious Zionist books on the Jewish concept of war and it does not receive mention here either.
A few chapters polemicize with the Haredi community. R. Druckman argues for standing still for the siren on Yom ha-Zikaron, reciting the prayer for the soldiers of Israel, and enlisting in the army. Notably, he seems to prefer Yeshivot Hesder to Yeshiva Gevoha even if the latter is followed by a shortened army service (337-339). He recommends not pushing off the army for more than four years since older recruits make less effective soldiers.
In the sixth and ninth sections, the tone changes into a far more humanistic sound. R. Druckman writes of balancing valid goals of war with concern for the worth of each human being. He emphasizes how gentiles are also created in the image of God and cites several powerful comments of R. Yisrael Lifschitz’s commentary on Avot in this spirit. At the end of part 6, chapter 3, he quotes R. Kook on the need to love all of humanity.
Though he unsurprisingly advocates adherence to halakha, R. Druckman writes that it is a healthy sign for a religious Jew to be troubled by the command to wipe out Amalek. It is hard to imagine that sentiment appearing in the writings of R. Lior or R. Yitzchak Ginsburg (where the opposite can often be found). He favors the Yereim’s approach to yefat toar which says that a Jewish soldier cannot ever forcibly sleep with a woman captured in war.
R. Druckman strongly rejects individual Israelis engaging in vigilante justice, Jewish terror, and the actions of Baruch Goldstein. Before bringing source material about the prohibition to kill gentiles, R. Druckman writes: “There are things self-understood, with no need to write them. The prohibition to kill innocent people is certainly one of those things.” Only then does he quote Kessef Mishna and Meshekh Hokhma on the severity of killing non-Jews. The latter famously suggested that murder of gentiles is worse than killing Jews due to the desecration of the divine name involved. For further support, R. Druckman mentions Netziv’s well-known preface to Genesis that the yashrut of the patriarchs was manifest in their compassionate treatment of gentiles.
Since I am concerned by what I perceive as excessive militarism in Religious Zionist discourse, I was quite encouraged by these closing sections and hope that they both reflect the community which looked up to R. Haim Druckman as a spiritual guide and that his teachings will continue to influence that community.
Yitzchak Blau, Rosh Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem’s Old City, is an Associate Editor of TRADITION.