Writing from the Gaza front, Rabbi Avraham Stav considers words that lead men into battle from the Bible and Maimonides to Tolkien and Churchill. The charge to the troops must animate their fighting spirit and offer faith and trust in the ideals for which they risk their lives. In the current war, what gives Stav strength is not so much the knowledge that God is fighting for us, but that we are fighting for Him. In this war we are aware that there are values greater and higher than life itself.

In the aftermath of the 5784 Simhat Torah pogrom, a religious thinker cannot help but ask “Where was God?” Aton Holzer outlines the problem, rejects popular approaches, and demonstrates that ancient Jewish sources validate and even encourage the question. A second, related matter: How can we be assured that our own religious tradition never could perpetrate what radical Islam has wrought upon us?