The BEST: The Art of War
Summary: The Art of War is a short, thirteen-chapter book on military strategy and warfare, written in ancient China around 500 BCE. The work is attributed to Sun Tzu, a Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher who lived during the Eastern Zhou period. It focuses on preparations for battle and the importance of strategy over tactics. It outlines alternatives to battle, including the use of spies, the making and keeping of alliances, the uses of deceit, and a willingness to submit, temporarily, to more powerful foes. In modern times, the book’s lessons have been extended to competitive endeavors outside of war—more boardroom than field of battle.
Sun Tzu
Why this is the BEST? Rabbinic tradition has largely looked askance at military education. After all, Esav is the ish ha-sadeh (the warrior), while Yaakov is the ish tam yoshev ohalim (the scholar). Nevertheless, the metaphor of war finds its way into rabbinic thinking. Commenting on Song of Songs 3:8, Rashi describes those “learned in battle” as referring to “the battle of Torah.” The competitive aspect of Torah study is likewise championed in Kiddushin 30b, “Even a father and his son, or a rabbi and his student, who are engaged in Torah together in one gate become enemies with each other due to the intensity of their studies. But they do not leave there until they love each other.”
Similarly, The Art of War emphasizes the intellectual elements of war, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” Sun Tzu writes, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
A war is won before it is fought: “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” Such counterintuitive truths of success and strength emerge from Avot 4:1. “Who is mighty? He who subdues his inclination, as it is said: ‘He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that rules his spirit than he that takes a city’ (Proverbs 16:32).” To know oneself and one’s true interests – the ability to be truly self-aware – is strength in both a military and personal sense. Competition rages outside the battlefield and the beit midrash. Wisdom is understanding what is truly at stake; appreciating what motivates all the players and seeing how one’s well-considered actions can meaningfully affect the outcome. Few books teach this wisdom better than The Art of War.
Chaim Strauchler is an associate editor of TRADITION and rabbi of Cong. Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck. Click here to read about “The BEST” and to see the index of all columns in this series.