Eikev,
4 August 2007
Destroying the Caananites
and the Atomic Bomb
This upcoming week poses difficult ethical questions.
Monday (August 6) is the anniversary of the atomic bombing
of Hiroshima. Thursday (August 9), Nagasaki. All week,
portion Eikev.
At Deuteronomy 7:16, Moses declares:
“You shall
destroy all the peoples that the LORD your God delivers to
you, showing them no pity.” (NJPS).
God’s command goes far beyond normal warfare. The
Canaanites are offered no warning, no mitigation, no chance
of redemption. Deuteronomy 7:16 says nothing about mercy
for the widow, orphan or stranger. This sentence appears to
be outside the category of an ethical teaching.
It plays out in the Book of Joshua. In Chapter 2, Joshua
sends two spies to Jericho. They are hidden by Rahab. Rahab
tells them:
“I know
that the LORD has given the country to you, because dread
of you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the
land are quaking before you.” (NJPS, Joshua
2:8)
I imagine the people of Jericho gathered inside the walls,
under dark clouds, awaiting doom with no hope.
In Chapter 6, God tells Joshua,
“See, I
will deliver Jericho and her king and her warriors in your
hands.” (NJPS, Joshua 6:2)
God instructs Joshua to march around the walls of the city.
After the walls collapse:
“The people
rushed into the city, every man straight in front of him,
and they captured the city. They exterminated everything in
the city with the sword: man and woman, young and old, ox
and sheep and ass.” (NJPS, Joshua
6:20)
Jericho receives no warning and no mercy.
The absoluteness of Deuteronomy 7:16 stands out when
compared to the dropping of the atomic bomb. Regardless
what can be said about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese
were warned.
The Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration on 26 July 1945:
“We call
upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the
unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, and
to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good
faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt
and utter destruction.”
How can we understand Deuteronomy 7:16?
The Reform scholar W. Gunther Plaut writes that Deuteronomy
addresses the religious challenge of the Promised Land. How
to avoid the allure of idolatry and foreign culture? God
gives a simple and extreme rule---Destroy everything. No
mixed marriage. Destroy the idols and shrines. Destroys the
people who would corrupt Israelite religion.
Plaut notes that the Canaanites were not destroyed. They
were around in the later books of the Bible. Plaut
understands Deuteronomy not as Mosaic but as
post-settlement.
The writer of Deuteronomy means that idolatry --- practiced
in his day --- could have been avoided had the Canaanites
been destroyed. Deuteronomy 7:16 is a retrojection of what
could and might have been. The writer of Deuteronomy sees
the destruction of the Canaanites as acceptable in view of
the common practices of those times. (Plaut, The Torah A
Modern Commentary, UAHC, New York 1981, pages 1376, 1381,
1382).
The Babylonia Talmud derives an ethical lesson from
Deuteronomy 7:16. Rav Huna lived during 200’s. He was head
of the Academy at Sura.
Rav Huna taught that the command of Deuteronomy 7:16:
“You shall
destroy all the peoples that the LORD your God delivers to
you, showing them no pity.”
prohibits a Jew
from robbing a non-Jew. At Baba Kamma 113b, Rav Huna
explains that Deuteronomy 7:16 provided that the Israelites
were to take from the enemies that God would deliver to
them in time of war. By implication, the Israelites could
not take from now Jews in times of
peace..
