OTHER VIEWS
Seeking War Insight In Talmud
Mercer IsLInc4Wash./ITA
s I got to work clearing the
house of leaven and preparing
for seders, I couldn't help
noticing that the war in Iraq
has coincided with the weeks leading up
to Passover.
The coincidence is eerily appropriate.
Jewish tradition teaches that Passover has
its origins in an ancient conflict. It's the
first war in the Bible, and it foreshadows
key issues confronting America now in
this very modern war, offering a source
of optimism at a trying time for our
country.
Passover celebrates the Israelites' libera-
tion from bondage, but how did the Jews
become slaves in the first place? The
Talmud traces a thread of causation
backward from the events of the Exodus
to the patriarch Abraham.
As Genesis 14 relates, Abram, as he was
then called, fought a war of liberation
against four kings led by the tyrant of
Shinar, located in what today is southern
Iraq.
The four kings had abducted Lot, the
nephew of Abram, who songht to free
David Klinghoffer's new book is "The
Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth
of Monotheism,"just published by
Doubleday. His e-mail address is
davidklinglioffer@yahoo.com
him. In the Talmud's view, Abram erred
in arming his disciples, whose time'
should have been devoted to study.
For this reason, "Abraham our Father
was punished: His children would be
enslaved to Egypt for 210 years," tradi-
tion holds.
Even if I hadn't recently completed a
biography of Abraham, I would be
amazed at how his actions in that long-
ago war seem to comment, if indirectly,
on questions facing Americis armed
forces today.
Consider the parallels, starting with
the relatively mundane:
• America has been criticized for raising a
"blue collar" military, many of whose
members entered the armed forces to pay
for college. Even if it disapproves of
Abram's choice of troops, the Talmud
endorses giving material incentives to
warriors. Abram offered his soldiers pay
in gold.
• Once America deployed troops, the
choice was whether to keep our forces
together or divide them, devoting some
to the siege of Baghdad and some to sub-
duing Iraq's southern cities.
As Genesis makes clear, Abram faced a
similar decision in his war: "He gave
chase as far as Dan. There he divided
against [the enemy] at night, and he
struck them."
• Another portion of U.S. forces must
What's With The Fours?
New York City
espite the late hour and
exhaustion (not to mention
wine), many a Jewish mind
has wondered long and hard
during a Passover seder about all the
Haggadah's "fours:" four questions, four
sons, four expressions of redemption,
four cups. There's clearly a numerical
theme here.
While some may superficially dismiss
the Haggadah as a mere compendium
of random verses and songs, it is in
truth a subtle and wondrous educational
tool, with profound Jewish ideas layered
through its seemingly simple text.
The rabbis who formulated its core,
already extant in pre-talmudic times,
wanted it to serve as a tool for planting
important concepts in the hearts and
minds of its readers — especially its
D
Rabbi Avi Shafran serves as director of
public affairs for Agudath Israel of
America, a national Orthodox organiza-
tion. His e-mail address is
shafran@agudathisrael.org
younger ones, toward whom the seder,
our tradition teaches, is aimed.
And so the authors of the Haggadah
employed an array of pedagogical meth-
ods, including songs, riddles and puz-
zles, as means of conveying deeper
understanding. And they left us clues,
too.
When it comes to the ubiquitous
"fours," we might begin by pondering
the" essentialfact that Passover is when
the Jewish people's identity is solemnly
perpetuated; the seder, the ritual instru-
ment through which each Jewish gener-
ation inculcates our collective history
and essence to the next.
Which is likely a large part of the rea-
son so many Jewish parents who are
alienated from virtually every other
Jewish observance still feel compelled to
have at least some sort of seder, to read a
Haggadah or even — if they have
strayed too far from their heritage to
comfortably confront the original — to
compose their own. (I once joked before
an audience that a "Vegetarian
Haggadah" would likely appear any year
keep supply lines safe. Abram knew well America seems to have done likewise,
but much pain may still lie ahead.
the urgency of this task for, the Midrash
Another connection between
says, he apportioned half the
Passover
and Abram's war offers
spoils of war to the soldiers who
us hope.
had guarded his supplies.
The tide of battle turned in
• Against the advice of other
Abram's favor at midnight. In a
Pentagon officials, Defense
mystical sense, says the Midrash,
z
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld felt
the rest of that night was stored
the Iraq war could be won with-
y9
up till centuries later when the
out overwhelming numbers of
, , , ,
enslaved Israelites were liberat-
troops. Rather, superior tech-
DAVID
ed: "The night was divided,
nology and planning would
KLINGHOFFER and in its first half a miracle
carry the day.
Special
was performed for [Abram].
Abram, too, assumed that
Its second half was kept guard-
Commentary
numbers were not the key to
ed and came forth at midnight
victory. The biblical text says he
mustered only 318 men, and the Talmud in Egypt."
In Jewish tradition, the redemption
claims that finally it was only Abram and
from slavery to Pharaoh is a paradigm for
his servant Eliezer who did the fighting.
all true liberations — which are miracu-
Before the final, decisive encounter
lous in a way, since bondage seems to be
with the enemy, the Talmud recounts
the way of the world.
that Abram suffered a crisis of confi-
Thus, as a prerequisite of success, win-
dence, noting that "his strength was
ning freedom requires God's participa-
enfeebled." Similarly, Americans grew
tion. The liberation of Abram's nephew
suddenly nervous when it became clear
in the early days of the war that Saddam Lot, achieved with God's help, is a pre-
view of the liberation from Egypt.
Hussein's regime was not going to col-
America will be victorious if God is on
lapse overnight like a sand castle.
• Abram won without direct combat. As our side. The world's record of past
redemptions — pre-eminently the one
the Midrash relates, he hurled dust and
straw that became arrows and spears. The celebrated at Passover, but also later
events like the liberation of Europe from
patriarch stood back and watched, not
communism — suggests that God looks
unlike U.S. forces that rely heavily on
favorably on such struggles. If the present
precision-guided bombs, raining down
war truly arises from the goal of freeing
destruction from afar.
Iraqis from tyranny, and I think it does,
From his crisis, Abram evidently
we
have reason to be optimistic. ❑
pulled himself together. For now,
teacher but rather in something more
now, and someone in attendance later
akin to a maternal role, as a spiritual
showed me precisely such a book —
though it lacked the "Paschal Turnip" I
nurturer of the children present.
Jewish identity, indeed, is depend-
had imagined.)
ent on mothers. According to
And so the role we adults play on
Halachah, or Jewish religious
Pesach night, vis-a-vis the
tradition, while a Jew's tribal
younger Jews with whom we
genealogy follows the paternal
share the experience, is a very
line, whether a child is a
specific one. We are teachers, to
member of the Jewish people
be sure, but it is not informa-
or not depends entirely on the
tion per se that we are commu-
status of his or her mother.
nicating, but something more:
It's only speculation, but
identity.
might the recurrent numerical
We seek to impress them
RABBI AVI
with the fact that they are links
theme in our exquisite
SHAFRAN
in a shimmering, ethereal chain
Haggadah, employed each
Special
year to instill Jewish identity,
stretching back to the Jewish
Commentary be reminding us of that?
nation's birth, to when it was
After all, the book has its
divinely redeemed from mun-
own number-decoder built
dane slavery in Egypt and
entered a sublime servitude of a very
right in, toward its end, where most
different sort — to God — at Sinai.
good books' keys and indexes are
found.
So, on Passover, as we celebrate the
It's a little hazy once it's reached, after
birth of the Jewish nation and plant
four cups of wine, but it's unmistakably
the seed of Jewish identity in the
minds of smaller Jews, we are in a
there: "Schad Mi Yodea" or "Who
Knows One?" — the song that provides
sense ourselves "birthing" —giving life
Jewish associations with numbers.
to the Jewish future. And, while it
"Who knows four?"
may be the father who traditionally
If you don't, you can look it up. ❑
leads the seder, he is acting not as