Q&A: The Laws of War and Killing Gentiles
The Laws of War and Killing Gentiles
Question
With God’s help,
How can it be that it is permitted to go out to an optional war for the sake of money and territory? If killing and robbing a gentile are forbidden, then all the more so conquering territory and killing him should be forbidden. I thought to explain it by saying that those prohibitions apply to the individual, whereas war is between entities and people die as a matter of course. But if so, would it then be permitted for one city of Jews to wage war against another?
Thank you very much!
Answer
That really is a difficult question, and I don’t have an answer to it. The norms in the past were that it was considered legitimate to go out to war over such matters. “Stretch forth your hands into the troop.” It seems that the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) responds to that reality and does not necessarily encourage it. In any case, today that is certainly not so.
It seems to me
like how it is permitted to kill a thief…
In historical periods and geopolitical regions where displays of territorial ambition and aggression were very common, you had to steal so they wouldn’t steal from you, and consequently kill so they wouldn’t kill you.