A REMINDER: PART B.  ZEALOTS & SICARII

In rabbinic understanding, Adam was created with two inclinations, one towards good and one towards evil.¹ Throughout our lives, decision by decision, we each choose which way we will incline, sometimes toward the good, sometimes toward the evil. Then we will stand before the Almighty on the Day of Judgment.

“R. Judah explained: ‘In the time to come the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring the Evil Inclination and slay it before the righteous and before the wicked. To the righteous it will seem like a high mountain, and to the wicked it will seem like a hair thread. Both of them will weep. The righteous will weep and say, ‘How were we able to subdue such a high mountain!’ The wicked also will weep saying, ‘How were we not able to subdue such a hair thread!’”²

We know which way is good, but we are sometimes tempted to go the other way. We sometimes place more value on our own desires and emotions. There are always consequences, even if we do not know what they are.

In biblical history, the Temple of Solomon was destroyed and almost all the people of Israel were exiled to Babylon because of the sins of the people. The Talmud asks, “Why was the first Sanctuary destroyed? Because of three things which prevailed there: idolatry, immorality, bloodshed…. why was the second Sanctuary destroyed, seeing that in its time they were occupying themselves with Torah, [observance of] precepts, and the practice of charity? Because therein prevailed hatred without cause. That teaches you that groundless hatred is considered as of even gravity with the three sins of idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed together.”³

In the Hebrew Scriptures, hatred is much more than an emotional feeling, it is a way of behaving; a way of treating other people. All these evils flowed from the unwillingness of the people to do justice, love mercy, and walk in humility with God. They chose to do what they wanted to do rather than be limited by God’s Law. They were harsh rather than merciful and compassionate. And they presumed their own righteousness, often claiming that they represented God, rather than humbling themselves before Him.

Josephus wrote about the different groups of violent zealots during the time leading up to the destruction of the Second Temple. Among them were the Sicarii, named after the small swords they used to kill those who didn’t bow down to them. “[T]he Sicarii got together against those that were willing to submit to the Romans, and treated them in all respects as if they had been their enemies, both by plundering them of what they had, by driving away their cattle, and by setting fire to their houses.”⁴ “They mingled themselves among the multitude at their festivals, when they were come up in crowds from all parts to the city to worship God, as we said before, and easily slew those that they had a mind to slay. They also came frequently upon the villages belonging to their enemies, with their weapons, and plundered them, and set them on fire.”⁵

The Sicarii were not yet strong enough to directly attack the Romans, but their anger, frustration, and impotence drove them to attack fellow Jews instead. They murdered “enemies” and “friends” alike, because anyone anyone less violent than themselves presented a challenge to their ideology. In their minds, killing defenseless people somehow demonstrated the rightness of their cause, or their power, or their piety. The Talmud indicates that it really only demonstrated their hatred without a cause.

When the Zealots did mount a full revolt, the Romans lay siege to Jerusalem to starve the people into submission. “Yochanan ben Zakkai was the youngest and most distinguished disciple of Rabbi Hillel. He has been called the ‘father of wisdom and the father of generations (of scholars)’ because he ensured the continuation of Jewish scholarship after Jerusalem fell to Rome in 70 C.E.“⁶ For the welfare of the people of Israel, Yochanan ben Zakkai recognized that God had diminished their boundaries. So he wanted to go out to the Romans to restore peace. Because the Zealots would have killed him if they knew his purpose, he faked his own death, and had his disciples smuggle him out of the city in a coffin.⁷

The Sicarii claimed that their violence would bring the deliverance of Israel. It brought destruction instead. The God who sees every heart was neither deceived nor intimidated.

The truth was that God was not with the Zealots and Sicarii. They were acting in defiance of what He had commanded. They justified their actions to themselves, but they didn’t listen to God. And they closed their ears and hearts to all the reasoning and pleadings of others.

Such groups appear too often in human history, not limited to one people group or one era of time. Nor are they limited to one religion or philosophy. Centuries earlier, speaking of Greeks, Thucydides accurately described some of the characteristics of these who engage in violent conspiracies.

“Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any. Frantic violence became the attribute of manliness; cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defence. The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be suspected.”⁸

Thucydides observed that “the confidence of their members in each other rested less on any religious sanction than upon complicity in crime.”⁹ It was not piety, courage, or wisdom that drove them on. “The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once engaged in contention.”¹⁰

In our day as well, there are individuals and groups who are similarly motivated. They simplistically imagine that their anger is all the logic they need. They self-righteously imagine that it therefore sanctifies whatever barbaric behavior they choose.

A recent story in the Jerusalem Post said that, “A group of Israeli settlers threw stones at Palestinian farmers and stole their equipment in the village of Kalil Saturday in the West Bank, according to a Yesh Din report. The organization said the attack came a few hours after a similar attack.”¹¹

There have been a number of such attacks lately, carried out by a small percentage of the Israeli settlers. Some of these attackers are Orthodox, though they are a small percentage of the Orthodox settlers. People who claim to be orthodox need to weigh their actions in accordance with their Holy Scriptures.

From the outset, let’s be clear. In the past there have been similar attacks by some Palestinians against some Israeli settlers. And there have been countless rock throwing attacks by some Palestinians against Israelis in various places.

Another recent Jerusalem Post article recorded that “The IDF [the Israel Defense Forces] arrested a number of Palestinian suspects connected to a rock-throwing incident in which an Israeli woman was hit in the head as she drove on Route 465 with two of her children to take a coronavirus test….

“According to the IDF there were 1,500 stone-throwing incidents by Palestinians towards Israeli vehicles in 2020, similar to the 1,469 in 2019. Those numbers are down from 1,881 such incidents in 2018 and the 2,549 in 2018.”¹²

Some might say that these thousands of incidents justify the actions of these Orthodox Israeli settlers against the Palestinian farmers. “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” But that would show abysmal ignorance of what the Hebrew Scriptures actually teach. And let’s be equally clear: in the Scriptures, the evil actions of others do not dictate or justify corresponding evil actions on the part of anyone else.

To begin with, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” is a judicial principle to be applied by judges in a court of law; it is not an authorization of vigilante justice. Secondly, it is not a general judicial principle or formula, but a standard to be applied in specific cases and those like them. The three passages in Torah where the phrase appears all involve a callous disregard of someone else’s humanity.

Exodus 21:22-24 prescribes “eye for eye, tooth for tooth…” for harm done to a pregnant woman. Leviticus 24:19-20 prescribes the same for a person who disfigures another. Deuteronomy 19:16-21 prescribes this principle for the punishment to a false witness who seeks to use the law to injure the innocent — it should be done to him as he intended to do to the one falsely accused.

The purpose of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” in these three passages in the Torah is to remind us that our injured neighbor, in these cases innocent, is made in the image and likeness of God. The principle establishes a limit of punishment equal to the offense, and stipulates an equality of value in Law between the aggressor and the injured, regardless of social standing. This same principle, called lex talionis, was found in other legal systems, such as that of the Romans.

Its purpose in Torah is to remind us that our neighbor, whether innocent or guilty, is also made in the image and likeness of God. That is a general principle, a foundational principle, of Torah. Disregarding the humanity of the “other” is always a violation of Torah.

“And if a foreigner sojourns with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. But the foreigner who dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”¹³ Neither the prohibition against hatred nor the commandment to love are limited to those who share my identity.

Additionally, for those who esteem the Rabbis, the normative rabbinic view should be decisive. The Talmud says that where the Torah prescribes “an eye for an eye,” monetary compensation is to be given. “R. Shimon ben Yohai says, ‘An eye for an eye means money [mammon].’ …R. Zebid said in the name of Raba, ‘Scripture says, wound for wound. This means to give compensation in the place of punishment.’ …R. Ashi said, ‘It is written here eye for eye [Ex. 21:24], even as it is written there he is to fully recompense ox for ox [Ex. 21:36].’”¹⁴

Concerning these specific attacks taking place in our day, however, these Palestinian farmers were not guilty of any crime. They were peacefully working their fields, or living in their houses. Punishing the innocent for a crime committed by someone else, even if that someone else is a relative, is the opposite of God’s Justice.

The God of Israel says, “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine; the soul that sins, it shall die. …The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”¹⁵

But when the wickedness of others directly affects and afflicts us, it is natural to want to strike back. Our father Jacob had a daughter named Dinah. Shechem, the son of the ruler of that area of Canaan, raped her and forcibly kept her in his house, claiming that he wanted to marry her. When they heard, Jacob’s sons were enraged. They hated the evil that had been done to their sister, and they hated the man who had done it. That is understandable.

Seeking vengeance, “two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.  And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went out. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field, and all their wealth, and all their little ones, and they took their wives captive, and carried off all that was in the houses.”¹⁶

Ya’akov had every right to be as angry as his sons were, but he cursed their anger and cruel behavior. On his deathbed, Jacob pronounced blessings for ten of his twelve sons. For two of them, he said, “Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are their swords. O my soul, do not come into their council; to their assembly, let my honor not be united; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their wanton will they lamed an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel; I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.”¹⁷

As God later said explicitly in Torah: “To Me belongs vengeance, and recompense when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.” (Dt. 32:35) Rashi comments, “The retribution of vengeance is with Me, and it will recompense them according to their deeds…” Rashi, Commentary on Dt. 32:35

Jews know that people are capable of horrendous cruelty. We have experienced that from centuries of others doing these things to us. Does God now want the Children of Israel to become ambassadors of hatred, contempt, and cruelty? Does He now want them to commit atrocities of horrendous cruelty to other peoples? Or does He even now want them to do to others what has been or is being done to them?

There are those who think they have inherited God’s command given to Joshua to be an instrument of His judgment on those whom He has already condemned. But everyone stands guilty before God, including each one of us. That, however, is a reason to value mercy rather than vengeance.

God is the Judge of all the earth. We cannot, like Sicarii, take for ourselves His prerogative. God knows what punishment is appropriate, and He is able to administer it whenever He chooses. The God of the Children of Israel says, “Vengeance and recompense are Mine…”¹⁸

These Palestinian farmers are not the people who were guilty before God in the time of Abraham. Even then God gave those people four more centuries of opportunity to repent, though He knew they had irrevocably chosen their way and hardened their hearts.

These Palestinian farmers are not idolatrous Roman oppressors. They are not an invading Babylonian army. Nor are they Hellenizing Seleucid enemies like Antiochus Epiphanes. They are farmers living in and on the land.

This is not the unique time of Joshua. No courage is demonstrated in attacking the defenseless. No bravery is required. Nor is any justice demonstrated by attacking or killing the innocent. Despising those whom God has made in His own image and likeness does not show love for Him. “Our Rabbis taught: ‘Those who are insulted but do not insult, hear themselves reviled and do not answer back, act from love and rejoice in suffering, the Scriptures say of them, But they who love Him are as the sun going forth in its strength.’”¹⁹

We should remember that “The Holy One, blessed be He, waits for the nations of the world in the hope that they will repent and be brought beneath His wings.”²⁰ For the people of Israel, this is not extraneous information, it is central to their God-given identity and calling. He created Israel as a means of bringing the nations back to Himself.

This purpose of God remains. “And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’ …And He says, ‘It is a light thing that you should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give you for a light to the nations/goyim, to be My salvation to the end of the earth.’”²¹

God said to Abram, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you will be a father of many goyim.”²² He promised Yaakov/Jacob, “a nation and a company of nations [goy u’kahal goyim] will be from you, and kings will come from your loins.”²³

God gave Israel His Scriptures to teach all the world. But they cannot be taught in word only. People have heard an abundance of words; they want to see a reality. In vain did Amos exhort his generation: “Now let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”²⁴ Will this generation do better?

Even to those He was exiling to Babylon, the God of Israel said, “But seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.”²⁵ Moses had long before prophesied the two exiles along with an abiding promise: “But if from there you will seek the Lord your God, you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”²⁶

God has decreed that in the Age to Come, there will be Gentiles living in the land with Israel. “‘And you are to divide this land for yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. And it will come to pass that you are to divide it by lot for an inheritance to you, and to the foreigners who sojourn among you, who will father children among you; and they will be to you as those born in the country among the people of Israel. They shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. And it will come to pass, that in whatever tribe the foreigner sojourns, there you are to give him his inheritance,’ says the Lord God.”²⁷ That is God’s vision and plan for the future of the land of Israel. There will be Gentiles living in the land alongside the people of Israel.

In the rabbinic usage that developed two thousand years after Abraham, “ger,” the Hebrew word used in this and other passages, was used to designate a proselyte. But it did not have that meaning in the Hebrew Scriptures. As Rashi wrote, “Whenever ger is said, it means a person who was not born in that State, but comes from a dfferent State to live there.”²⁸

Here are some examples of the use of ger in Tanakh. God said to Abraham, “Know for a certainty that your seed will be a stranger/ger in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them; and they will afflict them four hundred years.”²⁹ God said to all Israel, “And you are not to oppress a ger, for you⁺ know the heart of a ger, because you⁺ were gerim [the plural of ger] in the land of Egypt.”³⁰ The people of Israel were foreigners in Egypt, but they were not proselytes.

Moses called his son’s name Gershom: “for he said, ‘I have been a stranger [ger] in a strange land.”³¹ Gershom, ger sham, means “a stranger there”. The Hebrew word nachriyah, translated as “strange [land],” means “foreign”. Moses was not a proselyte in the wilderness, but he was a foreigner in a strange land.

As part of the covenant God made with Israel, He commanded: “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a ger in his land.”³² Edomites, though not Israelites, are brothers. Egyptians, whether friendly or hostile, should not be viewed hostilely, because Israel lived in their land as foreigners

In giving the people of Israel law for the land of Israel, the God of Israel said, “The land is not to be sold permanently; because the land is Mine; because you are strangers/gerim and sojourners with Me.”³³ Even in their own land, the Children of Israel are to think of themselves as foreigners, living there by God’s grace. It is His land.

God’s guidance in the Hebrew Scriptures is multifaceted. Some of it is straightforward and explicit; some of it depends upon circumstances and interpretation. It is not wise to take any passages one likes and rigidly apply it to other situations. There is a human tendency to misinterpret circumstances to align them with one’s own desires.

When God commanded the Children of Israel to fight against the tribes of Canaan in order to inherit the land, the people were unwilling to obey. They feared they would be destroyed by the giants who lived there. So the people rebelled and wanted to return to Egypt. They wanted to kill those who said they should trust God and do what He said. They would have killed Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb.

In response, God brought a plague upon the people and declared that this stubborn generation would die in the wilderness, but their children would enter the land. The people then changed their decision, but they didn’t change their hearts. “And they rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, ‘Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place of which the Lord has spoken; for we have sinned.’

“And Moses said, ‘Why do you now transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it will not succeed. Do not go up — for the Lord is not among you — so that you should not be struck down before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword because you are turned away from the Lord. Therefore the Lord will not be with you.’

“But they presumed to go up to the hill top; nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, did not depart from the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill came down and defeated them, and crushed them as far as Hormah.”³⁴

Refusing to go up when God had commanded them to go was a sin. Insisting on going up when Moses warned them not to go was also a sin. They had not yet learned that the beginning of all the commandments is “Shma!/Listen!” Unwittingly, they were eager to illustrate how refusing to listen leads to sin and destruction.

King David was sometimes deceived by his own heart. When he could think clearly, he did not trust in his own understanding. He prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Test me, and know my thoughts! And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”³⁵

King Solomon, the wisest man in Israel, said “If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head.”³⁶ This is exactly what Elisha the prophet did with the contingent of the Syrian army that came to capture him. God temporarily blinded them, and Elisha led them into the city of Samaria. There the Lord opened their eyes to see that they were surrounded by the army of Israel.

“And the king of Israel said to Elisha, when he saw them, ‘My father, shall I strike them? shall I strike them?’

“And he answered, ‘You shall not strike them. Would you strike those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Place bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.’ And he prepared a great feast for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the bands of Aram came no more to the land of Israel.”³⁷

“Our Rabbis taught: ‘Those who are insulted but do not insult, hear themselves reviled and do not answer back, act from love and rejoice in suffering, the Scriptures say of them, But they who love Him are as the sun going forth in its strength.’”³⁸

It costs nothing, or so it seems at the moment, to put the Name of the Lord on what one does. But it costs everything to truly find Him. When Israel was facing exile, God again promised, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”³⁹

By faith, by courage, by endurance and by humility, Moses demonstrated that he knew the Lord. “And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend….”⁴⁰ “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth…’”⁴¹ Those who find Him and know Him will also be like Him in these ways. It will be evident in how they treat the other children of Adam.

Hillel said it simply: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.”⁴² That makes it clear what actions one should not do. He also used to say, “Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace; loving other created beings and bringing them near to Torah.”⁴³ That makes it clear what actions one should do.

“When Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai was sick, his disciples came in to visit him. When he saw them he began to weep. His disciples said to him: ‘Candle of Israel, pillar of the right hand, hammer of strength! In front of what are you weeping?’

“He said to them: ‘If I were being taken before a king of flesh and blood who is here today and tomorrow in the grave, if he is angry with me, his anger is not an everlasting anger. And if he imprisons me, his imprisonment is not an everlasting imprisonment. And if he puts to death, his putting to death is not an everlasting death — and I can persuade with words and bribe with money — even so I would weep.

“Now I am being taken before the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, who lives and endures for ever and ever. And if He is angry with me, His anger is an everlasting anger. And if He imprisons, His imprisonment is an everlasting imprisonment. And if He puts me to death, He puts me to death for ever, and I cannot persuade Him with words or bribe Him with money. And even more, there are two ways before me, one of the Garden of Eden and one of Gehinnom, and I do not know by which I will be taken. Should I not weep?’”⁴⁴

FOOTNOTES

1. E.g. B’resheet Rabba/ Midrash Genesis 14.4
2. Talmud Sukkah 52a
3. Talmud Yoma 9b
4. Josephus, The Jewish War 7:253
5. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 20:186-187
6. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/yochanan-ben-zakkai
7. Talmud Gittin 56a-b
8. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, (431 B.C.E.) Trans. by Richard Crawley. Project Gutenberg epub 436.3/1208
9. Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, epub 437.4/1208
10. Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, epub 438.2/1208
11. “Israeli settlers throw stones and assault Palestinian farmers,” Jerusalem Post, Oct. 24, 2020. https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/israeli-settlers-throw-stones-and-assault-palestinian-farmers-646794
12. Tovah Lazaroff, “IDF arrests Palestinian suspects after Israeli driver hit in head by rocks,” Jerusalem Post, Jan. 4, 2021
13. Leviticus 19:33-34
14. Tamud Baba Kama 84a
15. Ezekiel 18:4,20
16. Genesis 34:25-29
17. Genesis 49:5-7
18. Deuteronomy 32:35, cf. Psalm 94:1-2
19. Talmud Shabbat 88b
20. Midrash BaMidbar/Numbers Rabba 10:1 cf. Ruth 2:12
21. Isaiah 49:3,6 Some people understand this section to also be a prophetic reference to Messiah.
22. Genesis 17:4
23. B’resheet/Genesis 35:11
24. Amos 5:24
25. Jeremiah 29:7
26. Deuteronomy 4:29
27. Ezekiel 47:21-23
28. Rashi, Commentary on “For you were strangers,” in Ex. 22:20
29. Genesis 15:13
30. Sh’mot/Exodus 23:9
31. Exodus 2:22
32. D’varim/Deuteronomy 23:8 in the Hebrew text
33. Vayikra/Leviticus 25:23
34. BaMidbar/Numbers 14:40-45
35. Psalm 139:23-24
36. Proverbs 25:21
37. 2 Kings 6:21-23
38. Talmud Shabbat 88b
39. Jeremiah 29:13
40. Exodus 33:11
41. Exodus 34:6
42. Talmud Shabbat 31a
43. Talmud Avot 1:12
44. Talmud Berachot 28b