Chapter 34 of Genesis tells a relevant story about civilian casualties in war. An evil prince kidnaps and rapes Jacob's daughter, Dina -- and then wants to marry her. Jacob's sons pretend to entertain the offer, and then Simeon and Levi enter the city, kill everyone, and rescue Dina.
The Bible suggests the residents of the city deserved to die for their evil behavior. But Jacob is furious, and rebukes his sons: "You have troubled me, to discredit me among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and among the Perizzites, and I am few in number, and they will gather against me and attack me, and I and my household will be destroyed." (34:30)
The next chapter tells us what actually happened: "Then they traveled, and the fear of God was upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue Jacob's sons." (35:5) So what Jacob feared did not come to pass.
But Jacob never forgives Simeon and Levi. On his deathbed, he rebukes them again: "Let my soul not enter their counsel; my honor, you shall not join their assembly, for in their wrath they killed a man, and with their will they hamstrung a bull."
The point of avoiding civilian casualties is not just that the world will object. The world does not object to civilian casualties generally (anyone heard from Nagorno Karabakh lately?); it respects victory and strength, perhaps perversely.
But Jacob's point is that cruelty is corrosive, internally. That, ultimately, is the reason he cannot forgive his sons. Their murder of the entire town was immoral. Rescue the captive, and punish the guilty, but do not lose yourself in the process.
This week'd portion begins the book of Numbers. Interestingly, the Hebrew name for the book is "In the Desert," not "Numbers." The portion, which happens to be my bar mitzvah portion, focuses almost as much on the names of the princes of each tribe as the number of soldiers it fielded. It also focuses on the configuration of the tribal camps around the central Tabernacle and the Levites.
So why "Numbers" instead of "Names" or "Places"? The numbers are, to be sure, a unique feature of the opening of this Biblical book -- but they are not the focus of the rest of the narrative. The Hebrew focuses on the place where the events in the book take place, because essentially this is the narrative of the Israelites' wanderings from Egypt to Israel, across 40 years. We move from the giving of the Torah and the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus and Leviticus, to the final valediction of Moses in Deuteronomy -- Bamidbar is the story of wandering that happened in between.
The question of ...
This week's portion begins with the laws of the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year that restores all land to its original (tribal) owners. It also explores laws of property and labor that will apply in the Land of Israel, and the laws of vows and inheritance.
The Israelites are presented -- not for the last time -- with the essential moral choice that they must face, and the rewards for choosing well, along with the consequences for choosing poorly.
We learn that doing good things will earn God's protection from enemies. That does not mean that victims of terror, God forbid, were sinful. But it does mean that we can respond to evil by committing ourselves to a higher path.
This week's portion describes the major sacrifices that are to be offered by the Jewish people, including those that are offered only by the priestly Kohen class, and physical requirements of the people (men) who serve in that role.
Inter alia, there are interesting commandments -- such as an injection to treat animals with respect and care, first, by letting a mother animal nurse her offspring for a week before being offered in any sacrifice; and second, by refraining from slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The commandments regarding animals remind us of the purpose of those regarding human beings: to uphold a divine connection, through ritual.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111878/jewish/Rabbi-Isaac-Luria-The-Ari-Hakodosh.htm
