GEN1225 Jewish pacifists rely on a number of quotations from Scriptures in order to support their view.   To Isaiah Zechariah they add Jeremiah, who urged, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the King of Babylon and serve him and live.” Support for their view is also derived from the patriarch Isaac’s non-resistance to the perpetual Philistine vandalism [Genesis 26:18-this verse]. A remarkable passage is quoted from Josephus who said that the Jewish statesman, Agrippa, pleaded with his countrymen for non-resistance to the Romans, and, in a speech, said, “Nothing so much damps the force of strokes as bearing them with patience; and the quietness of those who were injured diverts the injurious persons from afflicting” Jewish Wars II 16-351. Many quotations can be cited from Talmudic literature which reflect a spirit of non-violence. For example, “Be of the persecuted rather than the persecutors” Bava Kamma 93a.  “Who is the hero of heroes? He who transmuteth a foe into a friend.” Avot De Rabbi Nathan 23   Clearly, however, the citation of verses is inconclusive. For every illustration of an Isaac’s nonresistance to vandalism by the Philistines, there are five examples of resistance to violence, such as Abram’s war with the Kings. For every verse supporting pacifism there are five supporting war when a just peace cannot be achieved. God is called Shalom, “Peace”; He is also called Ish Milhamah, “A man of war.” The Psalms (33:16) say, "A mighty man is not delivered by great strength;” while Deuteronomy (13:6) says, “Thou shalt forcibly remove evil from the midst of thee.”   Although Isaiah and Micah pleaded that swords be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hoax, Joel, in bitter irony, cautioned the nations to transform plowshares into swords and printing hooks into spears. In addition, there is a “sense of the Bible” that can be derived from the spirit and the style of the whole capital and rabbinic literature. If an ideal such as pacifism were a divine imperative, a fundamental Jewish ethic, one would not need a verse here or there, an incident in Genesis, a quotation from Avot, in order to substantiate it. There would be an unmistakable literary and historical pattern. Instead, the pronouncements, even if they are pacifistic in nature, are without pathos and passion. One looks in vain, in the few declarations of pacifism, for the same intensity that we find uttered in the cause of peace (shalom), which appears some 220 times in Scripture alone, and in almost every major prayer.   The prophets preach peace, but denounce those who cry “’peace’ when there is no peace.” The greatest desire for peace cannot, by itself, avert war. “The watchman,” Ezekiel cries, “who sees the sword come, and blows not the horn so that the people may be forewarned for battle, and someone thereby dies in the vain hope for peace; his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand” (33:6).   Leading Jewish thinkers have recognized that no definitive Jewish stand can be derived from explicit statements in the Bible. It is my conviction that the Jewish tradition rejects pacifism, the comprehensive objection to all wars not only because there is no specific Biblical authority, but because the very concept contradicts, and even betrays, the Jewish spirit.   (By Maurice Lamm, "After the War--Another Look at Pacifism and Selective Conscientious Objection (SCO)") KELLNER 222-224