DEUT40 In another Torah narrative, we may be able to infer that Moses himself was sensitive to the needless killing of innocents, even in order to capture the land of Israel. After numerous wars in the desert against various nations, the Torah records that the Jewish people offered peace to the nation of Sichon if the Sichonites would simply let the Jewish people pass through their land unharmed. When they refused, the Jews battled with them and defeated them. But nowhere did God ever command Moses to first offer them peace (Numbers 21:21-23 with Rashi commentary). Elsewhere the Torah itself says that it was Moses' own idea to offer peace as an alternative to war (this and next verse with Rashi commentary). Why did Moses do it? The Midrash alludes to one possible reason. It says Moses believed there were among Sichon those innocents who had not sinned, and it was apparently for this reason that Moses decided to offer the specific nation the possibility of peace (which they refused) Midrash Tanchuma 96:3). Thus, in order to avoid killing non-sinners, Moses preferred a peaceful alternative. The Midrash goes on to say that Moses "taught" God this concept, to always first offer peace to the enemy before going to war (Deuteronomy 20:10-16). It is possible that the reason behind this tactic is to avoid killing innocent people during warfare. There is one more allusion to Jewish sensitivity to collateral damage in the Bible. In the last book of narrative, Chronicles, which reviews Jewish history up until that point, King David writes that the reason that he was not allowed to build the Holy Temple is that he shed blood in wars. The Radak explains that this specifically refers to acts of collateral damage, the innocent lives that had to be taken by King David in the course of war (Chronicles I 22:8 with Rashi commentary). Thus, according to a modern Rabbi explaining this verse and commentary, while this action of killing citizens was sometimes necessary as part of waging war, Judaism did not attach enough guilt to this deed to actively punish King David for this necessary action, but rather denied him the merit of building the Holy Temple, which is the symbol of peace and atonement (Rabbi Asher Weiss, Michat Asher on Deuteronomy 32:6).