Violence

Pinchas' deed evokes many associations -- courage, decisiveness and religious passion are several that come to mind -- but peace hardly seems one of them. Pinchas, after all, killed two people. So why does the Torah describe him as a man of peace? To unde...

Surely we don’t need G‑d to tell us that physical violence is not allowed?

You seriously want me to pray for "our beleaguered brothers and sisters in the Holy Land"? They have created the mess they now deplore and have subjugated 1.5 million Gazans to three years of inhumane and intolerable hell…

Why do we have to "wipe out" Amalek and the Canaanites? Why administer capital punishment? Shouldn't G‑d's message be one of love?

Why are there no Jewish suicide bombers? Because we know that winter will end

I myself am lucky to be alive. I remember going to pay a house visit on a family in my congregation and being attacked by their young son who had an AK-47

Yes, maybe he IS a nice guy, a kind father, or the all-too-familiar attempt at justification “he was abused himself” - but this is not an answer and in no way changes the situation. The facts remain that he is an abuser.

If we are honest with ourselves we would have to admit that laser-guided missiles and Abrams tanks are more lethal killing machines than a masked man with a butcher knife. So what is it about these anachronistic beheadings that offends us so much?

The Bible shares only three incidents in Moses' early life: how he intervenes when a non-Jew oppresses a Jew, when two Jews fight, and when non-Jewish men oppress non-Jewish women

In Jewish tradition, prayer is an activity with distinctly violent connotations . . .