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Our Torah reading this week, parashat Mattot, recounts the war against the Midianites, which raises some uncomfortable questions about "holy war" and that the idea that God would justify the extermination of people... The Talmud quotes Resh Lakish regarding the question who answered: "Any man who is angry, if he is wise, then his wisdom departs from him, and this applies even to Moses, for the Torah states he was enraged with the officers of the army after the battle in the plains of Moab and it was then that Moses called for the men to exterminate the Midianite people, including the women and children (Num. 31:1-18). Some of the sages also have said that the battle with the Midianites was never intended to be a form of genocide, because the size of the Israeli army was relatively small and the strategy of the battle was to cripple the Midianite army that was still under the guidance of Balaam the son of Beor (Num. 31:8). In other words, if Resh Lakish is right, Moses seemed to have lost sight of God's will and acted without wisdom.
Some branches of traditional Judaism regard Moses as an infallible teacher of Torah, but it is clear that he was a humble man of commom fallibility. Though he was indeed a great prophet and teacher of Israel who was blessed to encounter God "face to face," Moses was veritably human, after all, and he made some serious mistakes in his life. For instance, after he had fled to Midian to escape the wrath of Pharaoh when he had killed an Egyptian taskmaster, Moses wandered in the desert for 40 years before he encountered God at the burning bush. When the LORD spoke to him there and commissioned him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses resisted God's call, saying was not a good speaker, and he pleaded with God to send someone else. Later on, after the great Exodus had occurred, Moses led the people to Sinai where he smashed the two tablets of the law in anger over the people's idolatry (Exod. 32:1-19). Later, at the time of the dedication of the Mishkan, Aaron's two sons died while offering "strange fire," and Moses rebuked his brother for not eating the sacrificial meat (Lev. 10:16-20), though the Sifra commented that Moses had forgotten the law that it was forbidden to eat meat offered to God in a state of mourning.
To cite a few other examples, consider how the five daughters of Zelophehad had argued about their inheritance rights before Moses and the leaders of Israel, and how Moses had to acknowledge his oversight in this matter (Num. 27:1-7). Finally, at Meribah Moses struck the rock in anger instead of speaking to it and consequently God forbade him from entering into the promised land because of his disobedience (Num. 27:14). And recall that Yeshua explained to the Pharisees that God had never intended for a married couple to divorce, though Moses permitted its practice due to the hardness of people's hearts (Matt. 19:3-8).
The zeal apparently Moses had to exterminate the Midianite people is another matter somewhat difficult to understand. Moses' wife Zipporah was a Midianite, as were his two sons Gershom and Eliezer, and his father in law Jethro was kind to Moses and later even helped him to establish the legal system for the people of Israel at Sinai. Despite the fact that Moses spent a third of his life in the land of Midian and was given shelter there, he sought to destroy the Midianites for their unwillingness to cede to Moses' demand to enter the land. God providentially preserved the Midianites, however, because King David was ordained to descend from the union of Ruth the Moabitess and Boaz of Judah, and from whom would later descend Yeshua the Messiah, the Savior of the world.
Note: The animosity between Israel and the Arab nations surrounding the promised land is long-stranding, of course, going back to Abraham and Hagar and the birth of Ishmael and the twelve princes (שְׁנֵים־עָשָׂר נְשִׂיאִם) that would descend from Ishmael (Gen. 17:20). Moreover, further antagonism was aroused when the blessing of the heir was given to Jacob rather than to Esau, as the descendents of Esau later occupied the area of Edom in the promised land and have remained Israel's enemies to this day....
Hebrew Lesson
1 Samuel 17:47b reading:
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