(Photo: Hans Pinn)

Rabbi Shlomo Goren might be most famous for blowing the shofar at the Western Wall during the Six-Day War, captured in the most iconic photograph in Israeli history. Yet the entire victory may not have happened without his intervention a few weeks earlier.  

In May 1967, the IDF Chief Rabbi was celebrating Israel’s Independence Day in Australia to support the United Jewish Appeal when he received word that Egypt had closed the Straits of Tiran to all Israeli ships. Israeli officials had long warned that such maritime aggression would be seen as a hostile act. Rabbi Goren raced back to Israel. 

In the meantime, IDF Chief of Staff Yitzchak Rabin was under massive pressure. He couldn’t convince Israel’s cabinet that the IDF must preemptively strike the Egyptians. Prime Minister Levi Eshkol was hesitant, particularly because of significant opposition from the National Religious Party, led by Moshe Chaim Shapira. Shapira told Rabin that Israelis must prepare for war and hunker down to defend themselves – but they must not take the first shot. As a man of faith, he declared, we cannot bring danger upon ourselves and initiate warfare, especially without international support. The Bible declares that “Israel will dwell alone” – yet that does not mean that it must fight alone. 

Rabin urged the IDF’s Chief Rabbi to meet with Shapira and convince him of the urgency to act. After consulting with other military commanders, including the head of the air force, Rav Goren concluded that Israel must strike immediately. He spent four hours with Shapira, arguing that Israel could prevail only if it attacked first. Every day of delay would cost many more Israeli lives. There was no choice but to act, he insisted, since the Arab nations were openly planning Israel’s destruction. Though Shapira remained unconvinced, Rav Goren proceeded with his own preparations for war, which included readying military cemeteries and ordering burial caskets. Around the country, thousands of graves were dug.

Shortly thereafter, the hesitant religious ministers strongly advocated for expanding the government to include opposition figures like Menachem Begin and appointing Moshe Dayan as defense minister. Yet even until the final moment of decision, they remained uncertain. Shapira, citing Ben-Gurion, insisted that the Jewish state should never wage war without international support. Dayan responded that by the time Israel secured such an ally, they would no longer exist. Finally, at the conclusion of this crucial meeting on June 4th, even the religious ministers voted to support military action. The next morning, Israeli fighter jets destroyed the Egyptian air force on the ground. Days later, Rav Goren would participate in the liberation of the Western Wall.

The question of preemptive strikes, a major issue in contemporary military ethics, receives brief attention in the Talmud (Sotah 44a). For centuries afterward, rabbinic literature barely addressed this topic, and when it did, only on a theoretical level. Initially, it seemed uncertain whether Jewish thought could meaningfully contribute to such modern military debates. While scholars like Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli and Rabbi Eliezer Waldenburg wrote significant rabbinic treatises on these matters, it was Rabbi Goren who pioneered comprehensive halachic literature on military ethics, first in his journal Machanayim and later in his multi-volume responsa, Meshiv Milchamah (“Response to War”). This essay will highlight several of his central contributions to this topic.

1. Sources and Precedents: Rabbi Goren was acutely aware of the lack of precedents from Jewish history on these topics. As he wrote, “From the time of Bar Kochba… there were no laws of the military, of war, and of national security that had a real connection to the lives of the people. For nearly 2,000 years, these issues appeared as ‘laws for the messiah.’” Rabbi Goren saw himself as responsible for renewing these laws. Understanding that he would find limited guidance in the writings of Rambam and especially Rabbi Yosef Karo, he sought precedents elsewhere. Particularly notable was his willingness to consult non-Biblical sources like the Books of the Maccabees and the historical writings of Josephus Flavius to derive historical evidence for halachic positions. Other scholars, like Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neria, opposed using such sources because their accounts sometimes contradicted Talmudic literature. They worried this might suggest that halacha underwent historical changes not recorded in authoritative texts. Rabbi Goren, however, believed it essential to establish precedents that would create continuity with historical Jewish practice.

2. Heroism: Rabbi Goren emphasized that Jewish tradition embraces physical heroism. Indeed, Tanach abounds with descriptions of great figures as warriors, including Avraham, Moshe, Yehoshua, and King David. Yet rabbinic literature emphasizes spiritual heroism, as taught in Pirkei Avot: “Who is brave? The one who subdues his evil inclination.” Similarly, the Sages highlighted the miracle of the oil in the Beit HaMikdash to commemorate Chanukah, while barely mentioning the Hasmonean military victory over the Greeks. 

Rabbi Goren insisted that both the plain meaning of Biblical narratives and the Chanukah story attest to the importance of military bravery. Judaism, he maintained, promotes physical valor when performed within proper spiritual and moral frameworks. Physical and spiritual heroism must be balanced to develop an authentic Jewish military ethic.In pursuit of this vision, Rabbi Goren even endorsed the Zionist adoption of the Masada fighters as heroes, despite their mass suicide (as depicted by Josephus) seemingly contradicting Jewish norms. Rabbi Neria criticized their actions, arguing that true Jewish heroism means staying alive to ensure Jewish continuity. Yet despite this debate, both agreed that the image of a religious Jew includes that of a brave warrior – a concept that had largely disappeared for centuries.

3. Halachic Observance in the Army: One of the greatest practical challenges facing Religious Zionists was maintaining halachic observance while serving in the IDF. Some leaders in the new state believed this would be impossible and advocated for religious soldiers to serve in separate units with limited responsibilities. Rabbi Goren, alongside David Ben-Gurion, recognized this would be disastrous for the new state’s unity. He therefore worked to establish protocols mandating army-wide respect for kashrut and Shabbat observance, while guiding religious soldiers on practical matters such as constructing eruvin in bases and determining appropriate use of electronic devices on Shabbat. Rabbi Goren’s leadership in this realm has enabled the full integration of Religious Zionists into the army – an achievement we now take for granted.

4. Burial and Agunot: Rabbi Goren insisted on retrieving all fallen soldiers from the battlefield for proper burial. After the War of Independence, this included recovering bodies from behind enemy lines, even in minefields. On several occasions, he performed this holy work himself. Beyond fulfilling the commandment of meit mitzvah, this approach ensured that a potential widow would not become an agunah – a problem that had plagued Jewish communities during modern wars in Europe. 

At the behest of Israeli Chief Rabbis Yitzchak Herzog and Ben-Zion Uziel, Rabbi Goren promoted gitei milchamah, wartime divorce documents that soldiers could sign before mobilization. These would prevent their wives from becoming agunot if the soldiers were declared “missing in action.” In later years, however, Rav Goren concluded that these documents should not be imposed on soldiers, who might resist signing them out of concern for their widow’s military benefits or fear of its demoralizing effect.He also maintained that modern technology made it easier to determine soldiers’ fates. In cases where uncertainty remained, Rabbi Goren employed all halachic means to establish death. This approach proved crucial after the sinking of the Dakar submarine in January 1968, when 69 soldiers – 16 of them married – went missing. Rabbi Goren authored a comprehensive responsum declaring the soldiers no longer alive, allowing their widows to remarry.

5. Civilian Casualties: Perhaps most importantly, Rabbi Goren developed a moral framework from halachic sources that established Jewish law’s commitment to ethical restraints during warfare, including protection of non-combatants and minimizing enemy casualties.This notion of distinct halachic limitations on warfare was not universally accepted. Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook reportedly maintained that there were no real halachic restrictions in warfare – though unpleasant, one must do whatever necessary to win (Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, Me-Hayil el Hayil, Vol 1, 238). Rav Shaul Yisraeli, in an influential 1950s article, argued that halachic limitations merely reflected international treaties and norms: if nations accepted certain restrictions, Jews would follow suit (Amud Ha-Yemini, Siman 16).Rav Goren, however, believed that halacha offered its own independent guidance on warfare ethics. He pointed to the Torah’s account of Ya’akov Avinu rebuking his sons Shimon and Levi for killing all the residents of Shechem after their leaders had captured their sister Dinah. Their lack of restraint, Ya’akov declared, made them unfit for leadership, even if such behavior was common practice. Indiscriminate killing, even in response to Dinah’s violation, could not be justified. As for the command to eliminate the seven Canaanite nations and their families, Rav Goren maintained this was a unique directive, not a model for future generations.Rav Goren emphasized texts that demonstrated humanitarian principles while contextualizing passages that might suggest indifference to enemy casualties. His guiding principle came from verses like “And he was merciful on all His creatures” (Tehillim 145:9). While G-d desires Jewish victory, He takes no pleasure in the death of His creatures. Jewish law values all lives, even as some enemies must regrettably be killed for military success. He even argued that biblical commandments like “Do not stand idly over your neighbor’s blood” (Vayikra 19:16) obligated military commanders to avoid unnecessary harm in enemy territory.

Two incidents illustrated this approach. During Operation Peace for Galilee in July 1982, as the IDF besieged Beirut, Rabbi Goren declared that halacha required Israel to provide evacuation corridors for Beirut’s residents – including both civilians and PLO fighters choosing to flee. Citing Ramban, he insisted on showing mercy to minimize bloodshed even during war. The IDF established two evacuation routes, enabling 100,000 people to escape. Rabbi Goren declared this a great kiddush Hashem.

The second incident occurred before statehood. When the Lehi underground included random attacks on Arabs in their anti-British tactics, Rabbi Goren opposed this strategy. As he wrote in his autobiography: “I was against the murder of Arabs just because they were Arabs. I objected to the murder of people who had committed no crime against the Jews. We had many ideological arguments. After all, I was a rabbi, and we had our moral standards, the Torah’s moral standards, according to which every person is created in G-d’s image. Therefore, I believed we must be merciful and respect every person’s life, as long as he is not a danger to us and is not fighting us” (With Might and Strength, 113).

Rabbi Goren’s moral stance highlights a crucial aspect of the relationship between religion and nationalism. While many fear that combining these powerful social forces might unleash unbridled violence, Rabbi Goren – the military man – demonstrated that religion can restrain nationalism’s excesses. This reminds us not only that ends don’t always justify means, but also that Torah can help channel national liberation and sovereignty toward achieving their lofty – and ethical – goals.

 

Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Brody is the executive director of Ematai and the author of Ethics of Our Fighters: A Jewish View on War & Morality.