Are There War Crimes According to Jewish Thought, And If So, What Are They?

RECONSTRUCTIONIST

Genesis tells the painful and difficult story of the rape of Dinah. While others have sought to codify what constitutes a war crime, a biblical narrative can illuminate the issue’s complexities. Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, is brutally raped, kidnapped and taken hostage by Shechem, son of Hamor, prince of the land. The biblical narrator emphasizes the shock and horror of this event by commenting that Shechem “had committed an outrage in Israel…a thing not to be done” (Genesis 34:8).

Jacob’s sons rescue Dinah and kill Shechem and Hamor—as most readers would think justified. But the story takes a dark turn. Shimon and Levi, it continues, “slew all the males.” Their brothers “came upon the slain and plundered the town, because their sister had been defiled. They seized their flocks and herds and asses, all that was inside the town and outside; all their wealth, all their children, and their wives…” (Genesis 34:25-29).

In other words, Jacob’s sons not only sought justice, they also committed their own crimes. Their war was just but was carried out unjustly, tainted by revenge, collective punishment, greed and complete disregard for human life. Jacob himself condemns his sons Shimon and Levi at the time and again on his deathbed, saying that “their weapons are tools of lawlessness.” We never hear Dinah’s voice in the story and do not know what she would have said. But we are left with an uncomfortable feeling that in their just war, Shimon and Levi indeed committed war crimes. And the cries of the women they abused, along with Dinah’s cries, perhaps still reverberate through the generations.

Rabbi Caryn Broitman
Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center
Vineyard Haven, MA