I often find myself explaining Jewish pacifism to nonpacifist Jews and to non-Jewish pacifists. Most of them wonder how the religion of the Jewish people could possibly embrace pacifism. Of course I have to explain to nonpacifists that pacifism is not “passive-ism” and that pacifism takes many forms.
I discovered last year that outside of our JPF membership it is not easy to find someone willing to come out as both a Jew and a pacifist. We were looking for a celebrity to head up a major fund-raising effort for our fiftieth anniversary. Despite having some contacts in Hollywood, the music industry, the worlds of literature, journalism and theater, we were not able to find such a person.
There is a discussion recorded in the Talmud, one of many examples of a kind of scholarly one-upmanship among the rabbis. A group of them were trying to see who could come up with the biblical passage which most succinctly summarized Judaism. Rabbi Akiva cited “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Every human being carries the potential of the entire world. When the first couple was created they were said to be “in the divine image.” This means that every human being is in the Divine Image — not just saintly people, not just Jews, not just ordinary people, but all people.
One God means one humanity and nothing less. This crushing responsibility is the reason for our belief in the human power to change and why tshuvah is so important. There are always reasons one can find to use physical force or go to war. To do so, however, represents personal, moral, political and diplomatic failure.
Peacemaking, whether between individuals or nations, is hard work and often unpleasant, but again and again Jewish ethics requires us to pursue not conflict but peace. “Seek peace and pursue it” is based on the most basic Jewish ideas about who and what we are — as human beings and as Jews. Surely that is the basis for Jewish pacifism.