Revenge in the 21st century is far from a religious subject. Yet revenge is the essence of part of this week’s sedra. Before he died, Moses was commanded to take revenge against the Midianites in the name of God. In other words, the last act that Moses was to do before he leaves this earth was to organize an army to fight and kill in the name of God.
Until the recent spate of suicide bombings that have occurred in Israel, America, Philippines, India, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Burma, and so many other countries of the world, at best the Torah portion was quaint, but out of date. Midian and the seven nations no longer exist, and the idea of destroying them was no more than theory.
We were naïve. In every generation men and women have arisen who have killed in the name of God. That was the purport of the Crusades, Pogroms, Inquisition, and Islamic Holy Wars. Millions upon millions have been killed in the name of God. Millions have leaned to hate because God has so commanded. Millions have killed and learned to hate because the idols in which they believe are defined by exclusivity and superiority, which allows those religious people to hate and murder.
Many have tried to reinterpret sections of the Bible that concern killing in more civilized ways. Yet, words cannot be changed to lessen the killing that those words record or instigate. Whether we desire the consequences of the Torah portion that we read this week, or whether we reject those consequences, people have died because of them. No one can bring back those lost lives.
If we have learned anything from the evolution of religion, it is this: What man believes is not necessarily what God commands. What man does is not necessarily what God commands. We have learned that the Bible, holy as it is, is not only the word of God, but also the word of man, and the Biblical critic—the truly religious person—is obligated to distinguish between the words of man and the words of God.
Anyone who takes seriously the Ten Commandments, which hold: Thou shalt not murder, or the Holiness Cod in Leviticus, which holds: Love they Neighbor as thyself, knows that ideas of revenge and hatred are contrary to the ethic expressed in most of the Bible. Faith in god must be a civilizing influence or faith is misplaced and idolatrous.
There are times for war and revenge and hatred but those times are specific and focused. In general our faith and the faith of civilized people is a faith that encourages peace and embraces life.