One of the essays which ultimately did not make the final cut of Judaism Reclaimed related to a troubling biblical instruction that first appears in the portion we read yesterday. Upon entering the land, the Jewish people were under no circumstances to “form a covenant with the inhabitant[s] of the land into which you are coming, lest it become a snare in your midst” (34:12-15).
The first stage of Hattin’s attempt to rebut these allegations cites a series of biblical verses which paint a vivid picture of the dangers posed by allowing the Canaanite nations to remain in the land on their own terms. In each instance, the command to destroy the Canaanite population is accompanied by a strong warning that any attempt to make a pact or covenant with them and their gods would lead inexorably to intermarriage and the adoption by the Jews of Canaanite pagan practices.
As I quoted in a recent post, the prevalent pagan culture of the Canaanites was far more powerful than mere religious ritual. Historian William F. Albright describes how:
"Polytheism had a popular appeal in many ways like that of the dominant secularism of our own age. The wealth, science and aesthetic culture were lined up on the side of Canaanite religion. All the sinister fascination of the elaborate proto-sciences of magic and divination was marshaled in defense of polytheism...".
Having established the Torah’s motivation for its commands to destroy the Canaanite population, Hattin thus presents the battle and need to uproot the indigenous culture as a matter of self-preservation rather than a xenophobic genocide. The moral and religious revolution of the Torah as well as the precious opportunity it offered to mankind are discussed at length in Judaism Reclaimed (as well as Joshua Berman’s Created Equal) where we consider how the Torah’s value system differed radically from anything which preceded it. If this code, which was to liberate humanity from the moral decadence of Canaanite paganism characterised by child sacrifice and immoral rituals, was to take hold and spread to enlighten humanity, it must first be allowed to develop securely in the Land of Israel free from pagan influence. For this to succeed, Canaanite culture needed to be uncompromisingly uprooted from the Land.
No-one can deny the tragedy of war and its cruelty but, argues Hattin, this must not blind us to the truth that some wars are nevertheless justified and even obligatory. God’s instruction to the bearers of His Torah to destroy the Canaanite culture of immorality and child sacrifice in order to establish and spread His teaching can be said to represent a clear moral advancement for the future of humanity.
Two further and arguably stronger points are presented by Hattin in order to argue that the battle with Canaan and the associated commands to destroy the seven nations revolved primarily around a moral and ideological gulf between the two nations, rather than racial or xenophobic distinctions. The Gemara – as understood by Rambam and Ramban – views the command to kill the Canaanite nations as conditional upon their willingness to persevere with their evil ways. If the Canaanites had been prepared to abandon their idolatry and associated moral deficiencies and accept the Noachide laws they could continue to dwell in the land unharmed. Since these Noachide laws represent the basic tenets of civilised behaviour, concludes Hattin:
“the war against the Canaanites was not a war against a race or a people, but rather a war against a noxious moral system that refused to embrace even the most elementary expressions of humane conduct and civilised behaviour.”
This latter point is reinforced by the fact that the Torah levels similar threats towards the Jewish people in the event that they themselves do not maintain and live up to their moral calling. In a passage that lists the prohibitions against the most severe forms of sexual immorality as well as child sacrifice, the Torah concludes:
“Do not defile yourselves by all of these practices, for all of the nations that I drive out from before you became defiled through them … and the land spewed forth its inhabitants … Let not the land spew you forth for defiling it just as it spewed forth the nation before you …” (Vayikra 18:24-30)
The clear message is that the Jewish people will be held to a parallel standard and suffer a similar fate should they adopt the morally decadent practices of their predecessors. The practical application of this threat to the Jewish people can be found in the laws of the ir hanidachat, the wayward Israelite city which becomes corrupted by idolatry. The Torah’s uncompromising instruction to smite the city by “the edge of the sword”, to destroy it, and burn it with fire contains remarkably similar language to that used in the commands to wipe out the idolatrous Canaanite nations.
Moreover, as the books of prophets teach, the Jewish people eventually did succumb to the temptations of the Canaanite culture which they failed to eradicate as commanded. As predicted by the verses quoted above, God’s holy land did not tolerate this defilement and spewed them forth into exile. Although Israel as a whole had abrogated its mandate and was therefore exiled from the land, the ideas that the nation had come to represent were by that time irreversibly established. Like the people of Israel, they will endure, eventually to be accepted by all of humanity.
Hattin’s book represented the best defence I had seen for the morality of the Jews’ campaign to conquer Canaan. Ultimately, however, I still felt somewhat uneasy and was concerned that it would be a distraction from the main arguments in my chapter on Torah and universal morality.
First posted on Facebook 20 February 2022, here.
