Be still and know

Jewish tradition has usually taken a very practical view on violence, something like “just war theory.” The idea being that war can be justified on the basis of self-defense of one kind or another. I would like to suggest, though, that there is room within our tradition for another position. There is room for a position which prohibits violence altogether.

Go! And see the wonders of HaShem / which he has done throughout the earth // He puts an end to wars to the ends of the earth / He snaps the bow and breaks the spear / He scorches the chariots with fire. // Stop! and know that I am God / I will be exalted among the nations, / I will be exalted in the earth. // HaShem of legions is with us / A fortress for us is the God of Jacob. / Selah. Psalm 46:9-12

We’ve all heard “be still and know that I am God” over and over as a kind of devotional verse. We’ve been told that this encourages us to sit still for a little while and realize that God is good. We could not have been more wrong. This is a command for us to stop killing each other. In this verse God looks out over a war-torn earth and shouts at us “Stop killing!”

Radak and Rashi both interpret the command to “stop” as a command to the nations. Rashi understands it as only a command to stop attacking Israel, while Radak argues that it is a command for them to stop participating in idolatry and worship God. I disagree with both of these rabbis. The psalm clearly addresses Israel, and the verse goes on “I will be exalted…” This is to tell us that God will be exalted and not us. God will fight, and not us. God is our fortress, and He will fight for us.

There is another precedent for this idea. Rebbe Mendel of Kossov once referred to an idea which is common throughout Judaism, “Why has the Messiah not come yesterday or today? He has not come because we are today just the same as we were yesterday.” It is our responsibility to live in such a way that will bring about the Messianic age. Yeshua even seems to refer to this idea when he says, “Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Luke 13:35, NRSV)

If there is going to be peace in the Messianic age, then it is our responsibility to live that out now, to bring it about through our actions. Even if it is inconvenient. The Psalmist doesn’t give us room to plead self-defense, because it is only God who will be exalted over the nations. It is only the God of Jacob who is our fortress.

This moves us far beyond a devotional understanding of this verse. It’s no longer about a neat little quiet time. When I read this verse now I can hear the shouting voice of God weeping over the way we kill our fellow man at he screams for us to “BE STILL! And know that I am God.” And that we are not.

None of this is meant to contradict the tradition. I mean only to critique the tradition based on the tradition. Part of the whole purpose of halacha is to bring peace, as Rambam writes in Guide to the Perplexed, the Torah is to bring “the well-being of the states of people in their relations with one another through the abolition of reciprocal wrongdoing.”