“It is hard to do justice to the originality of men who, in the eighth century BCE, untutored by the horrors of two world wars with poison gas and atom bombs, and without the frightening prospect of still more fearful weapons of destruction, insisted that war is evil and must some day be abolished, and that all peoples must learn to dwell together in peace.”
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Our discomfort with the Torah's command to wipe out other nations stems from the contrast between that directive and the Torah's usual emphasis on respect for human life.
“A man should never single out one of his children for favored treatment, for because of two extra coins’ worth ...
“The Holy One hates him who says one thing in his mouth, and another in his heart. ” —Babylonian Talmud, ...