Ai Is Taken by Joshua, James Tissot c.1896-1902. The Jewish Museum
Joshua’s Conquest: A Cultural and Pedagogical Dilemma in Modern Israel
Ben-Gurion saw the IDF as a modern instantiation of Joshua’s military might. The Israeli writer and politician S. Yizhar, in contrast, asserted that we should discard Joshua because of the violence and wholesale slaughter recounted in the book. Contemporary Israeli teachers grapple with the question of how to teach students such a core story of Jewish history that is fraught with moral problems.
Published April 14, 2021
For a detailed discussion of Ben-Gurion’s relationship with the book of Joshua, see Rachel Havrelock, “The Joshua Generation: Conquest and the Promised Land,” Critical Research in Religion 1.3 (2013): 308–326. And recently in her book: The Joshua Generation: Israeli Occupation and the Bible (Princeton University Press, 2020).
See, “הכינוס הארצי השישי לידיעת הארץ 'הגלילה' (חול המועד סוכות תש"י)” [The Sixth Archaeological Conference], ידיעות החברה העברית לחקירת ארץ-ישראל ועתיקותיה [Bulletin of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society] 15.3–4 (1950): 116–131. Ben Gurion’s speech appears in the proceedings on pp. 119–125, the quote above appears on p. 123. Translation here and elsewhere is mine.
The speech is titled “מהפכת הרוח” [“Spiritual Revolution”] and appears online here.
Literally, meaning “defense”, the Haganah was the main Jewish paramilitary organization in Mandatory Palestine. The contrast that Ben-Gurion underlines between the Haganah and the other form of “heroism” may reflect his support of proactive campaign of attack and not only defense.
David Ben-Gurion, מערכת סיני [The Sinai Campaign] (Tel Aviv: Am Oved: 1959).
This is a play on the word מלקחיים, which means both “pincer” and “forceps.”
See discussion in Mordechai Naor, “אלתרמן כהיסטוריון וכפובליציסט ביקורתי” [Alterman as a Critical Historian and Publicist], Kesher 45 (Fall, 2013): 68–82 [p. 71].
Yaakov Sarid, מזכירות פדגוגית[Pedagogical Committee] (1958), p. 125.
Oved Amitai, הוראת נביאים ראשונים בבית הספר היסודי [Teaching Neviim Rishonim in a Primary School] (1953).
For a detailed analysis of this poem, including Ben-Gurion’s response, see part 6 of Menachem Finkelstein,הטור השביעי וטוהר הנשק: נתן אלתרמן על ביטחון, מוסר ומשפט [“The Seventh Column" and the "Purity of Arms" Natan Alterman on Security, Morality and Law], in משפט וצבא: [IDF Law Review] 20.1 (June 2009), 141–158.
The question of what exactly took place in Lod is debated to this day among scholars of this period. See discussion in Alon Kadish, Avraham Sela, and Arnon Golan, כיבוש לוד: יולי 1948 [The Occupation of Lydda, July 1948] (Israel: Ministry of Defense, 2003 [repr. of 2000]). Also see the back and forth between Martin Kramer, Benny Morris, and Ephraim Karsh titled “What Happened at Lydda?” which appeared in 2014 in Mosaic Magazine.
S. Yizhar, “דיאלוג עכשיו – נגד יהושע” [Current Dialogue: Against Joshua], a lecture presented at a conference of the Humanistic Judaism Movement (Jerusalem, 1992). Published in Yediot Ahronot 17.10.1992.
And see the struggle with the ethical problems in the book of Joshua expressed by scholars with Christian background: Wesley Morriston, “Did God Command Genocide? A Challenge to the Biblical Inerrantist,” Philosophia Christi 11 (2009): 7–26 [25–26]; Randal Rauser, “‘Let Nothing that Breathes Remain Alive’: On the Problem of Divinely Commanded Genocide,” Philosophia Christi 11 (2009): 27–41 [39–41]; C.S. Cowles, “The Case for Radical Discontinuity,” in Show Them No Mercy: Four Views on God and Canaanite Genocide, ed. C.S. Cowles, Eugene Merrill, Daniel Gard, and Tremper Longman (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2003), 36. For a summary of the various voices in Christian scholarship on genocide in the Bible, see Gili Kugler, “Metaphysical Hatred and Sacred Genocide: The Questionable Role of Amalek in Biblical Literature,” Journal of Genocide Research 23 (2020), 1–16.
For a discussion of the early Israeli reception of the Bible’s promise of land to the Israelites, see Nili Wazana, “Israel’s Declaration of Independence and the Biblical Right to the Land,” TheTorah (2018).
Yehudit Lipschits and Oded Lipschits, היסטוריה, מקרא ומה שקרה: ספר יהושע: מדריך למורה ]History, Bible and What Happened—The book Joshua: Teachers Edition] (Jerusalem, Yad Ben-Zvi 2000). The book is part of a series of textbooks on various biblical books all titled: “History, Bible, and What Happened.”
A more recent text book tries to tackle the problem more directly. See Noya Sagiv, תנ"ך לכיתה ד' - יהושע שופטים [Bible for Fourth Graders: Joshua and Judges] (Tel Aviv: Matach, 2012), 96–97.
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