Militarism during the Second Temple period / Dr. Yehiam Sorek

Dr. Yehiam Sorek

Excerpt from the scroll War of the sons of light against the sons of darkness. From the Hebrew University website

In one of my last articles - "Jehovah of Armies in the Service of the People" - I discussed the inherent warrior foundations in the ancient Jewish consciousness, until the phenomenon, unprecedented in the ancient era, of a significant attribution of military attributes to God, much more than any other characteristic, came to mind.
During the Second Temple period, a literary composition was known as "The Scroll of the War", or as the first of its decipherers and commentators, Prof. Soknik, called it, "The War of the Children of Light in the Children of Darkness" because of the sentence that opens the scroll: "And this is the Book of the Scroll of the War". First, sending the hand of the sons of light to begin the destiny of the sons of darkness..."
The scroll seeks to describe a future war between "sons of light" and "sons of darkness". The latter are defined as Israel's enemies, led by a people called "Kotaim" and they are aided by the forces of evil and darkness ("Baliel" in the language of the scroll). The war will last for six years, and in the seventh, the "sons of light" will prevail with the intervention of "Yad El Haguda". At the end of this war, the "sons of Or" will still wage battles against the enemies for 29 years.
And what about the scroll? Detailing the laws of war mentioned in the Bible and their placement, strategically and tactically, for the Second Temple period.
As expected, the scroll provoked a complex dispute among scholars regarding the questions: Who wrote it? When was it written? and other textual interpretations. Was the scroll written by a group called the "Sect of the Scrolls"? Is this the famous group from the writings of Joseph ben Mattathias called "the sect of the Essenes"? Is this a militant group from the large and complex "tribe" of the "Judah Desert Sect"? Are the enemies, "sons of darkness" the Hellenistic Greeks? The Greeks? Chassidim of the Hasmonean House infected with the Hellenistic syndrome? And perhaps the scroll scrolls to the beginning of the period of Roman rule, and then the whole system of "enemies" changes. Some of the researchers claim that there is an interesting relationship between the biblical book of Daniel and the "Scroll of War".
In my humble opinion and with great forgiveness, those researchers who discussed, wrestled, delved into and twisted the details of the scroll, "The Scroll of the War", and were sentenced to be "punished" in the examination "can't see the forest for the trees" made a mistake. These, as expected, were greatly provoked by the sheer number of details that appear in the scroll and deal with strategic and tactical aspects, including - the structure of the army preparing for combat, its structure during an actual attack, the army's signals, the use of the trumpets in battle, procedures for sudden recruitment, weapons, dealing with the problems of a siege war, The structure of the army in general, assault units and tactics, intelligence, the "artillery" operation, orders and more, such as the "Mneamim" ones. One can certainly understand the preoccupation of researchers and those who are probably curious about these matters, but a central matter has been overlooked, and it connects well with the militaristic characteristic of the people that jumps out to the eye, in almost every chapter of the books of the Bible.
Moreover, the presence of "Jehovah of Armies" in the Bible is not "in vain", it repeats and stands out in the "Scroll of War". As for example: "We fight together for the valor of God" (The Scroll of War, XNUMX); "Arrange the flags of God to avenge his nose on all the sons of darkness" (ibid., XNUMX); "From hand to hand war with all flesh is yoked" (ibid., XNUMX); "And when they go to war, they will write on their signs: 'Yimin El'. 'Scheduled to'. 'Mahomet Al'. 'Halli El'" (ibid., XNUMX); "'God's War'. 'God's Revenge' 'Fight to'. 'Reward to God'. 'God power'. 'Shlomi Al'. 'God's heroism'. 'The bride of God in all the vain people'" (ibid., XNUMX); "Blessing of a spear for God's valor" (ibid., XNUMX); "For your God is going with you to fight for you with your enemies to save you" (ibid., hand); "For thou shalt fight against them from heaven" (ibid., XNUMX); "The God of Israel called a sword against all the nations and with the saints of his people he will do valor" (ibid., XNUMX); "Put your hand on the neck of your enemies and your foot on the hollow platforms of a crowd of nations consuming and your sword will be eaten by flesh" (Ibid., XNUMX); "And behold, they were all martyrs as they fell there by the sword of God" (ibid., no.
In the "Scroll of War" a significant role was assigned to angels, such as Michael, Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel. Many angels with special missions, military and other, prominently appear in the scroll, which gives the written things an aura of holiness on the verge of a certain messiahship, and from that an intense religious obsession. This phenomenon gives the militarism emerging from the scroll a dimension of completeness: forces from below and forces from above.
The "War Scroll", the like of which you will not find in the ancient world, is therefore a direct continuation of the "Jehovah of Armies" syndrome, and one that produced whims and desires of rebellion against rulers and armies, which there was no chance of standing against, like the Roman army. After all, "finally", if forces from above help forces from below - this is what the initiators of the rebellions such as Yehuda Aristobulus II, Alexander, Hezekiah the Galilean, Yehuda the Galilean, Yohanan of Gush Halab, Eleazar ben Yair, and ben Khosva believed - no power in the world will stand against the rebel army.
And perhaps we will end with the verse taken from a Psalm, which there is no better way to present the potential suicide: "They lift up God in their throats and a two-edged sword in their hands to take revenge on the Gentiles and rebuke the nations" (Psalms Kemet, 7-6).
A collection of articles by Dr. Yehiam Sorek

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