Bøker av Martin Sicker

Tribalism in the twenty-first century, as it has since prehistoric times, implies the possession of a strong cultural or ethnic identity that separates one member of a group from the members of another group. Based on strong relations of proximity and kinship, as well as relations based on the mutual survival of both the individual members of the tribe and for the tribe itself, members of a tribe tend to possess a strong feeling of identity. In contemporary times, tribalism has been castigated as a primitive and regressive form of social structure that impedes national development, and numerous instances can be shown where this appears to be an accurate assessment. As will be pointed out in the following study of the origins of tribalism in ancient Jewish history, the biblical narrative appears to corroborate that assessment. However, when considering the more than three millennia of Jewish history, it can be argued that tribalism played a highly significant role in its perseverance from remote antiquity to the present day. Beginning with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE, and the subsequent dispersion of the children of Israel from their homeland to the diverse parts of the world since then, disconnected communities of Jews persisted in upholding the core teachings of Judaism based on the written laws originally transmitted by Moses, and augmented by differing traditions. In effect, the Jewish diaspora consisted of independent but nonetheless tribal clans predicated on common core biblical teachings distinct from those of the host entities. The present work focusses on the emergence of tribalism as implicitly recounted in the narratives of the Pentateuch. It begins with the first family and concludes with the era of Moses, as the children of Israel prepare to cross the Jordan to enter the land of Canaan as promised to the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The matter of tribalism is not addressed as such by the biblical narrator, whose primary focus is on the relations and interactions between God and man. However, the subject of tribalism can be seen implicit in the narratives when considered from sociological and political perspectives.

The fundamental basis of Judaism, as is well known, is the Torah, the teachings contained in the Pentateuch, the five biblical books the composition of which is traditionally attributed to Moses. These teachings may be grouped in two basic categories, matters between man and man, individually as well as societally, and matters between man and God. The basic guidelines that apply in matters between man and man are referred to as mishpatim or 'ordinances,' whereas those applying to matters between man and God are referred to as 'statutes.' The fundamental distinction between the two categories is that the 'ordinances' are subject to human judgment, whereas the 'statutes' are not; the divine reason for them a mystery, about which people may speculate but cannot know for certain.The present work is primarily concerned with four 'statutes' that have direct and significant impact on the lives of those committed to compliance with them. Since simply rejecting any of them is not an acceptable option, over the millennia since their codification in the Torah efforts have been made to deal with them under conditions that are significantly different from those that prevailed at the beginning of their revelation. Given that the 'statutes' as set forth in the Torah cannot be tampered with, issues have been raised regarding how they are to be applied in the contemporary Jewish world. These reflections are not intended to propose answers to those issues, but only to clarify their significance and their present treatment in the various schools of Judaic thought.

This book is a continuation of an earlier work, Reading Genesis Politically, the primary focus of which is the first ten chapters of the much larger book of Genesis. The present study begins with chapter eleven of Genesis which introduces the story of the emergence of Abraham, the iconic founder of the Jewish nation and Judaic civilization. As indicated by the title of the present study its primary concern is with the prehistory of ancient Israel. The sole source of information about Israel's national origins is imbedded in the Pentateuch, the five books of the Torah, in which the birth of Israel is portrayed as part of a divine plan for the betterment of mankind. As a result, its prehistory beginning with Abraham and concluding with Moses is necessarily theopolitical in nature, reflecting the critical divine role in its formation. There are of course virtually innumerable studies of the Pentateuchal narratives that address the roles of the Patriarchs in preserving the religious heritage of Abraham until its culmination in the work of Moses. However, there are very few studies that direct attention to the necessarily socio-political aspects of the narratives that establish the basis for the ultimate emergence of a viable but querulous nation out of what the biblical text repeatedly terms "a stiff-necked people," primarily related by common ethnicity as descendants of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Judaic thought on the role of war in the history of the children of Israel begins with the biblical narratives that record a variety of belligerencies in which God is often depicted as the one who leads the Hebrews in battle, protects them from their enemies, and makes them victorious over other armies. Thus, during the initial phase of the exodus from Egypt, when the people were terrified by the approach of the Egyptian army, Moses sought to calm them by assuring them that the Lord will fight for you (Ex. 14:14), which he repeated when he sought to calm their concerns by again assuring them: The Lord your God who goeth before you, He shall fight for you (Deut. 1:30). These assurances clearly were not intended to be taken literally. The metaphor of God as their warrior had multifaceted connotations for a people who knew or at least perceived themselves to be smaller and weaker than the nations with which they would have to contend in order to establish themselves in the land divinely promised to their ancestors. The metaphor provided the children of Israel with a sense of security; informing them that they were chosen for freedom by an all-powerful God who would continue to support them even in the face of apparently overwhelming challenges. The present study focuses primarily on a number of biblical narratives selected because they each reflect the basic issues of reason and morality that relate to the conduct of warfare throughout human history, as understood in Judaic thought. In each case, the context will be described to the extent necessary to evaluate the rationale and consequences, both intended and unintended, of the resort to armed conflict. The study then addresses the efforts, in the post-biblical rabbinic period, to amplify and codify the rules pertaining to the making and conduct of war and peace, a process that continues in Judaic thought to the present day, when such decisions, after a lapse of two millennia, once again confront autonomous decision-makers in the modern State of Israel.

In the view of Dr. Martin Sicker, it was with the emergence of Islam that the combination of geopolitics and religion reached its most volatile form and provided the ideological context for war and peace in the Middle East for more than a millennium.

The story of the evolution of Judaism from its origins in the remote past into the complex and various forms by which it is known in the present day does not lend itself to a straightforward historical narrative. The following study attempts to understand how the Second Hebrew Commonwealth came into being and the critical role that Mosaic religion played in the process, which resulted in what may be termed Pharisaic Judaism, which effectively came to an end with the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. By the sheer willpower and intellectual ability of the sages who survived the national disaster, Pharisaic Judaism was morphed into Rabbinic Judaism, which ultimately evolved over a period of two millennia into the variety of forms that presently adorn the religious landscape of the Jewish people.Part 1 of this study is concerned with the story of Pharisaic Judaism, which emerged in a period in which the majority of the Jewish people were political factors in the history of the Jewish nation, something that would only emerge once again in the twentieth century with the creation of the modern State of Israel. Ancient Judaea existed in the midst of the region properly known as Cisjordan, the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, which constituted the land-bridge between Africa and Asia, through which the more accessible one of the two primary trade and military routes between Egypt and Mesopotamia passed. This made it a critical chunk of territory, the control of which was a constant objective of contending powers throughout the history of the Middle East, and gave Judaea a strategic importance virtually unrelated to its natural resources or wealth. Accordingly, in presenting the story of Pharisaic Judaism, considerable space will be given to the geopolitics and domestic politics in which the Jewish religious authorities necessarily were deeply involved, as is the case today in modern Israel.

Pharisaic Judaism, discussed in part 1 of this study, was an inseparable element in the political history of the Second Hebrew Commonwealth. With the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, along with the skeleton of what was once a Jewish state, Judaism entered a period of crisis far more severe than experienced with the destruction of the First Temple, along with the First Hebrew Commonwealth. Pharisaic Judaism, integral to the now nonexistent Jewish state, of necessity gave way to Rabbinic Judaism, which, as a minority religious culture, took root primarily in the enclaves of Jews strewn throughout the diaspora with little or mostly no control over their very existence. And in the absence of a centralized religious authority such as the Sanhedrin in the Temple complex, Jewish communities throughout the Diaspora developed different religious customs, traditions, and in some instances, belief systems, all nominally based on the core teachings of Scripture. Part 2 of this study of the evolution of Judaism from Ezra to the present day will attempt to trace significant developments along that evolutionary path from the transition from Pharisaic to Rabbinic Judaism, that is, Judaism as understood by the different schools of rabbis, as decisors, scholars, and teachers over the past two millennia.

The stories in the book of Genesis have been studied intensely for more than two millennia, providing a virtual mountain of commentary on every aspect of the narratives contained therein. Viewed from a traditional perspective, the stories related in Genesis are essentially graphic philosophical and theological narratives designed to convey profound ideas and insights that would otherwise be found only in tomes designed for students of philosophy and theology. A close substantive examination of these narratives, as presented in the Masoretic text but often lost in translation where the subtleties of the Hebrew wording are glossed over, will reveal a treasure trove of insights into the fundamental issues of religious belief, the divine-human relationship, freewill and determinism, the complex nature of humankind, and theodicy, to name a few of the issues dealt with in the narratives. The present work contains four "deep dive" studies of key interrelated narratives in the first twenty-two chapters of Genesis that address the questions of the nature of man and his relationship to God and, most critically, the distinction between divine justice and human justice.It is the hope and expectation of the author of these studies that the reader will come away from them with even more questions about the biblical texts than they had before. As will be seen, there has always been little consensus over the centuries about the meanings of these essentially right-brained texts, primarily because they are constructed and written in a manner that tends to challenge left-brained analysis. Nonetheless, they remain intellectually important because the topics they deal with are of great pertinence to contemporary society.

The subject of this study is the continuing story of the transition of the ancient Israelites from a loose confederation of ethnically related tribes into a territorially based nation and state and its subsequent transition to a monarchy, as depicted in the biblical books of Samuel. The work that follows begins with the succession of Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, to the throne of the kingdom of Israel and concludes with the end of the kingdom of Judah and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586.The term prophetic history is employed to describe the subject because prophecy in biblical thought is not fatalistic and does not predict future events. What it does is assert that the moral course a society chooses to follow in the present can determine its probable but not inevitable future. The purpose of the biblical book is to inform the reader of the historical consequences of the failure to observe the terms of the divine covenant entered into between God and the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, following the exodus from Egypt. Although the narrative is based on events that were believed to have taken place, the primary focus of prophetic history is on the moral implications of the decisions taken by men rather than the factual accuracy of the details of the events described, which have been studied exhaustively by archaeologists and historians of the ancient world.

Written for students of Middle Eastern politics and other readers who seek to understand why a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict still seems so remote, this book examines how the question of physical security has constituted the most fundamental concern of Israel since the country came into being in 1948. The author's immediate purpose is to provide the reader with the necessary background to understand why Israel has proved reluctant to agree to the numerous peace plans and processes proposed over the years, demonstrating that--at least from the predominant Israeli perspective--each of these plans posed unacceptable risks to Israel's security.Sicker shows that there has been a remarkable consistency in actual security policy throughout Israel's history, regardless of which party was in power and irrespective of the significant differences in declared policy between the country's left and right governments. He explains why Israel has consistently refused to define the limits of its territorial claims in advance of peace negotiations and explores the influence of the concept of `land for peace' from its origins in the 1947 UN partition plan to the present. Challenging the conventional wisdom, Sicker argues that there is no solid evidence that the Arab states are prepared to accept the legitimacy of Israel and that until this happens there is little likelihood of peace. Further, he asserts that there are no territorial concessions that Israel can realistically offer that will satisfy the Arabs and that peace, therefore, depends upon a fundamental change in the Arab view of Israel's claims. By offering a clear and unequivocal outline of the stakes involved, Sicker enables readers to better evaluate both past, present, and future developments in this strategically critical region.

Its existence is a reality of everyday life, yet the notion of the state is not well understood. Sicker does not consider this as just another academic question: The citizen's moral obligation to obey the state is intimately related to the legitimacy of the state's authority and the latter depends largely on its sources.

The Making of a Pariah State takes the reader behind the flamboyance and apparent irrationality of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to expose his attempt to impose national cohesion on the Arab, Muslim, and Third World elements under his leadership.

In his provocative analysis of Soviet goals in Southwest Asia, particularly Iran, Sicker argues that Soviet imperialism in this area exhibits a remarkable consistency from tsarist times to the present.