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Third-Party Peacemakers in Judaism
Third-Party Peacemakers in Judaism
Text, Theory, and Practice
DANIEL ROTH
3
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Roth, Daniel, Rabbi, Dr., 1975–author. Title: Third-party peacemakers in Judaism : text, theory, and practice / Daniel Roth.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020052882 (print) | LCCN 2020052883 (ebook) | ISBN 9780197566770 (hardback) | ISBN 9780197566794 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Conflict management—Religious aspects—Judaism. | Mediation—Religious aspects—Judaism. | Peace in rabbinical literature. | Jewish ethics. Classification: LCC BJ1286.C65 .R68 2021 (print) | LCC BJ1286.C65 (ebook) | DDC 296.3/6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020052882
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020052883
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197566770.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
In loving memory of my beloved father, Larry Roth z”l, a genuine lover of peace and pursuer of peace
1. From Muhammad to Sulha: Religious and Traditional Cultural Models of Third-Party Peacemaking 9
2. Judaism’s Paradigmatic Third-Party Peacemaker: Legends of Aaron, the Pursuer of Peace, in Classical Rabbinic Literature 37
3. From Rabbi Meir to Beruria: Legends of Third-Party Peacemakers in Classical Rabbinic Literature 91
4. From Rabbi Yosef Syracusty to Rabbi Nissi al-Nahrawani: Historical Accounts and Stories of Third-Party Rabbinic Peacemakers in Medieval and Early-Modern Rabbinic Literature 141
5. Rodfei Shalom, Metavkhei Shalom, Pashranim, and Nikhbadim: Historical Accounts and Stories of Third-Party Lay Peacemakers in Medieval and Early-Modern Rabbinic Literature 207
Conclusion: The Text, Theory, Practice, and Scope of Third-Party Peacemakers in Judaism
Preface
In the winter of 2003, in the middle of the Second Intifada during which extreme violence was taking place between Israelis and Palestinians, I was busy studying Greek as part of the requirements for my MA in Talmud at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I was struggling to see how all of the philological-historical skills I was working so hard to acquire in order to analyze ancient rabbinic texts were benefiting the world I was living in.
I decided to take a course in mediation, as this had been a longtime passion of mine and it felt incredibly practical. At the end of the course I asked the instructor, Michael Tsur, if he was aware of any books that connect religion, and in particular Judaism, with conflict resolution. While he hadn’t heard of any book on the subject, he did refer me to two books on the relationship between culture and conflict resolution: Kevin Avruch’s Culture and Conflict Resolution and David Augsburger’s Conflict Mediation across Cultures. 1
I knew then that I wanted to write my PhD dissertation on Judaism and conflict resolution; I just didn’t know where and on what specifically. I began searching the web for PhD programs in conflict resolution all over the world, but none of them seemed to indicate any interest in religion. Then I came across a web page of an academic conference that had taken place the previous year right outside of Tel Aviv, at Bar-Ilan University’s Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation (currently known as the Conflict Resolution, Management and Negotiation Graduate Program). The conference was called “Religion and Conflict Resolution.” It featured Prof. Gerald Steinberg, founder and director of the program at Bar-Ilan, together with others, including Rabbi Dr. Marc Gopin and Dr. R. Scott Appleby.2 The program website also advertised itself as wanting to advance the field of mediation and conflict resolution within the context of Jewish tradition and culture.3 This convinced me that the right place to conduct my research was at Bar-Ilan, which as a religious university had an appreciation for the integration of religion and science.
I enthusiastically met with Prof. Steinberg and pitched to him my original thesis topic—the study of contradictory interpretations of biblical conflict narratives through the lens of a mediator. He wasn’t convinced. He chastised
me for not presenting an academic research question appropriate for conflict resolution studies, and proceeded to show me the door to the hermeneutics department down the hall. However, he also gave me the phone number of someone who was working for an NGO called Common Denominator, whose goal was to bridge the religious-secular divide in Israel, and encouraged me to write my dissertation about their work.
The wind was completely knocked out of me.
For a year or so after this encounter, I was incredibly frustrated and discouraged. I so desperately wanted to connect my two passions, Judaism and conflict resolution, but couldn’t seem to figure out how. I eventually contacted the person Prof. Steinberg recommended. After pitching my idea of conflict resolution workshops using the interpretation of biblical conflicts stories, he handed me a book that would change my life: Rabbi Dr. Marc Gopin’s Between Eden and Armageddon: The Future of World Religions, Violence, and Peacemaking.
In this now foundational book in the field of religion and peacebuilding, Dr. Gopin describes Aaron, the biblical high priest and older brother of Moses, as “the ideal Jewish peacemaker,” contrasting his mediation methods to contemporary models. He also writes about the legend of Rabbi Meir (3rd cent. ce) serving as a third-party peacemaker between a husband and wife. He concludes:
The ideal Jewish peacemaker’s path, as seen from the Aaron and Rabbi Meir stories, involves the development of pious or moral character worthy of respect, the conscious creation of role models of peacemaking, purposeful acts of humility that sometimes involve personal sacrifices or loss of face, active or empathetic listening, a method of helping people work through destructive emotions, and finally, the gift of abundant if not unlimited time.4
Regarding a story from the later rabbinic literature describing Aaron as a peacemaker in the context of healing religious-secular conflicts in Israel, Gopin writes that “working with these traditions interpretatively . . . could both stimulate the creation of indigenous conflict resolution methods and simultaneously offer a healing connection between Jews.”5 Gopin also advocates for establishing conflict resolution training that would be grounded in the mitzva (commandment) to “seek peace, and pursue it” (Ps. 34:15).6
I vividly recall reading these sections of his book and being simultaneously inspired and bewildered. Inspired because I felt these lines were speaking to
me and I wanted to do my part as a scholar-practitioner of Jewish conflict resolution; bewildered because I recall thinking, “That’s it? In all of rabbinic literature there are only two stories of rabbinic peacemaking?” I knew then that this was what I wanted to write my PhD dissertation on.
It turns out, though, that this would not be a simple task. I recall writing to one of my Talmud professors at Hebrew University, Prof. Menachem Kahana, about the idea of writing my dissertation on this topic. He responded by remarking that Prof. Saul Lieberman, the famous twentieth-century Talmud scholar, was known to say that the well-known rabbinic dictum “Torah scholars increase peace in the world” (Berakhot 19a) is proof that the rabbis had a sense of humor.7
I was determined to prove that rabbis don’t have a sense of humor!
Over the next several years, I went through an incalculable amount of rabbinic literature representing many generations of scholarship, as well as conducted countless word searches in various databases (such as the BarIlan Responsa Project) looking for phrases that might lead me to cases of people involved in conflict resolution either as third parties or as a side in the conflict—but with little success. (Only one story from that period of research eventually found its way into this book, along with the Aaron and the Rabbi Meir stories mentioned by Gopin.) I had even considered interviewing contemporary rabbis to see how they serve as third parties in conflicts.
A major breakthrough finally came when I came across the term pius, “reconciliation.” This inspired me to search for examples in rabbinic literature where rabbis or laypeople would either reconcile between conflicting sides or reconcile with others with whom they were in conflict. Later, I came across other terms and concepts I had never heard of, such as pashranim (compromisers), metavehkei shalom (mediators of peace), and finally, rodfei shalom (pursuers of peace). I had heard of a rodef shalom (pursuer of peace) in the singular, in the rabbinic description of Aaron, but never in the plural, rodfei shalom.
I eventually returned to Prof. Steinberg and proceeded to write my PhD dissertation at Bar-Ilan University, under the incredible supervision of Prof. Moshe Rossman, who had been teaching courses on conflict resolution and early modern Jewish history at the Bar-Ilan Conflict Resolution, Management and Negotiation Graduate Program since its inception. The title of my dissertation was “The Tradition of Aaron the Pursuer of Peace between People as a Rabbinic Model of Reconciliation,” and my academic research question was, To what extent does the legend describing Aaron as
a pursuer of peace between individuals indeed represent the rabbinic model of reconciliation?8 To answer this question I compared the rabbinic legend of Aaron as a pursuer of peace to other cultural models of third-party reconciliation, such as the Arab-Islamic sulha process. I also compared it to other rabbinic legends I had found telling of rabbis serving as third-party peacemakers or as reconciling with others they were in conflict with. Finally, I examined the legend of Aaron in light of Jewish laws pertaining to thirdparty peacemaking and reconciliation or forgiveness between individuals.
Toward the end of 2011, as I was submitting the final draft of my dissertation, two things happened. First, I came across a doctoral dissertation called “Traditional Jewish Perspectives on Peace and Interpersonal Conflict Resolution,” by Rabbi Dr. Howard Kaminsky.9 My heart stopped. However, as I eagerly worked my way through this incredibly thorough work, and later when I spoke with its author on the phone, I understood that Kaminsky limited the scope of his research to models of conflict resolution that did not involve a third party. In fact, at the end of his dissertation he writes, “The next stage of research, which would logically flow as a corollary to this study, would be an analysis of Jewish perspectives on interpersonal conflict resolution that does involve a third party.”10 Phew! I then proceeded to rework about a dozen footnotes pertaining to areas where our research overlapped, but the main body of my research, which pertained to third parties, was not made superfluous.
Second, Prof. Robert Eisen of George Washington University, who was one of my dissertation readers, gave me the following advice, after sharing his comments for changes on my dissertation: “Make your book about the ‘mediator’ in Jewish tradition. What role does the mediator play in dispute resolution in Judaism? This way you can basically keep everything you have, but take some of the weight off the Aaron tradition.” Book?! I could still barely get my head around finishing my dissertation!
A few years later, though, I decided to take Prof. Eisen’s advice, but it did not include “keeping everything” I had. Refocusing my book to be about only third-party peacemakers required me to drop about 50% of my dissertation and to research about 50% new material. I began reading up on religious and traditional cultural models of conflict resolution in general, and those regarding third parties (thanks in part to my international graduate students) in particular. In light of a complaint I justifiably received from several of my female graduate students, I searched through early rabbinic literature for potential examples of women serving as third parties. I also looked
for more examples of laypeople serving as peacemakers. A graduate student of mine, Rabbi Dr. Offer Ashual, referred me to a letter he had come across of a seventeenth-century traveler to Safed, Palestine, describing third-party lay peacemaking, while a former professor of mine from Hebrew University, Prof. Robert Brody, referred me to a tenth-century story of a well-respected layperson named Bishr b. (son of) Aaron making peace between two powerful rabbis in Babylonia.
Yet the biggest breakthrough came one late night while sitting with my friend Hanan Benayahu. I shared with him how incredibly difficult it was to find stories of rabbis serving as mediators or peacemakers. He stood up walked over to the floor-to-ceiling bookcases in his study and handed me a stack of books that his late father, the famous professor of early-modern Jewish history, Meir Benayahu, had written. He assured me that I was bound to find examples there, especially in the travel diary of Rabbi Hayim Yosef David Azulai, about whom his father wrote a seminal, two-volume book. As I stayed up that night reading through the fascinating travel diary of this eighteenth-century rabbi, I knew that Hanan had just handed me the missing pieces needed for writing my book.
However, as opposed to my doctoral dissertation, I did not want to write a book strictly about text and theory. I wanted to include implications for the practice of third-party peacemaking today as well—in particular, reflections on my own experiences using many of the cases of third-party peacemakers featured in this book in various conflict resolution trainings, educational programs, academic courses, and actual conflict situations.
At more or less the same time I had formally started my doctoral research, I began teaching what I had learned at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, where I had already been teaching Bible and Talmud for several years. In 2009 I created the Peace and Conflict Track at Pardes,11 which integrated Jewish text with conflict resolution theory and hosted lectures by conflict resolution practitioners. Two years later, through the encouragement of a few idealistic students of mine, and as part of being a senior research fellow at Marc Gopin’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) at George Mason University, the Peace and Conflict Track morphed into the Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution (PCJCR).12
The original mission statement of the new center was “to create a global network of rodfei shalom, uniting individuals and communities across personal, political, and religious divides around the shared values of Judaism and conflict resolution.” This began with a mini-course called “The Rodef
Shalom in Judaism” taught by Pardes alumni in synagogues and on campuses in various cities around the United States; an online version of the course cotaught by Marc Gopin and me; and a culminating national retreat.13
Between 2012 and 2019, the center offered three main programs: (1) The Pardes Rodef Shalom Schools Program, which engaged roughly thirty Jewish middle schools in the United States, and included teacher training and coaching as well as a seven-unit curriculum for students; (2) The Pardes Rodef Shalom Communities Program, which focused on American community rabbis and top Jewish lay leaders from different denominations, offering retreats, resources, and cohort programs; and (3) The 9AdarProject: Jewish Week of Constructive Conflict, which the center created as an awareness week around the Jewish value of “Disagreements for the Sake of Heaven,” commemorating the tragic events some 2,000 years ago when the two dominant rabbinic schools of thought ceased to disagree constructively and instead engaged in a violent clash over how open or closed to be toward nonJews in general, and making war or peace with Rome in particular.14
The following statement was the foundation of two Rodef Shalom programs:
The rodef shalom is a rabbinic model of a Jewish peacemaker who pursues peace between individuals, families, and communities. Throughout Jewish history, there were people known in their communities as rodfei shalom. Today, to be a rodef shalom means to be mindful in seeking to understand, respect, and assist in constructively balancing conflicting needs and perspectives, between individuals and communities, in the spirit of mahloket leshem Shamayim (disagreements for the sake of Heaven).
In the beginning of 2019, I transitioned from my position at Pardes to become the director of Mosaica’s Religious Peace Initiative, under the guidance of its founder and president, Rabbi Michael Melchior.15 Mosaica is an Israeli NGO that seeks to cultivate a culture of conflict resolution, dialogue, and consensus building among individuals, families, communities, cultures, and religions through developing, implementing, and disseminating models of third-party intervention. Mosaica is devised of two branches: The Religious Peace Initiative and The Center for Conflict Resolution by Agreement. The Religious Peace Initiative is a strategic network of religious leaders who serve together behind the scenes as “insider mediators” advancing religious peace in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and mitigating life-threatening
crisis situations as they arise using their existing, extensive network of relationships. The Center for Conflict Resolution by Agreement supports several professional programs of conflict resolution, dialogue, and consensus building, often through Israeli government tenders. One of these programs, “Tochnit Gishurim” (Network of Community Mediation Centers Project), is an Israeli government tender of The Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, and Social Services and has been operated by Mosaica for nearly 15 years. The program currently helps support a national network of 47 Community Mediation and Dialogue Centers and 20 initiatives (that are in the process of becoming centers), which includes over 1000 active volunteer community mediators throughout all of Israeli society. My experience at Mosaica working closely with senior Jewish and Islamic leaders who serve as “insider religious mediators”, as well as with the community mediation centers, has been an extremely formative experience. The more I personally have had the opportunity to engage in the practice of mediation and third-party peacemaking the more I understand and appreciate the many texts and theories I write about in this book.
In addition to my work at Pardes, and Mosaica, I have also had the opportunity to teach many of the cases in this book in academic graduate courses. Since completing my PhD, I have taught several hundred Israeli graduate students from all sectors of society (secular Jews, religious Zionists, Arabs, and even some ultra-Orthodox Jews). Moreover, I have taught many of these cases to several hundred non-Jewish international students from literally all over the world as part of courses I have taught at Tel Aviv University’s International Program in Conflict Resolution and Mediation;16 at BarIlan University’s International Summer Program, Identity Based Conflict Resolution;17 and at Hebrew University’s summer program, Religion in the Holy Land: Faith’s Role in Peace and Conflict.18 Teaching these stories to graduate students from all over Israel and from China, India, Africa, North America, Europe, South America, and elsewhere has taught me a tremendous amount about their own religious and cultural models of peacemaking— which in turn has better informed me with regard to how I relate to the various cases presented on these pages.
This book, therefore, is the sum total of both my textual and my theoretical research, as well as that of my experiences in practically applying much of this research over the past nearly twenty years.
Daniel Roth Jerusalem, February 2021