Scroll Or the Sword ?: Dilemmas of Religion and Military Service in Israel

First Published in 1997. The title of this book is derived from an ancient Jewish teaching, attributed to a certain Rabbi Eleazar of Modi'in, who lived in the land of Israel during the third century of the common era. As far as we know, Rabbi Eleazar was the first sage to take homiletic advantage of the alliteration of safra and saifa, Aramaic terms which literally translate (respectively) as ‘a scroll’ and ‘a sword’. A plain reading of this text leaves no doubt that its author intended to project a figurative contrast between two distinct spheres of human endeavour.