Halakhah sobre Jueces 5:23

Categorization of a preemptive attack as a milḥemet reshut is problematic regardless of the precise circumstances under which such war is justified. Such action is not deemed mandatory but is nevertheless permitted as a milḥemet reshut despite the apparent absence of specific scriptural authorization.⁴⁰Although not explicitly demanding participation in military activity designed to “deliver Israel from an enemy,” Judges 5:23 pronounces a curse against Sisera: “ ‘Curse ye Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord, ‘curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.’ ” Cf., R. Shlomoh Goren, Maḥanayim, no. 20 (Erev Ḥanukkah, 5714), p. 7, reprinted in Torat ha-Mo‘adim, p. 166, and Maḥanayim, no. 97 (5725), p. 7, reprinted in Torat ha-Shabbat ve-ha-Mo‘ed, p. 360. Korban ha-Edah, Palestinian Talmud, Sotah 8:10, suggests that the legitimacy of preemptive war as a milḥemet reshut is derived by the Palestinian Talmud from the scriptural paradigm of King David's war against the Philistines.⁴¹See, however, Panim Yafot, Parshat Shoftim, s.v. u-mi ha-ish, who notes that the area inhabited by the Philistines, although not conquered by Joshua, was within the boundaries of Ereẓ Yisra’el. Hence King David’s war against the Philistines constituted a milḥemet miẓvah since it served as a war of conquest for territory integral to the Land of Israel. Military action against the Philistines, asserts Korban ha-Edah, was not undertaken in order to conquer territory belonging to the Seven Nations indigenous to the land of Canaan or to expand the boundaries of the Land of Israel, but in order to prevent acts of aggression.