{"id":51139,"date":"2019-03-11T13:41:06","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T11:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=51139"},"modified":"2022-10-02T14:05:34","modified_gmt":"2022-10-02T11:05:34","slug":"trees-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/trees-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Trees Of War"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Deuteronomy 20 presents a code of ethics for wartime, not only regarding how to treat enemy combatants, but even concerning trees:<\/span><\/p>\n

When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city?<\/span><\/p>\n

The meaning of the phrase \u201care trees of the field human\u201d has been interpreted variously: Most simply, since trees are innocent and not human combatants, they are undeserving of the violence of war. Some read the verse as arguing that since trees <\/span>support<\/span><\/i> human life, they should be treated with respect. Still other readers saw a parity between humans and trees \u2013 \u201ctrees of the field are as the human\u2026.\u201d \u2013 even trees have a certain \u201chumanity\u201d that should be respected. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the most creative reading and application of this passage was by Israel\u2019s founding novelist, Shmuel Yosef Agnon. In his <\/span>To This Day<\/span><\/i>, a book describing wanderings in World War I Berlin, Agnon interprets the phrase subversively: <\/span><\/p>\n

In wartime, it often seems as if everything is drawn in, and deployed, into the machinery of war \u2013 even innocent trees.
\n<\/span>Yet each time I stepped out on the balcony to warm up I had to retreat inside at once, since the trees were full of dust that the breeze blew everywhere and there were no street sweepers because of the war. Trees planted to make life better were only making it worse. Man, says the Bible, is a tree of the field. That must be why trees join in when men go to war and spread misery. <\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Giovanni Segantini, Evil Mothers<\/a>, 1894, <\/span>The Belvedere Museum Vienna<\/span><\/i> (detail)<\/span>
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