Parshas Ki Seitzei

What is the Torah’s view on war and peace? Are we commanded to fight evil at all costs, or is Judaism fundamentally a religion of peace and pleasantness? This week’s Torah portion, Parshas Ki Seitzei, contains a verse that seems to push hard toward the former. “You shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget.” Devarim 25:19. It is about as absolute as language gets. So how does this sit alongside the famous verse in Mishlei 3:17, that the Torah’s ways are ways of pleasantness?

The answer begins with the Rambam in Hilchos Melachim 6:1, the laws of kings and wars. The Rambam rules that before any war, even a commanded war like the one against Amalek, a formal offer of peace must be extended. The enemy must be given the opportunity to accept basic moral principles and live peacefully under agreed terms. Only if that offer is rejected does war follow. The Rambam even cites Moshe’s successor, Yehoshua’s conquest of Canaan (Israel) as proof, noting that before entering the land he sent three proclamations offering the nations the choice to flee, make peace, or fight.

This is the lens which the Torah sees war through. The command to blot out Amalek is not a license for immediate or unconditional violence. Even here, where the Torah uses its most absolute language, the Rambam rules that a formal peace offer must come first. The enemy is given the chance to renounce the evil they represent and live. Only a rejection of that offer triggers the commanded response. Violence is never automatic, even when it is fully justified. Even when we were the ones attacked first.

This is what Deracheha Darchei Noam actually means in practice. Mishlei 3:17 is not a soft poetic sentiment. It is a legal and moral principle that runs through the entire system. Even in the hardest cases, even against the most implacable enemies, the Torah demands that we lead with the possibility of peace.

The application to our own lives is real. There are moments when we are called to stand up for what is right, to push back against something harmful, to refuse to stay quiet. The Torah absolutely sanctions that. But the sequence matters. Peace first. Every time. Force only when the other options have genuinely been exhausted. And even then, with a heavy heart rather than a triumphant one.

A Judaism that never justly stands up for the honor of Hashem and His true values is not Torah. But neither is one that reaches for conflict before it has truly tried everything else.

May Hashem give us the wisdom to always lead with peace, the courage to stand firm when we must, and the clarity to always know which moment we are in.