‘Torah’ Perspective on Blood Rituals and War

(A textual presence of the concepts and practices, their historical evolution from Temple age to Torah age and the contemporary relevance)

Abstract

Within the Hebrew-Jewish tradition, there were strict prohibitions against certain practices and rites that were commonly observed by other Semitic peoples. These included Blood rites and rituals, which are recorded throughout Jewish history. The act of consuming blood was among the sins believed to have contributed to the destruction of Jerusalem. In fact, in one instance Moses took the blood from a sacrifice and threw it upon the people proclaiming, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant.’ This idea of using a blood rite to cleanse a place where violence had occurred can be seen in various phases of Jewish History and Old Testament age. Unfortunately, these instances also seem to establish a foundation for violence and a warrior mentality among adherents which has been justified in many Biblical Versus and Books like of Judges and Deuteronomy. Biblical war often refers to “Yahweh war” meaning the war of God of Israel. In the Hebrew Bible, God may be referred to as the “man of war”. The War laws are developed considerably later in Rabbinic interpretation. A great collection of War poetry is found in Hebrew scripture and much of it consists of hymns of praise and thanks for God’s protection of Israel and victory over Israel’s enemies. Book of Psalm contains fragments of a series of war songs or pieces of war poetry. The main focus of the article is to explore the instances of blood rituals, violence mentality, war appreciation poetry and war practices beginning from the era of ancient Hebrews in Palestine, its historical evolution untill the age of Old Testament and its contemporary relevance.