Doing What’s Right is Never Simple – Ask God
Moshe’s times were no less trying than our own. He, too, faced the challenges of war and peace, of enemies and conflict. Towards the end of Parshat Shoftim, the Torah presents several military directives for different situations. One such case deals with laying siege to a city (Deuteronomy 20:10–14). While I do not intend here to examine the specifics of the Torah’s military strategy, I wish to highlight a midrash that comments on the opening verse of that passage:
“When you approach a town to attack it, you shall offer it terms of peace…” (Deuteronomy 20:10)
The midrash interprets this verse as an opportunity to illustrate moments when God’s initial response to a crisis was one of strict justice, only to be met and ultimately tempered by Moshe’s plea for mercy:
“You shall offer it terms of peace” (Deuteronomy 20:10) – Rabbi Levi said:
“Moshe did three things on his own initiative, and the Holy One, blessed be He, agreed with him:
- It is written: ‘[God] visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children’ (Exodus 34:7). But Moshe said: ‘Fathers shall not be put to death for children, nor children for fathers’ (Deuteronomy 24:16). And from where do we know that the Holy One agreed with him? As it is said: ‘But he did not put to death the children of the assassins’ (2 Kings 14:6).
- A second instance was when Moshe broke the tablets. [God had not commanded him to do so—he acted on his own (see Exodus 32:19). Yet the midrash finds divine approval in the verse: ‘Carve two tablets of stone like the first… which (asher) you shattered’ (Exodus 34:1). The word asher (אֲשֶׁר) can also be read as “affirmed,” implying that God agreed with Moshe’s action.]
- A third case arose in the wars with Sihon and Og. The Holy One said to Moshe: ‘Go and fight with him—cut off his water supply’ (cf. Deuteronomy 2:24). But Moshe instead sent envoys of peace, as it says: ‘I sent messengers…’ (Deuteronomy 2:26). The Holy One responded: ‘By your life, what you did was right, and I agree with you.’
Therefore, Moshe cautioned Israel: ‘When you approach a town to attack it, you shall offer it terms of peace’ (Deuteronomy 20:10).” (adapted from Midrash Tanhuma, Shoftim 19)
These three moments remind us that true leadership is not simply about carrying out orders, nor even about loyalty to a system of law, however sacred. Leadership, in Moshe’s example, is see beyond absolutes, to have the courage to hold justice and compassion together, even when that requires challenging prevailing assumptions.
This midrash is striking in that it has Moshe dare to argue with God, and even more striking that God welcomes the argument. The midrash teaches that God does not desire human passivity but moral partnership. When Moshe protests intergenerational punishment, when he breaks the tablets, when he chooses to attempt diplomacy as part of his military strategy, he is teaching us that God’s covenant is sustained not by blind obedience but by courageous moral responsibility.
We, like Moshe, live amid war, conflict, and competing visions of justice. It is tempting to see the world only in stark contrasts of black and white, to ignore the complexity of circumstances, and to assume that problems can be solved solely through force. Yet Moshe’s example calls us to resist such impulses. Even in the midst of battle, Israel’s first responsibility is not only to prevail but to discern what is best for the nation and its future. And even when strict justice seems the natural response, Moshe reminds us that that may be insufficient to bring about a truer sense of justice.
Perhaps the deeper message of Rabbi Levi’s teaching is this: that God invites us, as partners in covenant, to help shape the unfolding of divine will in our world. This is not a simple task. God does not lose sovereignty when we weigh the application of justice and mercy; on the contrary, God’s sovereignty is most fully revealed when human beings dare to embody God’s own compassion. What we expect of God, we should also expect of ourselves.
