the two disastrous national defeats inflicted by the Roman superpower in 70 and 135 C.E. The rabbis suppressed the militant history of the Maccabees and emphasized an innocent miracle for the popular holiday of Hannukah while Judah Maccabee disappeared into a vague haze. Through midrashim biblical military heroes like David became principally a psalmist and so were transformed into literary figures. Many warriors were transfigured into rabbinic scholars like themselves— Moses became moshe rabenu;'' this effort became very clear as a long line of biblical figures reappear in the rabbinic literature.
Talmudic scholars, far removed from the realities of war, then created a military theory which divided wars into two categories— “mandatory”(Milhemet mitzvah) and“discretionary”(milhemet reshut). These discussions are mainly found in Mishnah Sotah 8 and the later talmudic discussions in Sotah 43 b and 44 a,b as well as parallel statements in the Sifre. A section in Hor. 12 a,b further described the role of the high priest while making the declaration of Deut 20:3-5."> All of this really centered around the divine command to conquer the land of Israel which had been promised to Abraham and his descendants. Conquering the land of Israel was a mandated war and therefore obligatory, while the wars of David and later kings which expanded the territory were not. Never mind that they were often conducted in areas which could be included in the vague original divine promise and its later interpretations."
The exemptions from military service mentioned in Deuteronomy were understood to apply only to the latter kind of warfare. A further discussion of“discretionary war” is found in San 20a(Mishnah San. 2a) which demanded that such wars needed the permission of the Great Sanhedrin composed of seventy-one members or perhaps could be simply undertaken by the king. The matter became further complicated by the discussion in Sanhedrin 16a and Berakhot 3b which stated that the king must also seek the advice of the urim vetumin- in other words divine approval given through the priests. These conditions made a“discretionary war” not even theoretically possible. Additional discussions of warfare appeared in concerns about defensive actions on shabbat. They were permitted even if initially the attackers only wished to haul off some hay. On the same page there is a brief discussion of transgressing the eruv in