ABSTRACT

The title of this chapter i s derived from an ancient Jewish teaching, attributed to rabbi Elazar of Modi'in, who lived and taught in the land of Israel during the third century CE. As far as we know, Elazar was the first Jewish sage to take homiletic advantage of the alliteration of safra and saifa, Aramaic terms which translate, respectively, as 'scroll' and 'sword'. These two objects, he taught, 'came down from heaven tied together. [God] said to [Israel] . "If you observe the torah [i.e. the Divine word of the Bible] which is written in the one, you will be saved from the other; if not, you will be smitten by it. " ' 1

A plain reading of this passage leaves no doubt that its author intended to project the Bible and the sword as antithetical opposites. Indeed, generations of traditional Jewish commentators have understood rabbi Elazar's teaching to present a figurative contrast between martial action, on the one hand, and the irenic pursuit of scholarship, on the other. Modem Zionist readings, by contrast, have tended to tum this text inside out. Conveniently citing only the first line, they portray the scroll and the sword as complementary rather than mutually exclusive entities, intertwined rather than in conflict. Thus, in modem Israel the two

terms have been joined by an 'and' rather than an 'or'. Indeed, the twinning of safra and saifa has attained the status of a slogan, encapsulating the dual nature of the new Jew's responsibilities to serve his (and her) country as both a scholar and a soldier.