“Pazifistischer Zug”

I would like to attempt to understand Rosenzweig’s complicated project of grounds for war, as well as his abandonment of the project, in light of his reservations about pacifism. “[T]he Jew is really the only man in the Christian world who cannot take war seriously, and therefore is the only genuine ‘pacifist.’” ¹ His strategies and politics of quotation marks – a likely consequence of his long and detailed reading of Hegel, the master of scare quotes – could probably decisively determine a potential “ethics of war.” My addition of quotation marks to the phrase ethics of war indicates my hesitation regarding Rosenzweig’s interpretation of war and pacifism, as well as their uncertain influence on theories of (un)just war within the Jewish political tradition. Setting aside the issue of quotation marks, I would nevertheless like to construct an (im)possible (or “possible”) influence of Rosenzweig’s texts (letters, diary entries, brief notes) on contemporary thought about war.