Voluntary war (Hebrew: מלחמת הרשות; milḥemet ha-reshūt), sometimes called a discretionary war, optional war, a non-obligatory war, or a war of free choice, is a technical term found in Hebrew classical literature and denoting a war that is waged of free choice by Israel, only at such a time when the people of Israel are settled in their ancestral homeland.[1][2][3] Such a war is to be distinguished from a mandatory war, in that a voluntary war is not fought for national survival, but rather for personal ambitions of the country's ruler. This might include personal enmity with another state, or a desire to show the country's military prowess as a means to deter potential aggressors, or to expand the territorial domain of the country.[4] Such a war cannot be waged without either the command of a king,[a] or the approbation of the Great Sanhedrin, consisting of no less than seventy-one judges.[5] A voluntary war is also to be distinguished from a religious war, insofar that a religious war concerns the conquest of the land of Canaan by Joshua.[6]
For all practical purposes, a voluntary war can be described as an offensive war, but in the absence of either a monarchy or the Sanhedrin such a war is lacking in its powers and in its authority to be waged, and there is no man who can forcibly be taken to join the war effort.[7][8][9]
^HaLevi 1958, p. 318 (§ 526), P. Shofṭīm
^HaLevi 1958, p. 319 (§ 527), P. Shofṭīm
^Josephus 1981, p. 101 (Antiquities 4.8.41.)
^Meiri 2006, p. 24 (Sanhedrin 16a)
^Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 2a (corresponding to Mishnah, Sanhedrin 1:5)
^Kuzmarov 2012, p. 54
^Meiri 2006, p. 24 (Sanhedrin 16a)
^Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 2a; 20b (corresponding to Mishnah, Sanhedrin 1:5)
^Cite error: The named reference Eisenstein1970 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
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