16 May CEASEFIRE AFTERTHOUGHTS

Israel and the
Islamic Jihad
militant group in
the Gaza Strip
agreed to an
Egyptian-brokered
ceasefire, seeking
to halt five days of
intense fighting. The text reads as follows: “In
light of the agreement of the Palestinian and
the Israeli side, Egypt announces a ceasefire
between the Palestinian and the Israeli sides has
been reached. The two sides will abide by the
ceasefire which will include an end to targeting
civilians, house demolitions, and an end to
targeting individuals immediately, when the
ceasefire goes into effect”.
When a treaty is signed between two parties
is there a Halachic obligation to keep your
side of the agreement, or is it just a temporary
agreement meant to give us quiet until we see
it fit to break for any interest which we might
have?
Let’s dwell into some of the treaties found in
Tanach between the Jewish Nation and the
gentiles to learn about this topic. There are
several treaties that can teach us the extent of
how far we need to go in order to keep our
words, and on the other hand when may we
break the treaty.
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer (chapter 37) brings few

treaties of the Avot:
Avraham Avinu made a treaty with the
Yevusites when he needed them. In return they
asked for a treaty that when the Nation of Israel
would concur the land of Canaan they would
not take possession of the cities of Yevus. What
did the men of Yevus do? They made images
of copper, and set them up in the street of the
city, and wrote upon them the covenant of the
oath of Abraham. When the Israelites came to
the land of Canaan, they wished to enter the
city of the Yevusites, but they were not able
to enter, because of the sign of the covenant of
Abraham’s oath.
When King David reigned he wished to enter
the city of Yevus, but they didn’t allow him
because of the covenant.
At the time of Yehoshua, the people of Givon
heard that which Yehoshua did to Jericho and
Aiy, and they decided to enter a treaty with the
Jewish people under false representations and
circumstances. They made themselves appear
like messengers that had traveled from a far
land taking with them worn-out saddles for
their donkeys and tattered leather canteens for
their wine, with cracks and patches over them.
They wore ragged shoes containing different
color, worn-out garments.
The Jewish people believed the Givonites and
the leaders of the congregation swore to them.

Three days after the peace treaty was made
the Jewish people discovered the true origin of
their “peace partners”, and that they were not
from a distant land at all, but from very close—
from within Israel! This posed a problem as the
Jewish nation at the time were not supposed
to accept anyone from the nearby neighboring
nations. The Gemara (א,מו גיטין (explains that the
Jewish people had the right to kill the Givonites
because they misled them, which means that the
treaty is invalid. Still, the Jews kept their word
for the sake of Kiddush Hashem.
Another treaty was after Yaakov left his father
in-law Lavan’s house and Lavan chased after
him. After an exchange of words between
them, they proposed a treaty, and raised a stone
monument as witness to the treaty. The treaty
between them was that Yaakov’s children would
not take possession of the land of Edom, while
Lavan’s children will not cross the monument
towards the land of Yaakov.
From those examples and many more, we learn
that whenever the Jewish people make a treaty
with other nations it must be kept. Therefore
a ceasefire should be respected once agreed
upon. The reason for protecting the treaty is
either because of the obligation to keep our
word צדק שלך הין, or because of Chilul Hashem,
as we learn from this last incident. But we also
find that whenever an agreement is broken by
others, we aren’t obligated to keep it anymore.

We mentioned above the treaty between Yaakov
and Lavan. Chazal say that Bilam violated the
treaty when he went passing that monument in
order to curse our nation.
The Midrash (ג דברים תנחומא (‘tells us that
in King David’s time, our nation wanted to
fight a war against Aram, but the people of
Aram reminded them of Lavan and Yaakov’s
treaty. They also mentioned that they are the
descendants of Lavan. Then King David rose
before the Sanhedrin and explained that Bilaam
(who was also from Aram) had already violated
and broke the treaty, and therefore they didn’t
have an obligation to keep it. Immediately,
the Sanhedrin declared a war and the army of
David conquered Aram’s land.
From the above we learn that whenever we
agree to ceasefire we must keep our words and
promises; but as soon as the other side violates
it, we aren’t obligated to keep it any more.
Needless to say, the terrorists have a long
history of breaking promises, and the ceasefire
that was agreed upon is usually not binding in
any way or form. Thus, if the Jewish people see
fit to continue the fight in any way or start a new
war, they have the right to do so.