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Let me explain. This is something that actually happened, in World War One; Jews volunteered to fight with the Entente and many Jews volunteered on the Central Powers. Some could have served on the same fronts. What would Halacha’s opinion on this be? Should I serve and fight for what I think is the ‘greater good’ for the Jewish people, like the allied Jews did, or serve for whatever I thought the greater good was as the German Jews had, or not serve at all? Most importantly, if I did serve, would I be חייב מיתה?

Noach MiFrankfurt
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user22192
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    My great great grandfather was one such Jew. He was a POW camp guard in the Austro-Hungarian army and guarded Russian Jews who he'd actually met prior. Note, are you referring to WWII or WWI? Because the Axis is a term from WWII. – Harel13 Apr 30 '20 at 04:58
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    Most of the times they were not asked, but conscripted. – Kazi bácsi Apr 30 '20 at 05:08
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    This happens in the Book of Kings all the time – Double AA Apr 30 '20 at 12:39
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    In the book of Shoftim against bene Binyamin – kouty May 01 '20 at 04:44
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    The main idea behind my question was, in the case of WW1, many Jews joined the British army in order to banish the Ottomans from Israel, who had been abusing the local Jewish population there. Would one theoretically be allowed to sign up to fight, even if it was highly probable that there would be other Jewish combatants serving somewhere for the other side? – user22192 May 04 '20 at 00:32
  • Related: "Can one join an army"? – Tamir Evan Jun 05 '20 at 11:58
  • I've heard a story from WW1 of opposing Jewish soldiers taking a break from shooting at each other to make up a minyan to daven, then go back to shooting at each other again afterwards. I don't know if there is any truth to it though – Moses Supposes Nov 02 '23 at 15:50

1 Answers1

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If the cause of your country is justified, you should fight. When countries are at war, individuals by necessity are subordinate to the national cause. See War and Peace.

Having said that, very often the cause for war has not been at all justified. The only measure we have for this is the acceptable norm at the time, which is not always easy to define.

user18037
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  • The underlying concept seems sound but we don't typically pasken from novels, particularly those written by non-Jews – יהושע ק Mar 22 '22 at 18:07
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    If you click the link you will see that I am not paskening from a novel, nor by anything written by non-Jews. – user18037 Mar 23 '22 at 19:43
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    I recommend editing your answer so people will know you aren't referencing the famous book. – Harel13 Mar 23 '22 at 20:10