R. Eliezer Yehudah Waldenberg

R. Waldenberg (1915–2006) was a prominent halakhic authority who produced one of the first halakhic treatises on war after the establishment of the state of Israel. Like R. Herzog, R. Waldenberg builds his halakhic positions on war primarily on those of R. Kook. He, too, sees wartime Halakhah and everyday Halakhah as different and argues from that premise that conscription is permitted. However, R. Waldenberg examines R. Kook’s views in conjunction with those of R. Naftali Tsevi Yehudah Berlin (1816–93), better known by his acronym, Netsiv. The Netsiv addresses the issue of war in a number of passages in his commentary on the Torah. The mixture of R. Kook’s views and those of the Netsiv create noteworthy tensions in R. Waldenberg’s thinking about war.