Thoughts for a class on healing from war:
Numbers 31: 19 "And you, camp outside the camp seven days; whoever has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves, you and your captives, on the third day and on the seventh day. 20 "You shall purify for yourselves every garment and every article of leather and all the work of goats' hair, and all articles o...f wood."
John Wesley (the founder of the Methodist church) wrote this was regarding "All which had contracted some ceremonial uncleanness either from the dead bodies which wore them, or the tents or houses where they were, in which such dead bodies lay, or from the touch of the Israelitish soldiers, who were legally defiled by the slaughters they made." (www.biblemaster.com)
"During the High Holidays, Judaism teaches that prayer, repentance, and acts of righteousness and charity can gain us forgiveness. The key concept of repentance is Teshuvah, which means "return". Like Jonah, we have fled . . . like Job felt banished from God's presence." War and the Soul by Edward Tick, PhD, p. 209.
The US Army doesn't formally do a week long "redeployment retreat" or "purification ritual", just mandatory training. I wonder if we should. I realize we're in a time of financial cutbacks.
