| Summary: | Identifiable in early rabbinic literature is a class of extraordinary warriors, often called gibborim, whose legendary deeds became the object of commentary and debate. This essay attempts to define gibborim as a topic of discussion in rabbinic literature and to discover and interpret the attitudes expressed there toward them and, in relation to them, toward the use of military force more generally. The legends are studied as literary phenomena appearing in final written texts. These texts express toward gibborim an ambivalence of attitudes — not only admiration for their strength with its transcendent source, but also anxiety about the dangers to which its misuse might lead. The essay then interprets this ambivalence in relation to individual ethics, national policy, and the phenomenology of sacred power. The rabbinic response to gibborim took at least two literary forms: one was to glorify them in legend while warning against reliance on them; a second was to redefine gevurah so that its associated glory applied to academic and moral victories. The essay concludes by comparing the role played by the story of Herakles in Greek and Roman literature, and by referring to images of Bar Kokhba found in later Jewish literature.
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