Yoda is a Jedi but at no point in ESB or ROTJ do we get any evidence that he was ever a Jedi Knight.
He constantly pushed Luke to avoid violence, avoid weapons, avoid confrontations until he is ready. And only then in the context of confronting and defeating his own personal fears not Vader or even the Emperor.
Ben on the other hand flat out tells Luke he has to kill his father in order to save the galaxy. During his first face to face meeting he gives Luke a weapon and tells him a lie setting him on a course that will lead him to confront Vader. He lets himself be killed infront of Luke possibly hours after this. He is a militant character.
Yoda is more of a guru, a teacher a source of knowledge.
Luke ultimately rejects Ben’s demand to kill and accepts Yoda’s lesson of facing fear, this rescues Anakin. The true ‘other’ the real ‘new hope’ the only person Palpatine would allow to get close enough to throw him down a really stupidly placed hole in the floor.
I realise this is my interpretation of the characters which is totally flipped by the prequels as they currently exist but it just seems odd to me that a philosophy such as the Force would only have a military arm. There are Buddhist and Taoist, even Christian warrior monks but they are a tiny sub faction of philosophies devoted to different things.
This is a nice debate, is always good to talk with someone that has deep knowledge and understanding of Star Wars as you have, Bingowings. 😃 That being said, back to the topic:
Well, it seems to me that the problem is, there are different Yodas. It seems to me that you talk about the ESB Yoda, which I believe is the Yoda we all feel is the best. But we also have the ROTJ Yoda, who says that Luke must confront (and kill) Vader (and we can assume the emperor as well). This is the same Yoda that said in ESB that Luke had to sacrifice his friends “if he cares for what they fight for”, and also said in the prequels that “destroy the Sith we must”. As different as these Yodas may be, the all seem to share a view that the ends justifies the means, even if it means the death of people close to us (and that fight for the same thing).
I don’t blame him. We must remember that they were at war with the Sith, who was killing Jedis across the galaxy. So he had a choice: fight against (and kill if possible) the Sith or face his own death (and the end of the Jedis). Unless we consider he’s a saint that feels its best dying then fighting, than we should consider that, as much as he hates fighting, he has to carry a saber to defend his life and the Jedis if needed.