The Realities of War

In celebrating my parent’s 50^th wedding anniversary recently I had the delightful opportunity to “walk down memory lane” through a PowerPoint presentation that my sister had prepared for the occasion.  Among the many photographs chronicling my parent’s upbringing, courtship, marriage, and family life were a couple of photos of my father in full army uniform. I have always found men in uniform to be quite attractive and my father was no exception.  A slender and tall man, standing at attention, he cut a handsome figure as one who served our nation in the Korean War. 

Of all the memories of my parents, my father’s service to our country is one that is most easily forgotten, for he refuses to ever speak of the war or any of its details at all.  My sister and I know nothing of his experience in the service except for two things; that he read the entire Scripture from cover to cover during his time of conscription, and that he prayed during those years that if he ever became a father that he would not have sons for he wanted his offspring to be spared from the horrors of war. Several years after his tour of duty was completed he married my mother and became the father of two daughters.

In completing parashah Shoftim and beginning parashah Ki Tetze over the past couple of weeks I have found myself considering the realities of war from a Torah perspective.  Most notably, in the midst of the most grueling and base occupation that a human being can face, HaShem insists that His people conduct war with integrity and goodness.  Despite the inevitable killing and carnage, the Jewish soldier is led into war by a specially anointed Priest who pronounces G-d’s blessings upon the troops, he is conscious of refraining from senseless and wasteful destruction even to the point of cutting down fruit trees, and he presents an overture for peace before proceeding into battle with the enemy.  But perhaps the most interesting and unique reality of war is found in Deuteronomy 21:10-14 regarding the treatment of a beautiful female captive, known as Eshet Yefat To’ar.

When you will go out to war against your enemies, and HaShem, your G-d, will deliver them into your hand, and you will capture its captivity; and you will see among its captivity a woman who is beautiful of form, and you will desire her, you may take her to yourself for a wife.  You shall bring her to the midst of your house; she shall shave her head and let her nails grow.  She shall remove the garment of her captivity from upon herself and sit in your house and she shall weep for her father and her mother for a full month; thereafter you may come to her and lie with her, and she shall be a wife to you.  But it shall be that if you do not desire her, they you shall send her on her own, but you may not sell her for money; you shall not enslave her, because you have afflicted her. (Stone Chumash)

Although throughout history women captives of war are considered to be the rightful possessions of their captors and objects of sexual gratification, in G-d’s perspective, such passions aroused within a soldier of Israel must be realized and addressed in a way that evokes self-control and holiness.  In this way the Torah demands the highest standards of holiness from every soldier. Yet, in the midst of this most detailed procedure, generally understood as a way to aid the soldier in restraining himself through a “cooling down” period, the Chazal recognize a means of “providing for the yetzer ha-ra (evil inclination)” (Kiddushin 21b).  Therefore the details presented here not only practically aid a soldier in dealing with very real and strong passions of war, but are also meant as a guideline in handling the evil inclination itself, for every person.  

Although the Chazal agree that the laws of Yefat To’ar address, on the most basic level, the human evil inclination, the manner in which the beautiful captive was to be handled is disputed among the rabbis of the Talmud and also among the classic commentators. The Talmudic disagreement is seen through the thoughts of Rabbi Akiva and the opposing understanding of Rabbi Eliezer.

Rabbi Akiva understood the procedure of Yefat To’ar as a means of distancing an Israelite soldier from the possibility of becoming intimately involved with a daughter of the nations.  While engaged in war the soldier’s spiritual balance is upset as he is forced to act and respond according to his primal instinct of self preservation.  In this situation a soldier’s nephesh (fleshly drives) becomes heightened and prominent which includes the drive for procreation.  While in this state encountering a woman beautiful in form can cause the soldier to become inflamed with passion for her. In order to control this overwhelming desire the man must take the captive into his home and do everything he can to cause her to become undesirable to him. 

She is to shave her head and grow her nails long and unsightly (Yevamot 48a). The garment of captivity is understood by Rabbi Akiva (according to Sifre Deuteronomy) to be the most beautiful of garments that gentile women would wear in order to entice enemy soldiers to follow their idolatrous gods.  This beautiful garment and any other adornments were removed and a very plain garment was worn instead.  The woman was to live within the confines of the soldier’s home in this uncomely state for a full month, during which time she mourns and cries for her family continually.  The soldier is to recognize that although she says she is weeping for her father and mother, in reality “father” and “mother” are merely terms she uses to weep and mourn for the idolatrous gods she has regretfully left behind (Yevamot 48b).

Rashi agrees with Rabbi Akiva that the Yefat To’ar procedure is meant to make an otherwise enticing and appealing woman into an undesirable and disgraceful individual.  As the woman is in the man’s home crying and looking ugly every day for a month, the man will be about his normal daily business among the Jewish maidens who are pretty and joyful.  In this way the Jewish women will become even more appealing to him compared to the wretched woman within his home whom he once had such a passion for.

Yet, there is the possibility that even after the month of living in such a situation that the man may continue to desire the foreign woman for marriage.  In this case Rashi points out that an unhappy fate awaits him, based on the juxtaposition of the Yefat To’ar passage with the two passages that follow it in Torah regarding the firstborn of the hated wife and death penalty for the wayward and rebellious son.  From this Rashi understands that a man who marries an Eshet Yefat To’ar will inevitably come to hate his wife and the discord between them will result in offspring that are rebellious. Despite rebellion and waywardness, the firstborn son of the hated (foreign) wife is still given his rightful double portion of his father’s inheritance.

Proof of this inevitable outcome is understood by the sages to be exemplified in the life of David.  2 Samuel 3:3 relates David’s marriage to Maacah the daughter of a Gentile king.  According to the midrash, Maacah was an Eshet Yefet To’ar, a woman taken captive during a time of war.  David became attracted to her and brought her into his home according to the laws of Deuteronomy 21:10-14 and eventually married her.  The result of this union was a son, Absalom, who grew to be exceedingly rebellious against his father; desiring to kill him and openly disgracing him by sleeping with David’s wives in front of all Israel in broad daylight (2 Samuel 12:12).  Therefore, according to both Rabbi Akiva, Rashi (and others) the captive of beautiful form should be handled in a manner that causes her to become undesirable, disgraceful and thereby rejected and sent away by the soldier whose passions on the battlefield hindered his clarity of thinking.

Ramban, in line with Rabbi Akiva, takes a different approach.  Instead of understanding the Yefet To’ar procedure as a means of distancing the Israelite soldier from a beautiful foreign captive, he sees the process as a means of causing the captive to conform to G-d’s ways and people, therefore making her suitable for marriage.  Like Rabbi Akiva, Ramban understands that the woman shaves her head and removes her beautiful and alluring garment of captivity. Based on the example of Job, shaving the head is understood as a symbol of mourning as is the removal of the beautiful garment which is replaced with a garment of mourning.  The woman weeps and mourns for 30 days as a way to become acclimated psychologically with her new religious and social status and to minimize outward coercion on the part of the man who desires her to be his wife. [1]

The position of Rabbi Eliezer is in disagreement with Rabbi Akiva, as he understands the Yefet To’ar procedure as a means of honoring and respecting the beautiful captive whom the Israelite soldier has come to desire.  Instead of the woman shaving her head and growing her nails long in order to be seen as undesirable or mournful, Rabbi Eliezar teaches that she is to trim her hair neatly and pare her nails in a manner befitting a dignified woman.  

Using the example of Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 19:24, R. Eliezar expounds that the Hebrew verb “asah” (ayin, sin, het) which means “to do” is to be understood as trimming in relation to both hair and nails.  For in the 2 Samuel account Mephibosheth had not “done” (asah) his toenails and had not “done” (asah) his mustache in the sense that he had not trimmed and kept them as a result of mourning for David who had been exiled from Jerusalem.  Therefore in the most literal sense to “do one’s nails” is to cut or pare them which is the way the verse is translated in the LXX, Vulgate, and Targum Jonathan among others. [2]

In the view of Rabbi Eliezer the process of Yefat To’ar is meant to cancel the captive status of the woman by removing the outward signs of it.  The woman is not keep in confinement but instead brought into the very midst of the soldier’s family life.  After months of captivity undoubtedly her hair is long and wild and her nails are overgrown and unsightly.  Both are cut and trimmed.  R. Yaakov Zvi Mecklenburg (Haketav Vehakabala) understands the Hebrew word gilu’ach which literally means “to shave” can also be understood in relation to the head or hair as describing a haircut instead of a complete shaving of the head to baldness. This is seen in the account of Joseph in Genesis 41:14 in which he is freed from prison and has his hair cut (galach) before coming to pharaoh.  2 Samuel 14:26 also describes the yearly haircut of Absalom as “galach”.  [3]

The garment of captivity as understood in scripture is not something attractive and alluring but instead a garment that is not fit to wear in public, perhaps something similar to the striped clothing of prisoners or clothing that inevitably was dirty and worn due to being in a captive state.  Again, the story of Joseph is an example of this in which when released from prison in order to interpret Pharaoh’s dream he necessarily changes from the clothing of captivity into something more suitable to wear before royalty.  King Jehoiachin as well, upon being released from a 37 year imprisonment, changes his garments (2 Kings 25:27-30).  Therefore in the most literal, biblical sense removing a garment of captivity is an expression of a change in status from captivity to freedom, from dishonor to honor.    

In line with Rabbi Eliezar’s view, the Rambam (Guide to the Perplexed 3:41) states that the reason for laws of Yefat To’ar is to show mercy toward the captive woman by considering her plight and her feelings. [4] The woman’s self respect and honor is restored through necessary hygiene and care for her outward appearance. She is encouraged to mourn for her parents for a month’s time as a way of showing respect for her feelings as a human being rather than seeing her as an inanimate object meant merely for physical pleasure.  In this way the woman is elevated to the status of one worthy to marry an Israelite soldier and to be part of the people of HaShem.

Based on a completely different angle, the Ohr HaChaim supports Rabbi Eliezar’s view, by highlighting the fact that those who serve during a voluntary war (not a war commanded by HaShem but one deemed necessary by the nation) were all righteous individuals of the highest spiritual character.  This understanding is based on Deuteronomy 20 in which men categorized as unfit for battle were removed from the ranks by the anointed Priest and/or elders prior to deployment.  With the unfit removed from the army, its ranks were assuredly made up of those who were courageous, righteous and eager to perform a mitzvah for HaShem by defending their nation. 

With this in mind the Ohr HaChaim questions if such righteous and strong individuals could succumb to the base drives of the nephesh and desire a beautiful captive due to inflamed and uncontrolled passion alone. Instead, the Ohr HaChaim understands that the soldier on the battlefield desires the beautiful captive not because of a passion for her physicality but because he recognizes something positive and holy within her character.  In this way he sees the captive as worthy of being incorporated into the Jewish people and desires her to be his wife. [5] The Yefat To’ar procedure is then a means of showing the worthiness of this woman through a well kept physical appearance and and a month of closure for her to adjust to her newfound status.   

In the midst of all the discussion, disagreements and details is perhaps to be found three basic ways that one handles the yetzer ha-ra (the evil inclination) as alluded to in the various understandings of the treatment of the beautiful and enticing captive of war.  The first way is to view and consider the evil inclination and its appealing temptations in the most unattractive and coarse manner and to contemplate the very real and possible unhappy consequences that could result in embracing it. This way of handling the evil inclination, (which can be understood as “the flesh” in the Apostolic scriptures), is related in Romans 8:6,8 where Paul speaks of being fleshly minded as equivalent to death and as something that cannot possibly please G-d.  In this way the yetzer ha-ra is viewed as completely undesirable and something to be distanced from and “sent away”.  

A second way to handle the evil inclination is to insist that it conform to the ways of Torah and fall in line with G-d’s ways for His people despite the personal struggle and pain that this approach will inevitably cause.  This way involves one’s thinking for it is based on a psychological approach.  Such an approach is seen in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 in which the life of faithfulness is compared to battle and we are admonished to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. The yetzer ha-ra and its evil temptations are not rejected and sent away but instead forced to change and conform and to be captive.

Both these ways fall in line with Rabbi Akiva’s view regarding the beautiful captive, ways that in essence require a destruction of the evil inclination by making it undesirable or be forcing it to conform and take on a new status.

Yet, a third way to handle the yetzer ha-ra, one based on the view of the Yefat To’ar as presented by Rabbi Eliezer, is one that is not destruction but constructive.  It is the view that the evil inclination within itself contains an aspect of good.  Although at first glance this might seem to be very strange and askew thinking, the rabbis recognize that the yetzer ha-ra, (defined as the pull of man’s instinctual and basic drives to control and direct him), in and of itself is necessary and good.  For without the basic drives of self-preservation, procreation and the like, man would never “build a city”, “get married” or “have children” which are all necessary and basic to humanity’s survival. Although following the lead of the yetzer ha-ra causes man to become captive to his most base desires and for his life to take on the appearance of that which is wild and uncontrolled. Like R. Eliezer’s view of the Yefat To’ar man can cut away what is wild and uncomely and find within the evil inclination an aspect that is good and characteristics that are worthy to be elevated and incorporated into one’s life.  

. . . .

My father’s prayers as a young man under the duress of battle were answered by the birth of two daughters and the absence of any sons.  Although my sister and I will never be forced or “drafted” into armed service for our country the reality of battle, perhaps in the most real and profound sense, cannot be avoided, due to the yetzer ha-ra that each of us possess as human women.  I myself have faced horrors in battling the evil inclination and bitter defeats in my life that are never spoken of and could never be imagined in the minds of my loving parents. Little do they realize that their oldest daughter is one who has been “forgiven much”.  

Interestingly, the Zohar comments on the Yefat To’ar passage by saying that the 30 day period in which the woman mourns for her parents “is the month of Elul”.  This is based on the terminology of Deuteronomy 21:13 in which a “full month” in the Hebrew is yerach yamim , instead of the more common term for month chodesh. Halachically when a marriage contract is dated the month of the contract is specified as a certain chodesh. When a divorce document is dated the month is specified in terms of a yerach.  From this it is understood that a month described as chodesh (related to the word chadash or “new”) connotes a new beginning while a month described as yerach denotes an ending or closure. [6]

By using the term yerach yamim in relation to the month of mourning of the beautiful captive the Torah is relating that this is a month of ending or closure, a month in which she must come to terms with her former life before entering into a new beginning with a new husband among a new people.  In like fashion the month of Elul is understood as a time of spiritual inventory, a time when G-d’s people prepare for the fall festivals and New Year (Rosh Hashanah) ahead by coming to terms with the year that has passed through reflection, contemplation and mourning for that which has been left behind or overlooked in “the battle” involved in pursuing a life of faithfulness.

 How fitting to consider this as Rosh Chodesh Elul arrives this upcoming week, and to welcome this month as a time of contemplation regarding handling the yetzer ha-ra and closure regarding failures of the past year in order to enter anew a time focused on repentance, forgiveness and dwelling with HaShem.

 

[1] Rav Mordekhai Sabato, Parashah Ki Tetze; The “Beautiful Captive”, available at: http://www.vbm-torah.org/parsha/48kitetz.htm

[2] Dr. Michael Avioz, The Law of the Beautiful Woman According to the Plain Sense of Scripture, available at: http://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/kiteze/avio.html

[3] Rav Mordekhai Sabato, op. cit.

[4] Rav Mordekhai Sabato, The Female Captive; What is the Torah Teaching Us?, available at: http://www.vbm-torah.org/parsha.62/44ki-tetze.htm

[5]  Ohr HaChaim cited by Rabbi David Lapin, Ke-Tetze 1981 Eshet Yefet Toar Handling the Yetzer Haro, audio recording, available at:  http://www.iawaken.org/shiurim/view.asp?id=6050

[6] Rabbi Frand, On Parashas Ki Seitzei, available at:  http://www.torah.org/learning/ravfrand/5759/kiseitzei.html?print=1