Walk Through the Parsha by Rabbi David Walk

Warfare
Shoftim-5767
August 15, 2007
This week’s Torah reading continues the farewell address of Moshe Rabbeinu preparing the Jews for their entry into the Land of Israel and history. First the great leader reviewed the events of the Jews' forty year trek through the desert, and then he gave a general admonishment to them to remain loyal to the covenant with God. Finally, last week the focus changed to revealing and reviewing the mitzvoth that the people would need for nation building in the new land. The first mitzvoth discussed were destroying idolatry, keeping kosher, celebrating pilgrimage feasts in the national capital, and tithing assets. These practices were necessary for social cohesiveness. This week Moshe presents the mitzvoth to set up a judicial system, to appoint a king and the instructions about how to wage war. We’ve entered the arena of Torah political science. The courts obviously use the Torah for guidance on arriving at decisions. The remarkable and revolutionary breakthrough is that the king himself is subject and controlled by the Torah. He must even have a Torah with him at all times to demonstrate its jurisdiction over him. Here is constitutional monarchy 2500 years before Magna Carta made the first reluctant steps in that direction in the secular world.

The next ground-breaking innovation in our parsha was the concept of laws of war. Rules are presented for the purpose of putting a human face on the horrors of war. Specifically, we are instructed to refrain from total war by preserving the agricultural infrastructure of society (Deuteronomy 20:19), and we are commanded to always attempt negotiated settlement before commencing hostilities (20:9 & 10). However, for me the most interesting wrinkle to this section is the confidence that war is decided not by military power and prowess alone, but that our connection to God is crucial for the successful prosecution of hostilities.

This point of faith is clearly expressed in the verses, "When you go out to war against your enemies, and you see horse and chariot, a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord, your God is with you Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And it will be, when you approach the battle, that the kohen shall come near, and speak to the people. And he shall say to them, "Hear, O Israel, today you are approaching the battle against your enemies. Let your hearts not be faint…For the Lord, your God, is the One Who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you (20:1-4)." Our Sages add their reassurance. Based on the phrase 'Hear, O Israel' Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai comments that even if the Jews have only fulfilled the mitzvah of reciting Shma (Hear, O Israel) God will not allow them to handed over into the hands of their enemies (Talmud, Sotah 49a). The Torah Temimah (Reb Baruch Halevi Epstein, 1860-1941) explains that Rebbe Shimon was motivated by the fact that the rest of the verse is in the plural while the word Shma remains singular so that it must refer to the mitzvah of Shma. The main point is that our confidence and success is directly related to our spiritual strength rather than to military might. We have seen this in many conflicts that the military midget defeats the immense army (Viet Nam and Afghanistan are great recent examples.).

All of this is interesting, but doesn't reflect many centuries of Jewish history. From Bar Kochba (135 CE) until the 1940's there were no Jewish armies, even though there were significant Jewish soldiers. So, our clever Rabbis read these verses metaphorically. The war being discussed is our own internal battle against our yetzer hara. In other words the greatest struggle a person can wage is with oneself. The normal support for this position is that the verse about going out to war is written in the singular, so, that it must refer to the individual's conflict. The Kli Yakar (Reb Shlomo Ephraim Lunzhits, 1550-1619) is concerned about this approach. He mentions that he is uncomfortable with metaphorical interpretations, in general. Then he reveals his real concern. The main thrust of this section is that by remaining observant of the mitzvoth one will survive the war. This scenario is most evident in the book of Joshua (chapter 7) when fatalities at the battle of Ai were attributed to sin. The Kli Yakar's problem is everyone's problem; no one survives the war against the yetzer hara. We fight until we perish.

The Kli Yakar presents us with two ways to deal with this dilemma. First, I'll give his second answer. King David explains that he continued to fight the good fight for his house which would continue forever (Psalms 49:12). We do it for the future generations of Jews, the Jewish nation survives through our valor.

I'm more enamored of his first answer. Cain was already informed that life is a battle until we enter the grave (Genesis 4:6), but we can prevail. How? The answer is given by King Solomon (Proverbs chapter 9), that we live life with the knowledge that we shall perish and that knowledge encourages us to choose upright behavior. The death we're worried about isn't the physical death which awaits us all. It's the spiritual death which results from losing the battle with the yetzer hara. We say that the righteous are alive even in death while the wicked are dead even in life (Talmud Berachot 18a). Being oblivious to goodness is being dead. That lack of awareness is what we must struggle against from first breath to last.

This Torah reading appears every year on the first Shabbat in the month of Elul, the prelude to the High Holidays. It is appropriate to renew this battle at this time of heightened awareness of human frailty. This season isn't about resignation to a fate decided by God. Oh, no, it's about arming ourselves to engage the enemies; despair, insensitivity, and unawareness. Always remember what God told Cain, "You can prevail!" It's up to you. Have a great month, and listen for the shofar calling us to battle.