The Jew was getting ready to go on a hike. Weekly Torah portion “Ki Tetze”

Nahum Purer



The Ki Tetse section contains 74 commandments. Moshe tells us the only permitted way to marry a non-Jewish woman captured during the war. The first-born son receives a double share of the inheritance from his father, even if he was born from an unloved wife. "The violent and disobedient son must die." The body of the executed cannot be left on the gallows until tomorrow. Someone else's item must be returned to the owner, making every effort to find him. Men are prohibited from wearing women's clothing, and women are prohibited from wearing men's clothing. If you find a bird's nest on the road, release the hen before taking the chicks or eggs for yourself. The roof of the house should be surrounded by railings. It is prohibited to: sow a field with seeds of different crops, plow simultaneously with an ox and a donkey, wear fabrics made from a mixture of wool and flax (“shaatnez”).


Men's quadrangular clothing should have woven tassels of threads - tzitzit - at the corners. Laws on prohibited relations between the sexes are given. In a military camp, one must observe the rules of ritual purity. A runaway slave cannot be forcibly returned to his owner. Prostitution is strictly prohibited. You cannot charge a Jew interest on a loan. Oaths and vows should be avoided. The hired worker is allowed to eat the fruits during the harvest, but cannot take them with him.


The rules of divorce and remarriage are communicated. In the first year after the wedding, the young husband is exempt from military service. When lending money, do not take the debtor’s tools as collateral. Kidnapping is punishable by death. It is forbidden to remove signs of “tsaraat” (leprosy) from the body. Even if the loan is overdue, the creditor must return his security to the debtor before the evening if he needs the item. An employee's pay cannot be withheld. The relatives of the criminal do not bear punishment for him. Proselytes and widows enjoy special protection.


Unharvested crop residues from the fields should be left to the poor. The court may sentence a person to corporal punishment (no more than 39 strokes of a cane). “Don’t muzzle the bull when he’s threshing.” A childless widow must be married by her late husband's brother. The procedure for exemption from this obligation is described. Measures and weights must be “correct.” The section ends with the instruction to “erase the memory of Amalek.”

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“When you go out to war against your enemies, and God delivers them into your hand, and you take captives from them” (21:10).


The sages derive from this verse several rules of warfare.


General strategy


The first lesson is this. You cannot allow the enemy into your territory. Even if G‑d is on our side and we are promised ultimate victory, the enemy army will wreak death and destruction, inflicting heavy damage on us, if allowed to cross our border.


Therefore, we must take the initiative into our own hands and launch a preemptive strike against the enemy on his territory, or, in extreme cases, on no man’s land. In short, as they say in sports: The best defense is an attack.


The Israeli army convincingly proved the correctness of this thesis in 1967, during the Six Day War. When the threat from the Arabs reached its highest point, and it became clear that a military clash was inevitable, Israeli aircraft launched the first strike on Egyptian airfields, destroying almost all enemy aircraft and thereby ensuring a quick and brilliant victory in that war.


Neighbors are not enemies


Second important point. The Torah speaks of “thy enemies.” This definition does not apply to neighbors. If a conflict arises with neighbors, the best thing is to resolve it peacefully. Every effort must be made to restore the good neighborly relations that existed before the conflict.


The value of such relationships cannot be overstated. The Mishnah, tractate Pirkei Avot, says that a good neighbor is one of the four best assets to strive for.


The Jew is not an enemy, but a brother


Thirdly, the Torah talks about enemies, and Jews cannot be enemies of other Jews. The Second Book of Chronicles (“Divrei HaYamim”) describes the civil war between Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel (where the ten tribes that then disappeared lived). In the midst of this war, the prophet Oded spoke to the Israeli army with these words:


“Behold, the LORD, the God of your fathers, was angry with the inhabitants of Judah, and delivered them into your hands, and you smote them with a fury that reached to heaven. And now you are thinking of converting the sons of Judah and Jerusalem into your male and female slaves, but by doing so you are taking upon yourself guilt before the Lord. And now listen to me and bring back the captives...” (28:10-11).


The soldiers listened to the prophet: “And the men, called by name, arose and took captives, and clothed all the naked of them in clothing from the spoil, and clothed them, and put shoes on them, and fed them, and gave them drink, and anointed them with oil, and they carried all the weak on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren, and returned to Shomron” (28:15).


The conclusion is obvious. Jews do not take Jews captive and, of course, do not force captive Jewish women into cohabitation and do not marry them against their wishes.


Known Trap


From the above verse and further text we see that the Torah allows us to take a beautiful captive only when “God delivers them (enemies) into your hands,” i.e. when the fighting ended and complete victory was achieved.


In the midst of a war, while battles are ongoing, taking a prisoner is dangerous (not to mention the fact that soldiers must focus all their efforts and attention on the fighting, and not look around).


History provides many examples of women being used for espionage in similar situations. Anyone who brings a woman from the enemy camp during a war puts the entire army at risk. Suffice it to recall the harlot Rahab from the book of Yehoshua, who helped the spies Pinchas and Caleb, who penetrated unnoticed into Jericho before the capture of this city by Jewish regiments.


But there is no money


“Let not the Ammonites and Moabites enter into the assembly of God, and let not their tenth generation enter into the assembly of God forever, because they did not meet you with bread and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and for that they hired Balam against you... so that he would curse you” (23:4-5).


“I would be glad to help you, but, sorry, I just don’t have the money right now.” The reference to poverty and lack of money is one of the oldest excuses.


Why did the Torah find it necessary to give two reasons why Amon and Moab “will not enter into the assembly of G-d forever”? One was enough. After all, their hatred of the Jewish people who came from the desert was obvious in their very refusal to meet the strangers with bread and water. Thus, they showed black ingratitude towards the Jews. After all, if it were not for our forefather Abraham, there would be neither Ammonites nor Moabites in the world.


From the Torah we know that Abraham saved his nephew Lot from the perishing Sodom, from whom these two nations descended. Their hostile attitude towards the direct descendants of Abraham convincingly demonstrated their malicious disposition and black ingratitude.


After all, gratitude is one of the main distinguishing features of the Jewish people. The very word “Yehudi” (Jew) means “grateful.” Therefore, an ungrateful person will not be admitted “into the assembly of G‑d”; he can't become a Jew


But Amon and Moab could say in their defense: “Yes, we would gladly go to the Jews with loaves of bread and jugs of water, but where can we get enough money to feed and drink a couple of million travelers? Excuse me..."


The excuse is false. When they wanted to curse the Jews (see the “Balak” section in the book “Bemidbar”), and they hired the most greedy and expensive soothsayer Bilam for this purpose, there was plenty of money.


If you can afford the services of the greatest sorcerer of the era, then there will be money for bread and water for hungry travelers, no matter how many there are.