Ki Seitzei
כי תצא למלחמה על אויבך ונתנו ה' אלקיך בידך ושבית שביו. וראית בשביה אשת יפת תאר וחשקת בה ולקחת לך לאשה. והבאתה אל תוך ביתך וגלחה את ראשה ועשתה את צפרניה. והסירה את שמלת שביה מעליה וישבה בביתך ובכתה את אביה ואת אמה ירח ימים ואחר כן תבוא אליה ובעלתה והיתה לך לאשה (כא, י-יג).
When you shall go out to war against your enemy and Hashem your G-d shall deliver it into your hand and you shall capture its captivity. If you see amongst the captives a woman of beautiful form and you shall desire her to take her as a wife. You shall bring her into your house and she shall shave her head and remove her nails. And she shall remove her garment from captivity from upon herself and sit in your house and weep for her father and mother for a month; subsequently, you shall come to her and be intimate with her and she shall be a wife unto you.
In order to explain the inner message of this passage, let us turn to another verse, in the Book of Shoftim. In its description of Yael’s surreptitious murder of Sisera after seducing him in order to drain him of his energy, the text describes: ידה ליתד תשלחנה, she sent forth her hand to the peg,* driving it into his forehead. The Talmud** identifies the “hand” mentioned as her left one. What is the significance of this? And why a peg of all items?
Speaking of pegs, one appears in our sidra: ויד תהיה לך מחוץ למחנה וגו' ויתד תהיה לך על אזנך וגו', you shall have a place outside of the camp [designated for relieving oneself]… and you shall have a peg amongst your gear [with which to facilitate digging a hole]. What is the significance of this mitzvah for us?
Let us return to Yael. Her heroically unconventional deed became the template for a unique category of religious accomplishment. As the Talmud says, גדולה עבירה לשמה ממצוה שלא לשמה, Greater is a sin performed for the right reason than a mitzvah performed for the wrong reason***. Clearly, this opens a Pandora’s box, providing the pitfall of people talking themselves into sinning for lofty goals.
The solution lies in a detail that the Sages fill in about the Yael incident. As it was obvious to them that her deed could not be as commendable as it is had she derived any personal pleasure from it, they posit that she suffered the indignity of spiritual pollution through her union with Sisera. Thus, a caveat emerges. A noble sin is only justifiable if the actor is personally pained and shamed through it, setting aside these detriments for the greater good that will emerge from it. Thus, without a net personal gain, one is unlikely to be duped into engaging in deviant behavior unjustifiably.
I would suggest that it is to this concept that the passage of the restroom and the peg alludes to. ויד תהיה לך מחוץ למחנה ויצאת שמה חוץ, at times one needs to “leave the camp,” i.e., the boundaries of normative halachic behavior. How does one ascertain that he is justified in doing so? ויתד תהיה לך על אזנך, he must have a firm peg-like principle in his arsenal against his Evil Inclination: והיה בשבתך חוץ, when necessary to determine if he should exit the bounds of holiness, וחפרת, if he is embarrassed by the deed, yet feels compelled to perform it for the greater good, then it is permissible, ושבת וכסית את צאתך, and one can “cover up the exit,” for, when done right, it surpasses conventional mitzvos.
Now the aforementioned description of Yael is understandable. ידה, she felt a need to engage in “left-handed,” i.e., sinful, activity. (The left is often a symbol of the negative.) Yet, she hesitated out of concern that she was misguided. As such, ליתד תשלחנה, she turned to the “peg-like” principle provided by the Torah in this area. As she knew that she would derive no pleasure from the encounter, nay she would suffer from it, she was able to determine that it was the right choice.
With this background, we can return to the opening of our sidra. כי תצא למלחמה על אויבך, when you exit the boundaries of normative behavior for the greater good, waging a special mission against the forces of Evil, ונתנו ה' אלקיך בידך ושבית שביו, the strategic goal lying deep within enemy territory. וראית בשביה אשת יפת תאר, You then identify that goal, וחשקת בה, and it is that goal that is your objective, not the collateral, personal pleasure. As the Sages**** expound this phrase, וחשקת בה – ולא בחברתה, You shall long for her – and not her friend. The salient point here is that one must be completely honest with himself about his true goal. If one follows these instructions, ולקחת לך לאשה, then, as the Talmud***** puts it: ליקוחין יש לך בה, your marriage of her will take effect; your antinomian act will be of religious significance. והבאתה אל תוך ביתך, you will have brought the sinful act into the realm of sanctity. To sharpen the allusion: the תוך, interior, of the word ביתך is the pair of יו"ד and תי"ו, which have the numerical equivalent of 410, the same as קדו"ש, holy.
One must be wary, though, of imagining that the actual sin can be elevated to holiness. This is a fallacy; rather, the lofty accomplishment must be discerned from the sinful circumstances that allowed it. As my mentor, the Besht, put it: one must make Havdalah between the light and darkness in play, which allows the light to be ever brighter. This is expressed in our passage as the shaving of the captive’s head and the removal of her hair and garments. The weeping done over her parents is symbolic of the personal pain that the actor must feel. Once that is done, ובעלתה והיתה לך לאשה, one can assimilate the good that exists within the experience.
On a different note, in these verses we see that the process of assimilating the Yefas To’ar is threefold: a change in location (והבאתה אל תוך ביתך); a change in activity (והסירה את שמלת שביה); and a change in title and function (והיתה לך לאשה). These parallel three of the steps outlined by the Rambam as natural for a penitent.******
Being that, as the Rambam writes*******, the blowing of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah is meant as an impetus to repentance, I would suggest that the above three is the latent meaning of the number of shofar blasts. As the mishnah states,******** they consist of “three sets of three.” This is derived********* from an exegetical equation of the shofars of Rosh HaShanah and Yovel. As my mentor, the Besht, taught, such a derivation is not a mere technicality; it signals that the two subjects share a common essence. Yovel is all about redemption and restoration: slaves are released and property is returned to its original owner. Similarly, the repentance that the shofar of Rosh HaShanah seeks to inspire is intended as a catalyst for the ultimate redemption of the Jewish People from its exile. As the Yerushalmi famously quoted by Tosafos********** says, the shofar confounds Satan from prosecuting as he confuses it for the great shofar of Moshiach. ***********
Now, there are three cosmic instances of exile: that of the Shechinah (Divine Presence); that of the soul; and that of Israel. Each of these can manifest itself in the above three manners. It is this sequence that the shofar of Rosh HaShanah alludes to, with the hope that it’s sound will set into motion the process of undoing these exiles.
The first of these manifestations, as mentioned, is the geographic one, the penitent leaving his environment for another. The Shechinah endured this with the destruction of the Temple, forced to leave its abode at the edge of Heaven. The soul endures as such, leaving the tranquility of the ethereal realm for a hostile, material one. And Israel, of course, was ejected from its homeland and forced to wander the Earth.
The second is changing one’s garb. The Shechinah must adopt the ugly cloths of its host nations, i.e., it must perform its function of funneling the cosmic energy while trapped within the culture that the Jewish People finds itself hosted in, bolstering its prosperity. The soul must adopt the guise of a physical body. And Israel is influenced to “dress in,” i.e., adopt, the oft-detrimental habits of its host nation.
The third is the changing of one’s name, representative of a change in one’s identity, his essence. (The Besht claimed that the identification of the soul with one’s name can be demonstrated through that which a person will awaken to the call of his name – it literally summons the soul back into the body.) The common essential function of the Shechinah, the soul, and Israel is the channeling of the Divine energy into our world. Through sin, all three are driven from their proper places, depriving them of functioning properly and leaving the world with but a semblance of its typical spiritual diet.
Through the repentance inspired by the shofar blasts – in units of three-by-three, corresponding to the above – the process of redemption can be realized, restoring each exile to its proper location, attire, and function.
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* 5:26. ** Menachos 36b. *** Nazir 23b. **** Kiddushin 22a. ***** Ibid.****** Hilchos Teshuvah 2:4. ******* Ibid., 3:4. ******** Rosh HaShanah 4:9. ********* Ibid., 34a. ********** Ibid., 16b. *********** This theme has a precedent in the Exodus. The Children of Israel were redeemed from Egypt “םישמח, armed,” which contains an allusion to the number fifty. Yovel is the fiftieth year of the Sabbatical cycle. The number is associated with the Attribute of Binah, understanding (“Fifty Gates of Understanding”), which, in Kabbalistic literature, is the source of repentance.