פרשה: כי תצא · עלייה: רביעי (נצח)

כי תצא מחנה על איביך, "When a camp goes out against your enemies, etc." The Torah means that although there are nuances of transgressions which G'd does not go out His way to punish you for, and even if He does decide to punish you the punishment is very mild, the Torah informs us that at a time when there is general danger, such as when one goes out to war, one needs to be careful not to become guilty of violating even the smallest detail of G'd's commandments, i.e. מכל דבר רע, "from anything which is evil." The word דבר includes even causes which bring about evil. The Torah follows this up with the example of a soldier who became ritually unclean due to an involuntary nocturnal seminal emission. Our sages in Ketuvot 46 explain that sexual fantasies one has during the day often are the cause of such emissions during one's sleep. The reason the Torah wrote these two veרses next to one another is to warn us not to entertain such fantasies during the day so that we would not become defiled during the night.

לנכרי תשיך ולאחיך לא תשיך. "You may pay interest to a Gentile but you must not pay interest to your brother (the Jew)." Why did the Torah repeat here once more that we must not pay interest to a Jew when this had already been stated in verse 20? Our sages in Baba Metzia 75 say that the repetition is to teach that anyone doing this is guilty of the violation of two separate negative commandments. Perhaps the Torah meant here that although the interest you give to your fellow Jew ultimately goes to the Gentile, this is prohibited when the go-between is a Jew and the Jew does not know the Gentile in question either through having borrowed from him or through holding some kind of collateral belonging to the Gentile in question. This is also the halachah.

There is also an allusion here to a subject debated by the codifiers and later authorities in Yoreh Deyah 159. Some authorities, including Rabbi Joseph Karo, hold that extending loans to pagans is permitted only when the Jew finds it difficult to make a living without doing this even though there is general agreement that the Torah has permitted the practice. The wording לנכרי תשיך may be understood as "you may extend loans with interest to Gentiles, provided that as a result of this permission you will not ultimately charge interest on loans to Jews."

והיה בך חטא. "and you will be guilty of a sin." We can understand this in accordance with the Talmudic statement in Shabbat 32 that failure to honour one's vows may result in the death of one's wife or children while they are still minors." The word חטא means that something is lacking, missing [such as to miss a target להחטיא. Ed.]. Looked at from this perspective, failure to pay one's vows results in one's being deprived of something else which is his, such as the wife whom our sages describe as אשתו כגופו, "a person's wife is like his own body." One has a tendency to look upon one's minor children as one's property. The appropriate punishment for people who do not honour their vows to G'd then is to remind them by depriving them of something else they hold dear.

וכי תחדל לנדר לא יהיה בך חטא. "If you refrain from making vows this will not be considered as a sin for you." This can also be understood in light of a statement in Gittin 7 that "if a person experiences that his income is barely sufficient he should give some away as charity. If he has ample income he must certainly be charitable." In addition to this the Talmud states in Ketuvoth 66 that "if one wants to "salt away" one's money he will find that it decreases." It is a psychological truth that inasmuch as man is very fond of his money he is loath to part with it. A person may wish to counteract his natural tendency to hang on to his money by making a vow to G'd so as to obligate himself against his avaricious nature to give some of his money away for a worthy cause. This is why the Torah has to warn us that the consequences of not living up to the promises one has made in the form of a vow may be devastating.

Concerning paying a vow late the Torah says that the party guilty of this is guilty of a sin, i.e. he may experience being deprived of someone his is fond of. Concerning people who fail to give charity the Torah says וכי תחדל לנדר, that even if the failure to make vows may result in your not donating to charity and this in turn may result in your own money-supply diminishing in worth or amount, at least you will not suffer the additional disaster of losing someone dear to you, such as when והיה בך חטא applies to you..

מוצא שפתיך תשמר, "You shall carry out what you have promised with your lips." The Torah suggests that you should wait before making a vow, a promise, until you are in a position to honour it forthwith. In that event it is perfectly acceptable for you to make vows. This is why the Torah writes immediately adjoining ועשית כאשר נדרת, "and you will do in accordance with what you have vowed." The famous teacher of the Mishnah Hillel conducted himself according to this principle by not designating the lamb he would offer as a passover offering as such until he had reached the Temple yard where it was to be slaughtered (compare Pessachim 86).

Another meaning of our verse may be this: the words מוצא שפתיך תשמר mean that you should be very careful before you say anything (as it may be in the nature of a commitment). If, however, you did say something, treat it as if it were as sacred as a vow, i.e. כאשר נדרת לשם אלוקיך נדבה, "as if you had made a sacred vow to the Lord your G'd, instead of merely a voluntary gift of a secular nature." The Torah uses the expression נדבה to indicate the generous frame of mind you were in when you made this promise. We know that this is the general meaning of the word נדבה from Exodus 25,20: "which he donates in his heart," or Exodus 35,21: "which his spirit had donated."

אשר דברת בפיך, "as you have said with your mouth." We may understand this in light of Zohar volume three page 294 commenting on Kohelet 10,20: "for a bird of the sky may carry the sound, etc." When a man merely entertains some thoughts, his lips already move without his being aware of this. This is what the Torah alludes to with the words: "which you uttered with your mouth." If the meaning were not what the Zohar suggested what point is there in the Torah adding the word: "with your mouth?" Who does not know that one speaks with one's mouth? Our sages in Rosh Hashanah 6 interpret our verse in a different manner. After all, there are 70 legitimate ways of interpreting the written Torah.