Parasha: Shoftim · Aliyah: Sixth (Yesod)

כי תקרב אל עיר, "When you approach a city, etc." Perhaps this paragraph alludes to something that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said in Zohar volume 2 page 62 that G'd sends man an additional soul to guide him on the right path and to save him from committing sins against Him. In our paragraph we may perceive G'd as addressing this additional soul telling it: "when you approach a city," i.e. the body of the human being whom you will inhabit which is kown as עיר. We know from Zohar Chadash Ruth page 97 on the verse in Kohelet 9,14: עיר קטנה ואנשים בה מעט, "there is a small city with few inhabitants," that the city Solomon speaks of is the human body. This additional soul may be the "miracle" needed to protect the Jewish soldier at the time he goes into battle as it helps stop him from committing sins which could result in his violent death in war.

The Torah was careful to write עליה, which here needs to be translated as "on her account." The idea is that this soul is intended to save the body from the evil urge; it is in line with the verse in Kohelet 9,14 which continues ובא אליה מלך גדול, (the small city) "against which a great king comes and lays siege to it, An insignificant looking wise man saves that small city from the onslaught of the great king using his wisdom" (compare Nedarim 32).

וקראת אליה לשלום, "and you call out to her: 'peace'." The meaning is that you do not immediately wade into the den of iniquity (your evil urge) and try to conquer it in one single frontal assault; rather you first suggest that it also give heaven its due, as a result of which it will experience great benefits. As a result the evil urge will allow that man has a duty also vis-a-vis heaven. After all, secular activities such as eating and drinking in this life also enable man to perform his spiritual tasks better. As a result of this accomodation with the evil urge one assures oneself of not losing one's hereafter altogether.

והיה אם שלום, It will be if "peace," etc. The word והיה as usual, refers to something joyful; here too, if your approach to the evil urge is in the manner we have just described so that you have opened the door a crack to spiritually positive values, G'd in His turn will open this door wide, i.e. והיה כל העם הנמצא בה, so that it embraces all the "people" i.e. the 248 bones and 365 sinews which man's body is constructed of and they will all become subservient to the soul (instead of to the evil urge). The body will then perform both the positive commandments and refrain from violating the negative commandments. ועבדוך, "and they will serve you," i.e. like a slave who is afraid of his master and will neither deviate to the left nor to the right.

-15. ואם לא תשלים, "If she is not prepared to surrender peacefully," If the "city" does not accept the soul's proposal to allow heaven its due, or that even after man began to become a penitent he slid back into sin, then you have to make all out war against the city, i.e. the evil urge. The words ועשתה עמך מלחמה, refer to the body, i.e. the evil urge making war against you. We know that once an attempt to become a בעל תשובה fails, the chances are that the forces of evil will redouble their efforts against any religious instincts a person has. [We have a phenomenon in Israel called חוזר בשאלה. These are persons who used to be very pious but have left the fold. They are not neutral in their attitude as a result of having abandoned the Jewish tradition but become virulently anti religious seeking every opportunity to besmirch our tradition and the people who observe it. Ed.] The author describes a similar process taking place within the personality of the Jew described in our verse. We have learned in Berachot 5 that as a matter of principle one's good urge should be in a constant state of confrontation with one's evil urge. This means that one should deny oneself things which are permitted, should observe private fasts, and even flagellate oneself, all in order to weaken the power of the evil urge. This is why the Torah adds והכית כל זכורה, this will enable you to vanquish all its males, i.e. the forces of Samael and his armies.

לפי חרב, "by the sword." In our context these words may be understood as analogous to Psalms 149,6: רוממות קל בגרונם וחרב פיפיות בידם, "when they have songs of praise to G'd in their throats this is equal to having two-edged swords in their hands."

רק הנשים והטף, "Only the women and the children, etc." The word נשים refers to the נפש ורוח, both of which are called "women" in comparison to the higher soul known as נשמה. The word הטף refers to the commandments and good deeds a person has performed (and which are considered his children) prior to his becoming despised by G'd as a sinner. In the case of a wicked person, G'd says of him (Psalms 50,57: "concerning the wicked G'd said: 'who are you to recite my laws?'" When a person turns penitent, these good deeds he had performed (while an active sinner) are accounted for him as merits. We also have a statement in Yuma 86 according to which even inadvertently committed sins will be accounted as merits after a person becomes a בעל תשובה. All of these are subsumed under the heading טף, "children."

והבהמה וכל אשר בעיר תבוז לך, "and the beasts and all that is in the city you may plunder for yourself;" the word "beasts" refers to the animalistic desires a person suffers from, his love for everything sensual and material. A true בעל תשובה will be able to put all these urges and desires to use in his efforts to serve the Lord.

כן תעשה לבל הערים הרחוקות, "So you shall do to all the cities which are distant, etc." All the commandments mentioned in this paragraph have been given only to the "cities," i.e. the bodies which have become distant from G'd. We know from Isaiah 57,19 that G'd offers peace to the near and the far. The "far" are the sinners. He has become distant from his holy source, the שכינה from where all holy souls originate. However, מערי העמים האלה, "from any city of these nations" (Canaanites) cities of the Gentiles, which never had contact with sanctity and which had left its source due to its many sins, such a city has no hope of returning to a sanctity it had never possessed in the first place. This is why the Torah mentions אשר לא מערי הגוים, that all the Torah's exhortation to return to the fold is addressed only to the Jew. Others, such as the cities of the seven Canaanite nations, have to be annihilated completely. Moses made the mistake in accepting as proselytes the mixed multitude which he took out of Egypt with the Jewish people (Shemot Rabbah 42,6). G'd had told him in Exodus 7,4: "I will take out My hosts, My people," meaning that He would only redeem the Israelites who had holy roots. The root of these people was evil and they would not fit into a holy society. When Moses "revived" them he did not revive their נשמה as they never had a נשמה in the first place which he could have revived.