Shabbat Parashat Ki Teitzei - 5785

Shabbat Parashat Ki Teitzei - 5785

Rabbi Hal Miller

  When a camp goes out against your enemies you shall guard against anything evil. [Devarim 23:10]

It would seem that we should guard against anything evil at all times. Why does the Torah need to tell us specifically to guard when we are going out against our enemies? That should be obvious anyway. Torah Temimah asks from the Yerushalmi [2:6], "Does this mean that if he does not go out he does not need to guard?" The Yerushalmi  answers, "For the Satan prosecutes only at a time of peril." Rashi cites this Yerushalmi but he expands on it saying, "One must guard against evil at all times. The verse speaks of going out against the enemy in a time of war because at such times the Satan is particularly active and one must be especially careful." In other words, the Satan does not necessarily restrict his prosecutions only to times of peril, but he is more likely to take action against us then rather than at other times. Or as Torah Temimah answers, the Satan attacks with more vehemence at times of peril.

Our parsha is full of laws about evil and wickedness, all of which could lead one into danger. There must be something specific to war for the Torah to have mentioned the guarding in this context instead of some other similar place. Ramban answers that the danger here is not from the enemies, rather from ourselves. He explains that in war, sin is common. In war, people tend to pay less attention to morals and ethical laws. They eat abominations, they are cruel to enemy soldiers and civilians, they rob and commit other acts that they would consider heinous in times of peace. According to Ramban, our verse comes to warn us not to do these things. It isn't that we have to guard against others doing evil to us, rather we have to guard ourselves from doing evil on our own. Rav Hirsch concurs, saying "Despite being at war you are not to lose your self-control."

This perspective applies, of course, all the time, war or no war, and to all transgressions, major or minor. We are now in the month of Elul, leading up to the Day of Judgment. All the more reason for our parsha to remind us to guard ourselves from doing evil.