Freeing the Captives
The Deeper Meaning of Holy War
According to our holy Torah, certain men are not supposed to fight in war (Devarim 20:8): מִי־הָאִישׁ הַיָּרֵא וְרַךְ הַלֵּבָב יֵלֵךְ וְיָשֹׁב לְבֵיתוֹ וְלֹא יִמַּס אֶת־לְבַב אֶחָיו כִּלְבָבוֹ (Whoever is afraid or fainthearted, he should leave and return to his house and let him not melt the heart of his brothers, like his own heart). Fear and faintheartedness exempt a man from war, for they spread like a contagion, demoralizing the entire army.
The Mishnah (Sotah 44a) offers two explanations for such fear. R' Akiva explains that it refers to one afraid of the battle itself: כמשמעו שאינו יכול לעמוד בקשרי המלחמה ולראות חרב שלופה (Plainly, he cannot stand in the ranks of battle and see a drawn sword). R' Yosi ha-G'lili reads it differently: זהו המתיירא מן העבירות שבידו (This is someone who fears his own transgressions). He even includes Rabbinic violations (Sotah 44b): כמאן אזלא הא דתניא? שח בין תפילה לתפילה עבירה היא בידו, וחוזר עליה מעורכי המלחמה. כמאן כרבי יוסי הגלילי (Whom does this Baraita follow? One who speaks between [arm] tefillin and [head] tefillin has transgressed, and he returns on account of it from the battle ranks. According to whom? R' Yosi ha-G’lili).
This is not just theoretical; it impacts halachah. When codifying the halachot relating to Yishtabach—the blessing that closes Pesukei d'Zimra—the Shulchan Aruch states (O.C. 54:3): המספר בין ישתבח ליוצר עבירה היא בידו וחוזר עליה מעורכי המלחמה (One who speaks between Yishtabach and Yotzer has committed a transgression, and he returns on account of it from those arranging the battle). This clearly follows R' Yosi ha-G'lili who rules that one must not fight in war if he has violated even a Rabbinic mitzvah.
Therefore, how are we to understand the opening words in Ki Teitzei? It is written (Devarim 21:10-11): כִּי־תֵצֵא לַמִּלְחָמָה עַל־אֹיְבֶיךָ וּנְתָנוֹ יְיָ אֱלֹקֶיךָ בְּיָדֶךָ וְשָׁבִיתָ שִׁבְיוֹ׃ וְרָאִיתָ בַּשִּׁבְיָה אֵשֶׁת יְפַת־תֹּאַר וְחָשַׁקְתָּ בָהּ וְלָקַחְתָּ לְךָ לְאִשָּׁה (For when you go out to the battle against your enemies, and Hashem your G-d gives it into your hand, and you take captive his captive, and you see in the captivity, a woman of beautiful appearance, and you desire her, and you take a wife for yourself). Since the Torah requires that Jewish soldiers be holy and free of sin, only tzaddikim went out to war. Such men would not have even looked at foreign women, much less lusted after them. How, then, are we to understand the Torah’s words about a soldier desiring a non-Jewish woman?
Rashi frames it this way: לֹא דִּבְּרָה תוֹרָה אֶלָּא כְּנֶגֶד יֵצֶר הָרַע שֶׁאִם אֵין הַקָּבָּ״ה מַתִּירָהּ יִשָּׂאֶנָּה בְאִסּוּר אֲבָל אִם נְשָׂאָהּ סוֹפוֹ לִהְיוֹת שׂוֹנְאָהּ (The Torah spoke only because of the Yetzer ha-Ra, for if Ha-Kadosh, baruch Hu, would not permit her, he would marry her in a forbidden manner, but if he marries her, in the end, he will come to hate her). The Torah is not giving us an ideal pathway but a concession to weakness. Hashem permits the captive woman in order to prevent worse sin, yet the result will be hatred and strife. Rashi highlights a moral-psychological truth: yielding to the Yetzer ha-Ra turns love into hatred. And even tzaddikim, though free of sin, can still struggle in moments of weakness.
The B'nei Yissaschar, R' Tzvi Elimelech Shapira of Dinov, in his classic sefer on the Torah—Agra d'Kallah—reads these verses on the sod level, uncovering deeper hints.
The first thing he notes is the wording כִּי־תֵצֵא לַמִּלְחָמָה (When you go out to the battle). Why not just כִּי־תֵלֵךְ לַמִּלְחָמָה (When you go to the battle)? Why 'go out' instead of simply 'go'? The Torah is hinting at a deeper truth, that when a man goes out from learning Torah, he is earmarked for war by his enemies, his accusers and adversaries. However, if he stays focused on learning Torah, then his enemies fall before him (Berachot 7b).
Since this deeper truth relates to spiritual warfare, the Agra turns to define the true enemy. Individually, it refers to those who accuse and oppose tzaddikim, but cosmically, it is far more encompassing. Initially, the pasuk refers to these spiritual forces in the plural—אֹיְבֶיךָ (your enemies)—but immediately afterward, it refers to them in the singular—וּנְתָנוֹ (and He shall give it). What is the enemy that is, at the same time, both one and many? The Agra explains that the warfare is נגד הקליפות והמקטריגים ללחום נגדם ליקח מה שבידם, היינו ניצוצין הטמונים בתוכם בכל שיעור קומת הסט״א, ונתנו י״י אלקיך ביד״ך היינו ביו״ד שלך, היינו בשיעור קומה שלך (against the klipot and the accusers, to war against them, to take what is in their hand, i.e., the [holy] sparks hidden within them, throughout the entire stature of the Sitra Achra [i.e., the entire array of sefirot on the side of tumah], 'And Hashem your G-d will give it into your hand [yad],' that is, 'into your yud [gematria = 10], i.e., into your full stature). In other words, Hashem delivers the entire tenfold structure of the Sitra Achra into the parallel ten sefirot of the Jewish soul, so the tzaddik can subjugate evil and rescue the sparks of kedushah trapped within.
Now we come to וְשָׁבִיתָ שִׁבְיוֹ (and you shall take captive his captive). The Agra explains: היינו שתשבה אתה השב״י שלו שהיה שבוי בתוכו היינו הניצוצין. It is not merely ‘the captivity’ [השב״י] in the plain sense, but the cosmic Captive itself. And who is that? The Shechinah, binding together the sparks of kedushah caught in the Sitra Achra’s tenfold stature—alluded to by the י [gematria = 10] of השב״י. The tzaddik does not capture the Sitra Achra itself, but rather reclaims what it had captured—the holy sparks imprisoned within.
What does the tzaddik see that begins this rescue mission? The pasuk says: וְרָאִיתָ בַּשִּׁבְיָה אֵשֶׁת יְפַת־תֹּאַר וְחָשַׁקְתָּ בָהּ (and you see in the captivity a woman of beautiful appearance, and you desire her). Why add the word בַּשִּׁבְיָה—in captivity? We already know she is a captive. The extra word reveals that the tzaddik sees not her outward form at all, but the spark of kedushah trapped within her. That is what draws him. He is not looking at her beauty—if he is a true tzaddik, he does not look at her at all—but he senses a Divine force pulling him, for she carries within her the Shechinah-in-exile, and only he can release it.
This understanding is reinforced by the words אֵשֶׁת יְפַת־תֹּאַר (a woman of beautiful appearance). The Agra notes the unusual phrasing: had the Torah meant to describe the woman herself as beautiful, it should have said אִשָּׁה יְפַת־תֹּאַר with 'woman' in the absolute form. Instead, by using the construct form אֵשֶׁת, it hints that her beauty is not her own but borrowed, drawn from another source—the yefat to’ar, the true beautiful form. Her body is merely a shell, a klipah, whose attractiveness comes only from the spark of kedushah within her, the exiled Shechinah. Thus, when the Torah speaks of a soldier desiring this woman, it is no license for lust, but a call to rescue the holy sparks trapped within her. Jewish war, in its essence, is holy war—its purpose is to liberate a single, unique captive: the Shechinah-in-exile.
This becomes even clearer from how the pasuk describes the desire that he has for her—וְחָשַׁקְתָּ בָהּ (and you desire her). If the Torah just wanted to describe his desire for the woman, it should have said וְחָשַׁקְתָּ אוֹתָהּ—'and you shall desire her'—not וְחָשַׁקְתָּ בָהּ—which can also mean 'and you shall desire in her.' The desire is not for her body (אוֹתָהּ) but for what is in her (בָהּ)—the Shechinah-in-exile, the true yefat to’ar.
In conclusion, how can we apply this concept to our own lives? What's the practical point, our avodah, in all of this? Our work is not in the easy things, but precisely where tumah meets kedushah. We may not be on the level of the tzaddikim, able to extract sparks of kedushah from a beautiful non-Jewish woman in the midst of war—and do so without sinning—but our avodah is essentially the same. Whether the pull is toward non-kosher food, a forbidden relationship, or any other issur of the Torah, the root is one: a spark of kedushah is trapped there, awaiting release. And we release it not by indulging desire but by restraining it—by sanctifying ourselves and keeping distant from what the Torah forbids.
In that moment of restraint, the hidden light rises, the Shechinah is uplifted, and we taste the true victory of holy war.
