Musar for Kiddushin 42:24

"The Torah permitted the marriage with the אשת יפת תואר only in order to help the soldier in question cope with his evil urge." There are many things which have been permitted: Not because they are objectively permissible, i.e. desirable for us to enjoy, but because, were the Torah to forbid these things altogether, we might well become guilty of far greater transgressions. For example: it is better to eat an animal which has first been slaughtered though the blade of the knife may have been nicked, than to eat an animal which has died without the benefit of ritual slaughter altogether. Anyone who has some common sense will appreciate that just because the Torah appears to have made a concession to the fact that we are not angels and suffer from an evil urge, this is no reason to avail ourselves of any or all of these "concessions" to our moral weakness. The latter principle is known as קדש עצמך במותר לך, "demonstrate your attempt to sanctify yourself by abstaining from matter which is technically permissible."

"The Torah permitted the marriage with the אשת יפת תואר only in order to help the soldier in question cope with his evil urge." There are many things which have been permitted: Not because they are objectively permissible, i.e. desirable for us to enjoy, but because, were the Torah to forbid these things altogether, we might well become guilty of far greater transgressions. For example: it is better to eat an animal which has first been slaughtered though the blade of the knife may have been nicked, than to eat an animal which has died without the benefit of ritual slaughter altogether. Anyone who has some common sense will appreciate that just because the Torah appears to have made a concession to the fact that we are not angels and suffer from an evil urge, this is no reason to avail ourselves of any or all of these "concessions" to our moral weakness. The latter principle is known as קדש עצמך במותר לך, "demonstrate your attempt to sanctify yourself by abstaining from matter which is technically permissible."

There are two kinds of harlots: One is the above mentioned Lilith, who is always associated with wailings and is the power in charge of of melancholy. The other is Machalat who is in charge of the superficial kind of happiness, i.e. dancing, music and generally light-hearted irresponsible conduct inspired by the forces of impurity. Machalat is the mystical dimension of the יפת תואר, the good looking prisoner of war described at the beginning of our פרשה, whose exterior has so captivated a Jewish soldier that he is bent on spending a lifetime with her. The only reason that the Torah gives its reluctant consent to such a marriage is כנגד יצר הרע, as an antidote to the evil urge. The Torah fears that unless a way is found to permit the soldier to live with such a woman under strictly regulated conditions, he would live with her anyway without benefit of marriage. It is not surprising therefore that the children from such a union should fit the category of בנים זרים, alien children, which we have described earlier. This is clearly alluded to by the fact that the Torah's example of a בן סורר ומורה, a rebellious son, is written immediately before the passage dealing with the case of a sinner whose execution results in the posthumous hanging of his body (21,22).

It is well known that in order to rehabilitate oneself spiritually one must exercise תשובה, תפלה וצדקה, repentance, prayer and the performance of charitable deeds. All of these three factors of man's rehabilitation depend on his mouth. Prayer and the reciting of G–d's praises are, of course, functions of the mouth. We know that repentance has to include verbalizing one's confession and one's resolution not to sin again. The Torah in 30,14 mentions that Torah is easy of access, i.e. בפיך ובלבבך לעשות. Rabbi Yitzchak says (Eruvin 54) that the Torah is easy to fulfill, לעשות, once one has repented both by mouth and in one's heart. Confession of one's sins with a broken heart is the principal ingredient of repentance. Charity, too, involves the mouth. Our sages (Baba Batra 9b) say that anyone who gives charity acquires six blessings; if someone also tries to make the recipient feel better by kind and encouraging words he will qualify for eleven blessings. Interestingly enough we have three words which symbolize three aspects of repentance, i.e. צום, קול, ממון, each one of which has a numerical value of 136. This suggests that all three aspects of תשובה are of equal importance. Stated differently, תשובה, צדקה, and תפלה equal קול. The very first part of our פרשה alludes to all the three ingredients of repentance. The Torah speaks about going to war, the plain meaning of which refers, of course, to actual warfare and battles with the enemy. Over and beyond this, however, the paragraph refers to the ongoing battle between man and his evil urge. Many of our commentators are at pains to point this out in their commentary on the relevant section in פרשת שופטים when they comment on the verse discussing the siege laid to a city (20,19). In actual fact, the war with his evil urge is the greatest battle man has to fight in this life. The matter is illustrated in the Talmud by the story of the elderly sage who met soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great at the time of his victorious return from a major battle. These soldiers were in a very exuberant frame of mind. The sage, while he congratulated them on their victory, pointed out that the victory they had won was minor, and that they had to get ready for the battle of their lives against the evil urge. This is what the sages meant when they described the whole paragraph of the יפת תואר as an illustration of man's ongoing battle against his baser instincts (Kidushin 21). By extending this allegory a little further we may come to understand the whole reason why a מלחמת רשות, a war which is expansionary, is allowed: We are always permitted to conduct aggressive action against our evil urges. We can be sure of G–d's ongoing support in that undertaking once we make the first move in the struggle against the evil urge. Our sages point out that we would be unable to subdue the יצר הרע without G–d's active assistance, but that we have G–d's promise: ונתנו בידו, "He will deliver him (the evil urge) into your hand" (21,10). It is significant that the Torah here employs the singular whereas in פרשת שופטים it speaks in the plural (20,2—20,3--20,4). This may be a reminder that the fight against the evil urge can only be fought on a person-to-person basis. We have a tradition that a nation neither succumbs to another nation nor to the Jewish people unless its protective spirit in the Celestial Regions had first suffered defeat. We have pointed out examples of this such as Israel observing "Egypt" instead of "Egyptians" "dead on the beaches of the sea" (Exodus 14,30). We learn from all this that our enemy (the evil urge), assumes many guises, i.e. attacks us in the plural, and this is why the Torah always describes our enemy in the plural (אויביכם, אל תערצו מפניהם). We have to battle all these manifold "enemies" because each transgression we commit creates a negative force in the world which comes back to haunt us. All of these negative forces created by our very selves are presided over and directed against us by Samael/Satan/Angel of Death, etc. The Torah describes victory over this multifaceted but essentially single force with the words: ונתנו ה' אלוקיך בידך ושבית שביו, "The Lord your G–d will deliver him into your hand and you will take him captive." Taking this enemy prisoner is possible only with the help of Torah study and מצוה observance. David describes this victory over the evil works in Psalms 68,19: He speaks about: עלית למרום שבית שבי, "You went up to the heights, having taken captives."