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Confronting The Challenging Law of Eshet Yefat Toar | Rabbi Neil Winkler | January 1st 2026
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
We're beginning with a
a sh that is uh a specific mitzvah and
as we're going through the mitzvah of
and we've gone through already about
five six weeks of shimm of whether it is
the introduction to the sim whether it
is the timing of that first uh few few
chapters or the uh asser
or the other sections each of them were
really by themselves independently
something we had gone into. So before we
close the um other details about um
safer varium and believe me there are
many others I I can't do the whole thing
I could but I don't want to uh uh we but
I want to go through what may be what
many feel is a very difficult mitzvah
now I will call it a mitzvah
uh of what we call in Hebrew the a theet
yafatra
aset get your fat Torah means simply a
beautiful woman. That isn't the problem
by the way. A beautiful woman isn't
problem. The problem is that the mitzvah
itself talks about during time of war if
a um an Israelite who's fighting in the
war goes to the enemy and he sees a
beautiful woman and wants to uh to have
her and how he can what he must do to do
to do so. And certainly in the uh year I
remember we used to say the 20th century
21st century uh it's a difficult story
to have people understand.
Um
I'm I often tell people that although
because I should say because the Torah
is eternal it doesn't only mean that it
applies for today. Certainly it does.
But it had to apply also for the first
2,000 years before we got better yet 3
and a half thousand years that we had to
get to society as it is now. There were
societies before us and the Torah had to
also deal with that time. The miraculous
divine concept uh thou Torah is that
indeed it was timely then also it is as
I want to say a book that is timely
and untimely it's always good. I'm going
to give uh uh to give out now the uh
[clears throat]
source sheets
and let's see
which ones are nicer than the other
ones. No,
there we are. I just
because you're nice, I'll give you the
ones that are stapled together so they
don't fall before
also because that's the only ones that I
have. Uh anyway, uh let me give you the
the uh source sheets and I tell you uh
don't be surprised if this will take us
a little longer than this one she Okay.
Especially because I talk too much here.
Two.
Okay.
Oh, I got an extra one.
Yeah. And eeny meeny miny mo. What's the
last one? That was the hardest one to
get here. Okay.
>> Thank you. All right. Some of you may
actually have four pages. Others who
uh may have just two pages and they'll
have two sides because I was wise enough
to finally get a two-sidedly done. But
but anyway, it's just basically four
sides, shall I say, that we will be
having.
Let me begin.
The truth is, as I told you, that it it
is a quote unquote problematic mitzvah.
It's not something that we would expect
in to have in the Torah. The concept of
taking a woman who is a P bad rather and
taking her.
So, let's begin with what the Torah
says. And as you know, we've been doing
here for years. I have a rather unique
approach of actually looking at the text
and finding out that the text isn't
always what we learned when we were
coloring the coloring books in the
second grade. Um uh and it also and
that's why I prefer doing this opens up
our eyes to oh that's what the Torah
really meant and Kazal had a wonderful
approach a different approach for their
own reasons as to what lessons they
wanted to teach but the text is not
always the same thing. So let's see what
the text says as we read. Notice you
have put it I have the English the
English translation as well. when you go
to battle against your enemies and
Hashem delivers them to you and you take
some captives
and
among those captives you see a beautiful
woman and you desire her and you take
her for your wife
>> she's allowed to be non
>> don't start with questions I'm just
reading the
give I'm with trouble here [snorts]
given at you shall then bring her into
your house and she shall trim her hair
and pair her nails. The pay p a r e not
that she has to have a pair but you know
uh and uh she should discard her
captives garb and remain in your house
lamenting the loss of her father and
mother for one month. After that you may
come to her and she shall be your wife.
But if you m no should no longer want
her, you must release her release her
outright and not sell her for money. You
must not enslave her since you had your
will of her with her. That's the text.
Okay.
Now we're going to begin with a simple
question. All right. And that is
having gone through the different parts
of
the the part of the introduction that of
the big pime primary uh basic mitzvot
and those who are more detailed even
within those more detailed there are
sections and we should away. Okay. Um
for example uh you have the ideas of uh
mikdash and beginning with a we start
the mitzvah that is tied to the beta
mikdash. Uh after that you have other uh
um laws of leadership
prophets kings and
war battle. And that's what basically
we're up to in parat
which is how uh this mitzvah starts the
how the para begins with this mitzvah of
theat to so um
let's just start to re try to figure out
well what section does this belong to?
Does it belong to as it seems to be the
laws of war
or does it have to do with the laws that
come later on specifically the laws of
societal deals with what how we deal one
with another. Um
now to find out where that belongs you
have to be saying well okay what was the
last mitzvah that we learned.
Unfortunately, you got to change to you
have to turn the page to the last para
the last para para before gavo that is
that of akitate I'm sorry which is the
para of chauffetim there it ends with
the law of um the eggla arufah anyone
know the laws of the ela arufah in fact
rashi himself um we'll talk about this
um The the Eglar Rufa is a story of a uh
when one finds a murdered uh a a a
murdered um corpse between two cities
and no one knows who the murderer might
be. So he goes through all of the the
the judges of the Sanhedrin is also
Zakan that come from the city the
closest city and and they uh go through
their ritual including saying uh that
they are free of guilt that they had no
guilt involved here. It wasn't them
which also includes asal say that you it
is that you you that you knew who it was
but you didn't do it but that you don't
know you have no idea who it is. All
right. Now, that is seemingly, I
suppose, if not one of the laws of the
um war. But right, I see the connection
there. It's connection of death and
murder and uh and how one deals with
that. Perhaps or perhaps not.
When we begin the approach to why would
the Torah allow this? Why would it say
that you can take a woman non-Jewish?
Yes. Uh and marry her understanding
because unless you don't understand the
laws of for example of slaves and maids
and non-Jewish that they must be uh
within a certain amount of time they
convert they become Jewish. So, so why
is this strange law and this is the one
that um
the rashi has a point. Um
Rashi says the reason for this is and
here also is our second source the low
low Torah. Um, and as it says that this
in the italic words, the Torah is
reacting against the Yates, I would say,
or here in Israel, Yateshara, which is a
correct way, the evil inclination,
right? Hashem knows that if he would not
make her permissible for marriage,
then that person would marry her
illegally.
But if he does marry her, he will
eventually hate her and have a
rebellious son. That's because the next
the next mitzvah that I mentioned here
in Kitate is that of the the rebellious
son before that the a woman a man with
two wives. A mom whom we prefer as one
he doesn't prefer. I hate the words
hate. Um and uh they said so if you're
going to marry someone like that in the
end you're not going to like her and uh
and and if you do keep her as a wife any
child from her she will be rebellious.
That's what Rashley says this is why we
have this more. So God says well you're
going to do it anyway so I'll give you a
mitzvah how to do it. Yes.
>> Question to clarify. Um
so if this man in battle has taken this
uh lady from another whatever
>> uh and from another kingdom area
>> nation
>> fine and [clears throat]
>> and it it does is he allowed to decide
that he should no no longer want her
after he's had relations with her or
before after if after after he marries
her even
>> he can decide he no longer wants her may
release her
>> okay now that comes into play yes the
point is and this is one of the major
points I'm going to make anyway but I'll
get a letter of this that
I started with telling you that the
Torah is timely and untimely but it's
essential to understand that the law had
to apply 3,000 years ago
What? Don't have those 3,000 years ago.
Let's go two years ago. What happens
during war? What do animal enemies do?
>> 18.
>> They kill, they rape, they take what
they want to, right? They they bake
babies in ovens. This is what the that
was not an uncommon thing 3,000 years
ago. Some people like to, you know, they
obviously there are some nations who get
nostalgic and they remember that. So
they they do it today also. Anyway,
that's what was happening in the
society. Here comes the Torah and says,
"No, no, no, no, no. If you take her,
she's your wife. [snorts] Don't take her
as if she is your maid, your your
servant, your slave."
>> She's not. Why? Because why what would
the man do? He would say, "Look, you're
nice. I had you. I can't stand you
anymore. Goodbye." And what if I say
goodbye? I'm going to sell you on an
enslaved block. Now that I don't need
you anymore, you are my property. I'm
going to sell you and I'll make a profit
over it. That's where the Torah says,
"No, no, no, no, no, no. That's not how
you treat her. You took her as a life as
a wife. She's a wife. you send her away
freely,
not by saving her as a slave, which is a
tremendously advanced um really advanced
concept in the ancient world and even
not so much in the ancient world.
>> Yeah, I'm sorry.
>> She just falling. Sorry. I don't So,
she's no longer a virgin. You sent her
away, right?
>> Do you send her away with money so that
she can take care of herself or she just
kind of left? We're talking about Jews.
Figure it out. Yes. [laughter]
>> I don't know.
>> I Jews going to give them money. Uh
>> no, I'm not saying I'm not saying that
money.
>> There is no law about sending about it's
a good
>> paddle or something to be able or hope.
>> You know what she's asking this question
besides giving me um an ulcer. The
reason why she says is because she
understands the law that when you send a
servant Arame of three from slavery,
you're obligated by the Torah to give
her gifts.
Do we have to do it here? Not that I
know of. No. On the other hand, is no
>> way to be able to
>> It's a good question. Just don't do it
again. Yeah. Yeah. What are you going to
say?
>> Sorry, I won't say any more of those.
>> No, say more. Good questions. I can
ignore you anyway. Go ahead. [laughter]
>> But August is after one month. So for a
whole month, he's not allowed to do
anything.
>> Um that would be nice to say.
>> It says that.
>> Yeah. Yeah. The says and he says that
also it seems that way. First of all, it
says uh
right.
>> Yeah. For one month
>> you take her as a wife and then it says
and then you take her home and see if
you like her or not like her. So it
would seem and according to Gomorrah it
does that he is allowed to take her as
if she's a wife even though she's not
yet. Yes I have the answers there. Yes.
Any rate, um
if this is indeed the whole point, then
um maybe this is not an war a law of war
per se because after these laws of war
that we have inim
when we get to this part of say the rest
of these laws are about the laws of
family.
uh this idea of if you have two wives
and one you don't like and you do like
and if you have a rebellious son the
rest of the many of the mitzvot in this
para of kit is a family the point being
now and this is why it stands in between
on the bridge it seems to be by laws of
um war but on the other hand it does
also seem to be a law of family on
taking wives so it's an interesting
thing to go through and to discuss um
and uh
this idea as I just went through that
you're allowed to marry her but when you
do
>> as Rashi says ah you're going to hate
her then you're going to have rebellious
sons and so on and so forth and that's
why this is connected together according
to them um so the rabbis according to
Rashi would seem to say this is not a
law of war but a law of family that's
what we've seen um
however [sighs and gasps]
that's the approach of rashi and many of
the and the kazal usually
now if
this is I feel significant is because at
first glance they logically if it these
are laws of um war.
We could have put it in the last para
last per the fact that you're starting
not only a new para but a brand new
chapter which has all the family laws
then if it were the laws of war should
it not be in the last perk and the last
para why suddenly now it's broken up I I
could go through who's that it wasn't
the Jews who who made the different
chapters of the Tanakh but even that In
the Torah, we know when there's an
opening and there's a break and here's
there's a break. Why? Why should be over
there part of that thing? So, um
[cough and snorts] given the fact that
these uh shall I call them um I don't
know
these family and familial laws are found
primarily in kit. we are going to have
to lean to the fact that maybe this is
supposed to be a family law and um
this goes in it relies upon what we've
been going through about the different
parts of uh dev right I started with
that um part
that is is part of the second
[snorts] second section of mitzvah
uh deals with the mitzvot of of the beta
mites as I told you of of of worship I
should say uh and shifting goes with
comm uh communal leaders about the
cohain and the melik and the chauffe all
of this and then goes into war the
military which is again that and then k
then goes on to the family laws. So here
we are with a s a a a law which seems to
belong to both like a bridge of some
sort. And that's why it's important to
find out what indeed was this law meant
to be. What is it to be a part of the
laws of war or not? And um in order to
do that um we have to see something
else. Okay?
And we'll do that by looking again at
the text.
And the text here that I'm going to give
you in the third source goes back a
little bit before kit.
And the last section of
begins also with the words kit.
And there you see in the third source,
when you go to battle against your enemy
and see horses and chariots, forces
larger than yours, have no fear of them,
for your God who brought you out of
Egypt is with you. When before you join
battle, the coin, the priest shall come
forward and address the troops. He
should say to them, "Listen, O Israel,
you are about to join battle with your
enemy. Do not let your courage falter.
Do not fear. Do not panic. Do not be in
dread of them. For it is Hashem who
marches with you to do battle for you
against your enemy, to bring you
victory."
Interesting. You think we would do that
today? Yes.
The Sahal does that today. Should know
that
that the leaders of the brigades and the
things they before going out to war they
give them this braha and prayer from the
Torah. But these Jews don't change do
they ore.
So, oh there you'll see the direct the
these um
yeah
this is what the general law we find out
okay you have to be courageous going
into war and feel that God is with you
then there's a second part of this uh
law and there it says okay you're going
to war you you know that the um
you should be relying upon God have
priests and but then we go to more
details of what you do before you start
to go to war. Then the officials shall
address the troops as follows. Is there
anyone who has built a new house but has
not dedicated it? Let him go back to his
home, lest he die in battle, and another
dedicate the house. Is there any who has
planted a vineyard, but has not
harvested it? Let him go back to his
home, lest he die in battle, and another
harvest that field. Is there anyone who
has betrothed a wife, but not yet taken
her into his home? Let him go back to
his home lest he do die in battle and
another take her as his wife. Thou do
they become pretty remarkable here,
right? What do you think? Do you think
this applies to all wars?
[snorts]
I'll give you a guess. It's either yes
or no. Good. The answer is no.
These are only
this is
this is when when you are pl that the
king or whatever decides they will go to
invade others.
If you are attacked by others, do they
we go into this? Do we say, "Ah, you
know, I know they're trying to kill us,
but you just have a new vineyard, so
it's okay. You don't have to go to war."
Stuart,
when your people are being threatened
with murder, there's no excuse not to go
to the army. The Torah says it very
clearly. Of course, there are people
greater than the Torah who make change
that, but that's what the Torah says.
The officials then shall go on
addressing the troops and say, "Uh, is
there anyone afraid and disheartened?"
If you are a yellowbellyi chicken, uh,
or you are afraid, um, let him go back
home and not frighten
his comrades as he. What a brilliant,
brilliant concept. They're saying, "Now,
if you're afraid, you don't have to
fight." What kind of that? The answer is
simple. If you're afraid you may take
away the morale of the people of the
soldiers better you should stay home and
not to you and not weaken the commit the
commitment of the to victory of the
other soldiers in the army. It's a
brilliant thing. It's a brilliant thing.
Okay. And after that when the officials
finish addressing the troops, the army
uh commanders uh assume the command and
so on and so forth. All right. And then
we have um the laws of um
yeah giving of peace and so on and so
forth. I'm not going to go into the next
C and E that the idea of the laws of um
you need if for these uh
you have to ask the people uh for peace
you should sue them for peace if they
agree to be under your means that it
says here
that they will pay a tax to you and it's
fine also we do say all however if It's
in in this Israel has to be uh agreement
not to have any idolatry. All right? And
um
then they but if they don't if they
refuse then you have the right to to
take over the booty and to fight with
them and to take whatever you can and so
on and so forth. Um, and by the way,
also included there is one of the famous
Oh, Jews love this mitzvah that you're
not allowed to chop down a tree that a
fruit tree, right? We're such nice
people. Uh, so we have these problems
with trees, you know. So besides being
tree huggers, we're told here that
you're not allowed to
needlessly destroy the trees. There a
good reason for it. I'm not going to go
into it. That's part of this whole
thing. And then we go in, you know, some
us off. Now,
all of these laws, you'll note,
um
they um are
directed
in a second person. if you do this, if
you do this, you know that um all of the
laws, you know, so on and so forth, all
of these are primarily
uh said in the karat shalom blah blah
blah all
addressed to the person or the you know
second person.
Then we go after the uh first law the
laws of if you love uh uh yeah you are
married two wives one you don't like so
much one you do or if you have a a
rebellious son so on and so forth there
you have in the fourth source again go
to the English you'll find if you want
to look in the Hebrew actually you'll
see underlined the words like ish
is aim
his his all in third person. All of the
laws of the family are put in third
person. That's it. That's how it's found
here.
So there you have and all I'm the reason
I'm saying all of this long winded thing
besides the fact that I love to hear me
talk uh is also because I want to bring
out a simple for thing. Now this was
shown to me by Rabion Gman who was a
remarkable remarkable um feature of
Tanakh and he points out that the laws
of war and so on and so forth are
directed to the second person. The laws
of family is given the third. Now why is
that important to find out? What about
the middle one? If it's a war, it should
be done in second person. However, if it
is a family war, it should be it should
be couched in the third person. That is
what it seems should be, right? Um
so while before this
right
before we we we read that we read about
uh the the pre- battle preparation the
laws of a siege and so on and so forth
and then you think the final part of the
war is the beginning of kit but in what
If fata written in it's written in the
second person meaning it should be part
of the last thing the law the laws of
war that would seem so now
if that's the case right and I mean
after it's think of the because of war
part of the laws of war is if they they
say no and they fight with you you're
allowed to take the booty well there's a
booty you
you can take women also, right? And uh
but it also says um
you shall um dedicate the wealth to to
God or do you have to? We know sometimes
you do. Anybody know when does God say,
"Well, you had a victory, but it's my
victory, so you cannot take the booty.
You have to give it to God." Anybody
know when that happened?
>> Huh?
>> Very good. I'm a lake. Funny. I don't
look like a lake. Anybody? Um,
how about
I think it is and the law against the
Cananani that the Canaanite hordes came
down in the desert right after the death
of Aaron and they
they fight against it and go and and
they took all the wars. They didn't take
any next thing
this is often in the in the general laws
of first of bhour or something like it
belongs to god bim the first fruits give
to god the bor has to be redeemed does
he not because he has to be from the
cohen because serve god um that's burim
that's bore but you also have
the first
um the first of the
battles, wars in the land of Cananan.
What was the first place they wared
against?
I promise you the walls came tumbling
down Jericho. Uh were they allowed to
take the booty?
No. God said, "Why does God say it?" Not
only because it was the first one.
because they didn't fight at all. I
mean, they they danced around with
chauffeers and they danced and all
around. They went around seven times,
right? Great had a great time. They
didn't lift a sword. They never fought
anyone. If anyone tells you, boy, they
really fought really well. They didn't
know nothing, man.
There were the
people in were all killed with the
collapsing walls and buildings and so on
and so forth. All Israel did was yeah
they took him with brooms they had
clipped them up and and they took up
whatever else they could but they
couldn't keep it. When they do and we'll
get to that please God when I start
Yahushua the next time we finish the uh
when we finish you'll see what happens
when one person did take the little
booty anyway. So that's true. But over
here, does it say here that they have to
you're not allowed to give you have to
take you're not allowed to take the
moody. You have to give it to God.
Doesn't say that, does it? Um it uh it
doesn't say thou shalt not not take. It
says um
doesn't say thou shalt not desegrate the
enemy's body. It doesn't say anything
like that.
One would therefore assume that the laws
that uh about the again the
fit into the laws of war. So why is it
doing in kit instead of being back with
the laws of war instead
of parak alf that's the question we have
and um it should go on again with u
parak uh about the what I say the the um
eggla
the eggla
interestingly enough uh do I have it
here number for the
Yeah. Uh, no, that's the number five. He
that we find in pet rap that's
the there.
Um,
yeah. Can you say
good there? Number five, the Torah tells
us this. If in the land a murdered
corpse is found lying in the open, and
the identity of the slayer not being
known, then your elders and judges shall
go out and measure the distance
distances from the corpse to the nearby
towns. Then the elders in the nearest
town shall take a heer which has never
been worked nor pulled in a yolk and
bring her down into an untilled and
unsewn wadi. And there in the wadi they
shall break the heer's neck. Then the
priest shall come forward, and all the
elders of the town nearest to the corpse
shall wash their hands over the heer
whose neck was broken, and make this
declaration. Our hands did not shed his
this blood, nor did our eyes see it
done. Hashem, forgive your people of
Israel, whom you redeemed, and do not
let guilt for the blood of the innocent
remain among your people Israel. And
they will be absolved of blood guilt if
they do this re ritual. Thus you will
remove the your guilt for for the blood
of the innocent by doing what is right
in the right and then they in the sight
of Hashem. That is what we are told
here. Now,
why in the world
does the Torah
throw in this story of the of of the
murdered
innocent we'll call it right here.
That moment of massion should be part of
the legal laws about society
not about war.
See the modern commentators you know I
often say that modern I say modern
commentators which is because I'm a nice
guy. That means the people who don't
believe the Torah is is uh
is divine. They said, "Ah, some guy was
b building it. They put it in the wrong
place." It's one of the great great
approaches to having a problem. When you
can't figure out something, rather than
figuring it out why it was that way, you
say, "Well, they made a mistake." So,
somebody made a mistake someplace, they
put it in the wrong place. That's what
they say. It's true. Um and uh you know
it was mistakenly removed from the 19th
chapter
which is all about murder. That's why
and that's you know and uh it's you know
I would say it's the lazy man's way of
dealing with a textual problem. Okay. Um
and um
even our
traditional commentators
uh paranim as they called also uh they
also have the problem and about this
connection
and uh again we have rashi here in
number six. Hashem is saying, "Let one
year calf who never produced fruit be
beheaded in a place that never produced
fruit to atone for the murder of this
individual who was denied the ability to
continue to produce fruit." Beautiful,
beautiful concept.
I'm telling whoever wrote this Torah
thing is really pretty sensitive.
Remarkable. Remarkable what we're
saying.
Hey Jews, you got to be sensitive.
You've got to be sensitive. You can't
allow murders to go on and shrug your
shoulders and say, "Well, I couldn't
find anybody. Goodbye. Let's go." The
concept [clears throat] of a judicial
system
means even a ritual that has to be done
when you cannot find the person who did
it.
Why are you help hurting anybody?
Because the leaders, the judges who come
down have to be re have to realize and
have to be really uh taught. You can't
just shrug your shoulders when a murder
goes on. You must do something. And if
you can't do something, you got to say,
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I tried. I
tried."
It says, "My hands did [snorts] not were
not we were not guilty of anything.
>> [snorts]
>> We were not in involved.
We never we never spilled this. What we
expect the leaders the great things the
judges I mean these are f guys they
probably you know they learn tomorrow
once or twice you think they're the ones
who are the murderers but that really
our sham that's not what we're saying
but you as the leaders have a extra
responsibility
to be careful to make sure to create a
society a culture that will not
ever
swallow allow murder. It can't be. Well,
people get they die. [clears throat]
He's old. He was he You can't do that.
Death is death and murder is horrific.
You can't allow it. Where you allow
murder, more murderers will happen.
Anybody here looking around the world
recently at all?
when there's no
judicial I would say u governmental
absolute
hatred of murder
can't stand it then you see it won't
happen again but if it's accepted as
that's life no that's death you can't
accept that and the Torah comes here to
the to the leadership and says you can't
allow to create a culture in which
murder is allowed. And that's a very
powerful law. Don't find that anywhere
else. Of course, not not in the ancient
world.
So, at any rate, after my sermon, um
I we get now to
what I believe now is what I really
wanted to get to. You know, I told you I
was a rabbi. You come to the last five
minutes. Ah, now I'm getting to the
answer. Um, is that five minutes? One
more.
All of what I I shared with you, I
shared with the view of Rashi and many,
if not the majority of the traditional
um
paranim.
But there's one who wasn't very typical.
Uh, he [snorts] lived at the same time
as Rashi, by the way. His name was Aram
Ibanzra.
And the Ibanzra takes a very different
approach to this entire law. You see,
whereas Rashi says, "What do you have to
do to this woman that you see she's
gorgeous and you want to have her say
make her look ugly, right? Take off what
does it say?
let her get rid of her her
um prisoners garb which they say they
would dress them up in the best so that
the enemy came they would look good. No,
take it out. And you have to um uh let
her fingernails grow is what it said.
And you know all this thing hair.
Uh the says, "Nah, I don't think so."
Nebenezra who was a rode he's very much
says, "Let's see what the text tells
her." That's why it's one of my friends.
I'm I'm a fan of the rash bomb and of
thera. They have the sense of what the
Torah is saying. And thera says, and
you'll find out at the uh at the number
six, right? Um where
he begins by
telling us that he doesn't agree with
what Rashi says about this eggla arufah.
He says,
"What is it doing here?"
He says, "Once the Torah spoke of waring
against the enemy, it connects the to
the case in which an individual goes to
war against another individual. It's
still the laws of war." He says it a war
against individuals. And that's how he
said it belongs here. Very nice. Um on
the other hand the kakar says the says
the following. He says the reason for
this law this is on c here
that the reasons for this law is that
the calf that could not produce fruit
would atone for the murder that one who
denied the ability. This is the same
thing that the rashi says. He says now
he says this and this reason is
logically based upon the preceding war
law that prohibited the destruction of a
tree.
He says what is the difference between a
tree and a person? That's what it says.
He said and I am surprised that the
commentators did not see this connection
has nothing to do with this has to do
with sensitivity to life unreal. So
that's what he says. Um, and
once we get to this,
um, I'm trying to say that I have to,
um,
they get through this.
The most important part of this is when
we get into again the Iban Ezra and how
that now will fall into this section. I
have spent the day today with a simple
idea of what section does the fataua
belong in? What section here does the
eggla arufah go into? Is it a war thing?
Is it a familiar uh simple uh moral
thing or not? and um uh and I can't wait
to get to the whole different um
explanation of the Ibanzra, but I my
notes say I can't do that and
[clears throat] I have a little more to
say still about what section it belongs
to. Like here the kakar says I don't
believe with a rashi that the connection
is as rashi says it is you know of
course be nice you know you have to be
you have to
people should take care of people who
are killed it isn't he says even likera
that who says that the connection simply
is war he says no the connection is
trees
you just finished saying you're not
allowed to destroy a tree in a war Well,
you're not allowed to destroy another
individual.
Call it your personal war. That's it.
So, you have three approaches of it. Uh
and um
given that, okay, given that we have
this idea of uh that cutting short the
life of a person, which is what murder
is obviously, and destroying the
potential of what could have been. We
say that all the time. Right? We say,
"Oh, 6 million. What mean six million?
How about 60 million children,
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren
who would be alive now?"
Oh, I I always say this. You know how
many Jews there were in the world in
before World War I? 18 million Jews with
Jewish ka. What's he what's now over a
hundred years later? How many Jews are
there? Depends. First of all, we don't
know who they really are Jewish. You
know, one says, "I'm not Jewish, but I
eat bagels." Okay, you're Jewish. Uh,
you know, so approximately what 13
million they say. No, not that not
exact. Okay. Um, which is I don't know
how true because given the fact that I
have here in Israel now at least 7 to 7
and a half million Jews, that would mean
the majority of the Jews do live in
Israel and then they say they don't. But
anyway, um over a hundred years have
passed
and we haven't yet even rebuilt
the Jewish community's population.
There are many reasons for that.
Given the fact that at this point you
have in America approximately 50%
probably me 60% of marriages that are
out of the religion
a lot of them besides the six million
who were killed
how many people here know you know how
many Jews were killed before the just
after for the beginning of the 1920
until 1935
in Europe 70,000 Jews were killed nobody
mentions is that because 6 billion was
much more than 70,000 so what
there were pums there were taxes of
Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and
nobody knows the whole story about that
it's killing me you know I know
sometimes I'm I'm to teach you about
Tanakh I'm teaching my my history
classes it's unbelievable
unbelievable nobody understands that
that he writes so
this is [gasps]
part of trying to plan what is this all
about? Because to understand about the
eggla
will help us understand about the um
theat to and unless we can so what
sections they belong in and what is the
Torah trying to give to us we're going
to be flying in in the air and and you
know hanging on with those people say
what a terrible law you know they let
you take the man woman and they that's
not what it is it's an unbelievable ably
loving
and really sensitive law to move to
continue for 3500 through 3,500
years. Understand that. And given the
fact that as I told you before, rabbi, I
talked too much. Um, we're going to have
to stop here. And please God, I'll try
to put my clip over here where we left
this. We'll continue up with that and
then we'll go hopefully to what
Nebuchadnezzar said and Cesar understand
how he unravels this and how he sees
what this mitzvah is about and hopefully
give you a much better feeling about
what this mitzvah truly is.