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Why does the Torah (תורה) permit yefas toar only in milchemes reshus and not in milchemes mitzvah (מצוה)? The shiur develops a fundamental distinction: milchemes reshus is conquest—annexing territory and resources—which awakens the yetzer for conquest in a soldier. Milchemes mitzvah against the seven nations, by contrast, is execution—not conquest—and therefore doesn't trigger lo dibra Torah k'neged yetzer hara.
The shiur begins with a close reading of the opening pasuk of yefas toar (Devarim 21:10): "Ki seitzei la'milchama al oyvecha u'nesano Hashem (ה׳) Elokecha b'yadecha v'shavisa shivyo." Rabbi Zweig notes that the sequence is puzzling—captives are typically taken during war, yet the pasuk implies the heter of yefas toar applies only after victory ("u'nesano Hashem b'yadecha"). This suggests that even if a woman was captured earlier in the fighting, the permission to live with her takes effect only once the war has been won. The phrase "ki seitzei la'milchama" is also striking. Why does the Torah (תורה) focus on "going out to war" rather than simply being at war? Rabbi Zweig suggests that "seitzei la'milchama" refers not to the act of fighting but to the declaration of war—the national decision, requiring the consent of the Sanhedrin and the king (as stated in Mishna Sanhedrin), to wage war against a particular nation. This framing is critical: the heter of yefas toar applies only to women from the nation against whom war was declared, not to foreign nationals living among them. This reading resolves the question of why the pasuk emphasizes "al oyvecha"—your enemies—highlighting that the target of the declaration determines the scope of the heter.
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Ki Seitzei 21:10
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