Sotah 093

נושא: Sotah

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people who have set themselves against me on every side. Arise, God! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek. You have broken the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to God. Your blessing be on your people. [Psalm 3:7-9]

When is this so? – in a political war, whereas in a religious war everyone goes [to the front], even "a bridegroom from his chamber and a bride from her canopy". Rabbi Yehudah says, When is this so? – in a religious war, whereas in a compulsory war everyone goes [to the front], even "a bridegroom from his chamber and a bride from her canopy".

9:
We must now relate to the third instance quoted by Rambam of a 'religious' war, a war in which none may be excused the duty of participation. This is the war which is waged 'to help save Jews from an attacking enemy'. When non-Jews threaten and attack Jews on an organized military basis then it is the duty of every Jew to come to the aid of his brothers and sisters and join in the battle engaged to repel the enemy. And this duty is held to be a command of the Torah, which should not be disobeyed and ignored just as any other command of the Torah should never be disobeyed and ignored.

10:
When the king (i.e. the government) wishes to wage a 'political' war he must first have the concurrence of the Sanhedrin. When we studied Tractate Sanhedrin, Chapter 1, Mishnah 5 I wrote:

Our sources distinguish between two kinds of war: a political war (milĥemet reshut) and a religious war (milĥemet mitzvah). As will become apparent from the continuation, it may perhaps be better to understand the former as an offensive war whereas the latter might be a defensive war. The "milĥemet mitzvah" is a war undertaken in order to protect the lives of Jews who are being threatened by enemies who are attacking them. Participation in this kind of war is compulsory upon the whole adult population. The political war, on the other hand, was a war initiated by the State for the purposes of territorial expansion, plunder and so forth. King David's expedition against the Ammonites [II Samuel 11] can serve as an example (this was the expedition in which Uriah the Hittite lost his life in order that David might marry the pregnant Bathsheba). Such a war may only be embarked upon with the concurrence of three: the King (or head of state), a duly recognized prophet (representing the will of God), and the Sanhedrin.

In the absence in our days of a 'duly recognized prophet' we may safely assume that no Jewish government may embark upon a 'political' war.

11:
Our mishnah teaches that 'in a religious war everyone goes to the front, even "a bridegroom from his chamber and a bride from her canopy"'. This is a statement inspired by the words of the Prophet Joel [2:16]. It is a well-known fact that there is disagreement between the various streams of modern halakhic Judaism concerning the implementation of this halakhah. The ultra-orthodox will not hear of a woman participating in the armed forces, nor do they accept that all men are required to take up arms in order to defend their fellow Jews, and in the State of Israel they have reached a modus vivendi with secular governments since that of David ben-Gurion in the 1950's that full-time Yeshivah students are excused from that duty. The modern orthodox disagree with the ultra-orthodox concerning the men, and they insist that every able-bodied man is required to take up arms to help repel the enemy who attacks the Jewish people; however, they agree with the ultra-orthodox that no Jewish woman should serve in the armed forces, and in the State of Israel they have reached a modus vivendi with secular governments since the 1980's that women may be excused military service on religious grounds.

12:
The halakhic stance of our own Conservative Movement may be learned from the responsum by Rabbi Robert Harris, which was approved by the Law Committee of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel in 1987. The final paragraph of the English resume of this responsum reads as follows:

"The honour of the King's daughter is best maintained inside". Some understand this as favoring the isolation of women as the ideal, with special kinds of units, special kinds of service and alternative service as minimally acceptable compromises in the interest of hoping to maintain moral standards. We can find no halakhic basis for this and we most vehemently find no basis for discriminating among different categories of women ("religious" and "non-religious") for different categories of service. The basic situation is that of milchemet mitzvah – a "commanded war" – for which the obligation to serve applies to women as well as men: all women and all men. That is the halakhic requirement as we understand it.

You can access the English resume of this responsum at http://tempheb.bmv.org.il/mason/have/responsa/women_draft.html.

13:
The difference between Rabbi Yehudah and Tanna Kamma is simply one of definition. Here is Rambam's commentary on our mishnah:

They both agree that the war against the Seven Nations and against Amalek is compulsory; they also agree that killing people from the the other nations is 'political'. But they disagree concerning people who threaten Jewish lives, whether they may be weakened preemptively so that they not be able to kill Jews or attack our land. Tanna Kamma calls such a war 'political' whereas Rabbi Yehudah calls such killing 'religious'. The general rule is, as you know, that one who is engaged in the performance of one mitzvah is excused from the performance of other mitzvot. Tanna Kamma does not think that such a person would be engaged in a mitzvah [to the extent that he would be excused all the others]. Halakhah does not follow Rabbi Yehudah.

This concludes our study of Chapter Eight of this tractate. We shall commence our study of the last chapter on Thursday, March 27th.

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