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By Rabbi Avraham
Fischer. A publication of the Orthodox Union in cooperation with the Seymour
J. Abrams Orthodox Union Jerusalem World Center |
Parshat Ki
Teitzei
August 17, 2002
Shortly, the people of Israel will begin its national life,
including the conquest and settlement of the land. And when Israel goes to
war, Moshe teaches, the Torah continues to maintain its concern for sanctity:
(10) When you go out as a camp (MACHANEH) against your enemies, you shall be
on guard against any bad thing. (11) If there will be among you a man who will
not be pure because of an incident of the night, he shall go forth outside of
the camp (LA’MACHANEH); he shall not come inside the camp (HA’MACHANEH). (12)
And it shall be towards evening, he shall wash in water, and when the sun has
set he may come into the camp (HA’MACHANEH). (13) And a designated place shall
you have for yourself outside of the camp (LA’MACHANEH), and you shall go
there outside. (14) And a spade shall you have for you with your implements;
and it shall be when you sit outside, you shall dig with it, and you shall
turn back and cover your discharge. (15) For Hashem, your G-d, walks in the
midst of your camp (MACHANECHA), to save you and to deliver your enemies
before you; and your camp(s) shall be (V’HAYA MACHANEYCHA) holy; and He will
not see in you any indecent thing, such that He will turn from behind you (Devarim
23).
Aside from the fact that the word MACHANEH camp is mentioned a significant
seven times, this passage describes appropriate and inappropriate behavior in
the military camp. However, it also sheds light on the general life of the
society.
One who becomes impure (tamei) through emission is required to remain outside
the precincts of the Tabernacle (or, in later history, the Temple); this is
the camp spoken of in verses 11-12. Then, in verses 13-14, the focus is on
cleanliness and maintaining the proper atmosphere in the military camp.
Rambam, (Laws
of Kings and Their Wars, 6:14, 15), explains these laws as follows:
It is forbidden to relieve oneself within the camp or in the
field in any place. Rather there is a positive commandment to establish there a
special path to relieve oneself there, as it says, “And a designated place shall
you have for yourself outside of the camp.”
Likewise, there is a positive commandment for each one to have a
spade suspended with his weapons. And he goes out along that path and he digs
with it and turns and covers, as it is said, “And a spade shall you have for you
with your implements…” And whether the Ark is with them and whether there is no
ark with them, so do they do always, as it is said, “and your camp(s) shall be
holy.”
Ramban explains
why we must be especially concerned with exercising self-control, and preventing
coarseness and brutality during war:
It is known from the behavior of camps that go out to war that
they eat every abomination, they rob and loot, and they are not ashamed even of
adultery and every crime. The most naturally upright of men clothes himself in
cruelty and rage against the enemy, and therefore the Scripture warns “you shall
be on guard against any bad thing.”
In general, we are enjoined to do nothing that will drive the
Shechinah from our camp, for we need to turn to Hashem to lead us to victory,
rather than rely on our own military strength. Therefore, says the Sifri (Halachic
Midrash on Bamidbar and Devarim, 254), the introductory verse “you shall be on
guard against any bad thing” extends this reminder to include all those
observances that keep the Divine Presence in our midst, whether in war or in
peace: Kashrut, morality and decency, and avoiding such sins as idolatry, wanton
killing, blasphemy and gossip.
Meshech Chochmah (R. Meir Simcha of Dvinsk 1843-1926) adds that gossip is
especially damaging in time of war, for divulging secret intelligence can cost
many lives.
By the time we reach verse 15, the two connotations of MACHANEH seem to blend
together. Thus, the Talmud (Berachot 25a) can derive from “and your camp(s)
shall be holy” that any place of prayer must be clean and inoffensive both to
sight and smell.
Ramban explains the connection:
For the entire camp is like the sanctuary of Hashem, and from it
we extrapolate to the place of prayer. . . . It is forbidden to see [excrement]
at the time of prayer and when the heart cleaves to Hashem, since repulsive
things will produce disgrace in the soul and will disturb the intention of the
pure heart, but when it disappears from the seeing eye there is no evil.
The fusing of the camps is reflected in the unusual spelling in the words “and
your camp(s) shall be (V’HAYA MACHANEYCHA) holy”: The verb is singular, however
the spelling of the noun suggests plural. Nevertheless, Minchat Shai (R. Yedidya
Shlomo Raphael b. Avraham of Norzi, 17th century) insists that this word is to
be understood as singular, despite its plural spelling.
Hirsch (Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, 1808-1888) comments that all of Israel’s
many “camps” are to be one:
What is said here primarily for military camps is, of course,
meant to apply to any “camp,” to any sphere in which we may temporarily or
permanently settle. All are to bear the stamp of a pure moral way of living. All
the places where we live, not just our synagogues and schools, are not to lack
consecration by thoughts of the mission of our life.
The battlefield is not the place to be divested of Torah values, rather it is
actually their proving-ground. When the purity of all our camps is ensured by
these values, then we are a unified nation.
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