Feature Tidbit
for Parshat Ki Teitzei

To Win the Battle, but...

The Baal Shem Tov offered a beautiful interpretation of the opening p'sukim of Ki Teitzei. The following idea is his; some of the elaboration is mine. I hope I have done justice to the message.

Ki Teitzei is always read in Elul. During this month, we go out to do battle against the Yeitzer HaRa (evil inclination) in each of us. He/it is our enemy. When go out to battle our enemy, says the Torah, G-d will help us and put the enemy in our hand. Essentially, we have the weapons and the back-up from G-d, to defeat the Yeitzer HaRa. But what happens sometimes is that we see the Beautiful Captive and we want her. We have won the battle against temptation to veer from the proper path, but the war is not over. Something has caught our eye. In our battle to get up every morning to go to shul, we have seen the "beauty" of  sleeping late. In our battle against wasting time, we have been attracted by the "beauty" of late night television, cable, or web- surfing. In our struggle to be more honest  and straightforward in business, we have been attracted by the "beauty" of greater profits.

The Torah acknowledges the strong attraction of the Beautiful Captive. But the Torah also warns us against taking her as a wife. The month-long waiting period that the Torah requires can be considered analogous to the month  of Elul, during which we must examine very carefully the many Beautiful Captives we have taken home from the battlefield. Here's the pirated, copied version of the
word processor program I am using. The beauty of it is the hundreds of shekels I saved by not buying a legal copy of it. But in the light of Elul, the beauty isn't there. No pretty dress, hair, and nails. What happened to TOV LI TORAT PICHA... "better for me is Your Torah, than thousands...Yes, it's expensive to buy the best programs, but it's also right.

The sedra mentions bad marriages and good ones. We must examine all our "marriages" - to Shabbat, prayer, interpersonal behavior, ethics, and many other things - and improve them all, so that we can win the war.

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