Ohr HaChaim (Devarim 21:11) And you see amongst the captives a beautiful woman. This seems to imply that this is talking only about a physically attractive woman but the Sifrei says even an ugly woman that you desire. So why does the verse specifically say beautiful when it could have said a women that you desire? To explain this verse we also need to ask why G-d is giving instruction that a Jew should defile himself with an idol worshipping woman? This is especially questionable since this is during war when G-d is doing miracles for us and therefore we should be acting in an even more pious manner. Why is He permitting us to do something disgusting and hated which distances us from G-d? Permitting unkosher food is understandable according to the explanation of the Rambam while our Saqges say that this is said only against the evil inclination. They don’t say that one should fight against lust and impure thoughts .This can be understood by the mystery that when Adam sinned that many precious souls were captured by the forces of Evil and these are the souls of converts. We see that many great people come from people born as non Jews such as Ruth, such as Shamaya and Avtalyon and Onkelos. There is another mystery that we find that a pure soul is bound with an impure soul and it is not able to influence it to do good. Eventually it is freed. An example is the soul of Rav Chanina ben Tradyon that was attatched to the soul of Shechem ben Chamor. It was finally freed when it became attatched to Dina after he raped her. Simarly we find holy souls mixed with evil and these are the souls of those that convert voluntarily from the Nations such as Ruth. I have said many times that by the means of doing a mitzva a person becomes clothed with the light of the Divine Presence which removes from him the bad part. While being involved in sin he becomes clothed with a spirit of impurity and perversion. After this introduction the mitzva of Yofas Toar becomes understandable. Thus when it sat “When a person goes to war” means he is going to do a mitzva. If he sees a captive while he is doing the mitzva and because he is doing a mitzva G-d reveals to him that this woman possesses a holy soul and that is why she is described as yofas toar. Thus the desire for this particular woman while doing a mitzva is because of her holy soul It is not the physical woman that is attractive but rather her pure soul. Thus when a Jewish man takes this woman with the pure soul he is actually acquiring the holiness that is within her just as Shechen acquired holiness when he took Dina.
"Thus when it sat “When a person goes to war” means he is going to do a mitzva." So any time i am doing a mitzva and I am attracted to a beautiful nochri woman, i can take her captive?
ReplyDeleteI would assume a literal reading is in order - you're off to fight in a war. It might not even be a michemes mitzvah, just a war of expansion.
DeleteIntermarriage is usually assur. But if she's a supermodel, then there's a heter, and a quicky conversion.
DeleteThat's what this is saying.
Not clear that this was meant for anything more than apologetics and not for actionable halacha. Have not seen anybody cite this as halacha
Deletethere's a kind of bediavad to it, whereby in the case of someone finding such a nochrit, they can make up a justification and get a conversion. In fact the original eshet yefat toar did not even convert, it was just a procedure of the mitzvah, and she became owned or "Jewish".
DeleteAs I recall it is a dispute amongst poskim when she converts . Who says she never converted?
DeleteUnless it's a 1 month crash course in Torah. It doesn't specify in the text that she converts. It is kind of forced onto her
DeleteAnd B"H for that because that got us Ivanka Kushner into the White House to advocate for us.
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