כי תצא למלחמה וגו' וראית בשביה אשת יפת תואר וגו' ולקחתה לך לאשה (כא' י', יא')
When you go out to war .... and you will see amongst the captives a beautiful woman .... you may take her as a wife (21:10, 11).
Rashi explains that the permission granted by the Torah to marry a Yefas To'ar is only during an optional war. However, in a war that is obligatory (to wipe out the seven nations), permission is not granted to marry such a woman. Rashi explains that the Torah allowed the Yefas To'ar because Hashem knew that if He had forbidden it, given the circumstances the fighters found themselves in, they would not have been able to withstand the yetzer hara.
Based on this reasoning, the Zera Shimshon asks why then is the Yefas To'ar only permitted during an optional war? If, based on the conditions of war, a soldier can't withstand the test, it shouldn't make a difference whether the war is an optional one or an obligatory one. Why then did the Torah differentiate?
The Zera Shimshon offers two explanations:
1) He explains that the same way that the Torah granted permission to marry a Yefas To'ar during an optional war to work against the yetzer hara, precisely for this same reason, the Torah forbade it during an obligatory war.
The Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 17:6) says that originally, before Yehoshua waged war against the people in Eretz Yisroel, he sent them a message that whoever wanted to make peace could come forward and do so. The Mefarshim explain that before the war actually began, the Jewish people were not yet required to fulfill לא תחיה כל נשמה, “You shall not allow any person to live” (Devarim 20:16). This is why Rachav was saved, and she eventually married Yehoshua. Only the ones who did not take Yehoshua up on his offer were included in the commandment of לא תחיה כל נשמה.
Hashem set up the commandment this way in order to teach the Jewish people an important lesson before they entered Eretz Yisroel. It was to show them that the land of Eretz Yisroel cannot tolerate sinners, and the only way to be able to stay in the land is to do teshuvah before the gezeira is decreed. Once the decree is decided, teshuvah will not change it.
This is why the Torah did not allow one to take a Yefas To'ar during an obligatory war (fighting the seven nations that lived in Eretz Yisroel). The same way that those who made up with Yehoshua before they declared war on the inhabitants of Eretz Yisroel were saved, but those that couldn't do so were exterminated from the land, so too, the Jewish people had to be taught that if they sinned, they had to do teshuvah before the decree was issued. After that, teshuvah would not help them from being ousted from the land. This works precisely against the yetzer hara, who would otherwise push off the process of doing teshuvah until it would be too late (see Shabbos 31b).
The Rambam (Hilchos Melachim 8:3) rules that the Yefas To'ar is only permitted during the time of capture. The time of capture was after the actual was over, after the enemy fighters were killed. This is seen in the passuk that says (Devarim 20:13), “You shall kill all the males .... (and only then) you can take for yourselves the women, small children, etc.”
Therefore, this timeframe exists only during an optional war. However, during the obligatory war, this timeframe of taking captives does not exist.
RABBI SHRAGA FREEDMAN
ZERA SHIMSHON
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