AVROHOM YAAKOV
At the end of this week’s parsha, Moshe goes into detail on how wars should be conducted and he focuses on the scenario when laying siege to a city.
“When you approach a city to wage war against it, you shall propose peace to it. And it will be, if it responds to you with peace, and it opens up to you, then it will be, [that] all the people found therein shall become tributary to you, and they shall serve you. But if it does not make peace with you, and it wages war against you, you shall besiege it,” (20:10-12)
On the words “But if it does make no peace with you, and it wages war against you”, Rashi comments that “the Torah is informing you that if it does not make peace with you, then, if you let it be and go away, [this city] will ultimately wage war against you.”
Basically peace and war are two sides of the coin – you have one or the other. There is nothing in between.
We like to think that there are always scenarios where compromise is possible. Solutions that are neither black nor white, but shades of grey. Not everyone gets what they want but everyone wins – sort of.
Therefore the Torah clarifies that unless peace as defined by the Torah is achieved, then you will go to war. The enemy will rebel. It is inevitable.
It is either Peace on the Torah’s terms or you will need to fight and conquer the enemy. There is no middle ground.
