When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it. It shall be, if it answers you in peace and opens to you, then it shall be that all the people who are found therein shall become tributary to you and shall serve you. If it will not make peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it. and when Hashem your G-d delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword. But the women, and the little ones, and the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies which Hashem your God has given you. Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
The Ohr Hachaim explains this parsha with the words of the Zohar (Vol. 2 62a) that Hashem sends a person an extra soul from Heaven, which guides him on the correct path, and teaches him how not to sin. This is besides his Heavenly soul, and is known as a person’s ‘mazal’ or guardian angel.
These pessukim are talking to this soul of a person and telling him how to act when guiding a person. When this soul draws near to a city, which a euphemism for the human body, it does so for the purposes of war. The Zohar (Zohar Chadash Rus 97) writes, on the possuk (Koheles 9:14) עִיר קְׁטַנָה וַאֲנָשִים בָה מְׁעָט – There was a little city, and few men within it, that the small city refers to the human being. The person needs to wage war against his evil inclination, and this war is a terrible great one.
The possuk calls the war with the city לְׁהִלָּחֵם עָלֶיהָ - to fight on it, because the war isn’t with the city, it is to save the city. As the possuk in Koheles (ibid) continues וּמָצָא בָה אִיש מִסְׁכֵּן חָכָם וּמִלַט הוּא אֶת הָעִיר בְׁחׇכְׁמָתוֹ - Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city.
The way to wage this war to save the city is alluded to by the possuk. וְׁקָרָאתָ אֵּלֶיהָ לְׁשָלום - then proclaim peace to it. A person cannot change his nature and inclinations from one extreme to another in one shot. He must first call out inside himself that by fighting his yetzer hara, he will gain both in this world and the next. A person requires sustenance to survive in this world, and that is certainly true regarding the world to come. A person needs to tell himself that he should ensure that he takes care of his future life, and with this he will also gain in this world. His physical life will be improved if he takes care of his spiritual dimension. These are words of peace, that compromise between the two dimensions of the human existence.
וְׁהָיָה – if it shall come to pass. This word is an expression of happiness, as Chazal (Bereishis Rabbah 43:3) tells us. אִם שָלום תַעַנְׁךָ - if it shall agree to this compromise and combination between this world and the next, all the person has to do is וּפָתְׁחָה לָךְ – open up to you. As our Torah teaches us, all a person has to do is open a tiny opening, the size of a needle, and Hashem will open up to us like the door of a hall.
וְׁהָיָה כׇל הָעָם הַנִמְׁצָא בָה יִהְׁיוּ לְׁךָ לָמַס וַעֲבָדוּךָ - then it shall be that all the people who are found therein shall become tributary to you and shall serve you. The entire person – all of his 248 limbs and 365 sinews, will now be subservient to the guardian angel and the person’s soul. They will be tributary to the soul and they will fulfill all of the positive mitzvos, with their bodies and money. They will also serve you by being careful and refraining from all of the prohibitions, without veering in the slightest.
וְׁאִם לֹּא תַשְׁלִים עִמָךְ – if, however, the person refuses to make peace with you and turns down the compromise, veering from the straight path of Torah and Mitzvos. This sometimes happens after a person begins to do teshuva and his evil inclination grabs him back. In this case, his evil outweighs that which he did prior to his first attempt to do teshuva because his evil inclination increases its powers commensurate with a person’s attempt to fight him. וְׁעָשְׁתָה עִמְׁךָ מִלְׁחָמָה – and he shall wage war with you, we are to fight back. וְׁצַרְׁ תָ עָלֶיהָ – and you shall besiege it. The Gemara (Berachos 5a) tells us that a person should always incite his positive inclination against his evil inclination. He should set up a war, forbidding himself even from permitted matters to keep far away from sin. He should flagellate himself, suffering fasts, whippings, and crying, to weaken the powers of evil in the town.
When a person fights his evil inclination, he is sure to eventually win. וּנְׁתָנָה ה' א לוקיךָ בְׁיָדֶךָ וְׁהִכִיתָ אֶת כׇ ל זְׁכוּרָה לְׁפִי חָרֶב – Hashem your G-d shall place it into your hands, and you will win that war by the sword. The possuk (Tehillim 149:6) says רומְׁמות אֵּל בִגְׁרונָם וְׁחֶרֶב פִיפִיות בְׁיָדָם - Exaltations of G-d in their throat, and a double edged sword in their hand. By turning to praise of Hashem, a person has a double-edged sword in his hand, able to fight the Yetzer Hara.
רַק הַנָשִים וְׁהַטַף וְׁהַבְׁהֵּמָה וְׁכֹּל אֲשֶר יִהְׁיֶה בָעִיר - But the women, and the little ones, and the livestock, and all that is in the city. The nefesh and the ruach are known as women in relation to the neshama. (These are the three aspects of the human soul, which are divided according to their powers and abilities). The little ones are the good deeds that a person does, before he turned to evil ways. Once he had turned down the path of iniquity, his mitzvos are no longer accepted in Heaven. As the possuk (Tehillim 50:16) וְׁלָרָשָע אָמַר א לוקים מַה לְׁךָ לְׁסַפֵּר חֻקָי וַתִשָא בְׁרִ יתִי עֲלֵּי פִיךָ - But to the wicked G-d says, "What is it to you to declare My statutes, and that you have taken My covenant in your mouth?” Hashem does not want the mitzvos of evil ones, but when they do teshuva, all of their mitzvos are elevated and are now acceptable in Heaven. These are the children of the body that followed evil, and are now his mitzvos that he has done, because he has won the war against his evil inclination.
The animals will also be his. This refers to the lust for physical matters, which will now be fully under the person's control. The possuk continues that everything in the town will belong to the person. Every ability, talent, power, and piece of knowledge will be subservient to a person’s decision.
כֵּן תַעֲשֶה לְׁכׇ ל הֶעָרִ ים הָרְׁ חֹּקֹּת מִמְׁךָ מְׁאֹּד אֲשֶר לֹּא מֵּעָרֵּי הַגּויִם הָאֵּלֶה הֵּנָה - Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. This teaches us that the pessukim are talking about the bodies that have been distanced from Hashem. When a person has sunk into aveiros and evil, he is distant from Hashem and must be returned. But those cities that are not in Eretz Yisroel and have no connection to holiness at all, which is discussing souls of the erev rav, whose lives are like those of non-Jews, will not be saved in this way. They need to be destroyed completely, as the possuk continues.
