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Orchard of Delights # Ki Teitzei
#
open roof is a serious safety hazard, the Torah instructs the builder
to construct a protective railing around it, so that no one falls off the
roof.
Adopting a typical Chassidic approach to interpreting the Torah,
the Slonimer Rebbe explains that this portion is always read in the
month of Elul to teach each and everyone of us an important personal
message. As we prepare for the new year and strive to attain a higher
level of consciousness – figuratively building a new house and, as it
were, ascending to the roof – we may find the experience dizzying.
To counteract the tendency to build unrealistic castles in the air,
the Torah teaches us to make a fence around our new aspirations by
protecting the roof, the new level of consciousness.
The Slonimer Rebbe discovers an allusion, a remez, to this message
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in the numerical value of the Hebrew word for guardrail (ma’akeh),
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which is 215, or, more relevantly, 216 when one adds a one, to represent
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the word itself. This equals the numerical value of the Hebrew word
for awe or fear (yirah). Yirah is the internal motivating force for the
sefirah of Gevurah, which means strength, discipline, and order.
The connection between the guardrail and Gevurah teaches us that
we must create a disciplined plan of action to put our New Year’s
resolutions into effect and not squander our newly found, highly
elevated ideals.
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, in an as yet unpublished discourse,
shines light on the personal nature of this mitzvah by revealing its
profound psychological and spiritual layers. He explains that “going
up to the roof” symbolizes the individual’s attempt to leave the
pressures of society and one’s peers behind, so as to sort out what
one really thinks. Furthermore, he points out that on the rooftop
one gains a new vantage point, which can lead to new perspectives,
unhampered by the consensus viewpoint and its inherent limitations.
King David describes this sensation in the following way: “I am like
an owl of the wilderness; I am like a night flyer of the desert. I watch
and am like a lonely sparrow upon the roof” (Psalms 102:7-8).
Based on the unusual formulation of the verse – “if a fallen one
falls from it,” instead of “if someone falls from it” – Rashi comments
that if someone falls off a roof, it is because he or she was a “fallen
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under the appropriate circumstances, be redeemed. The Torah warns
us though that redeeming sparks of holiness is a serious business
which can only be achieved through a process of clarification and
purification. The Slonimer Rebbe further explains that as soon as we
pass the test of conquering our evil inclinations, we are immediately
confronted with new tests, in this case, the test of the beautiful
captive. On a metaphorical level, the captive woman must shave her
head, let her nails grow long, and take off her garments of captivity to
symbolize the process whereby her alluring external form is removed
to determine if there really is a holy spark worthy of redemption
underneath.
After the woman undergoes a month of mourning (during which
her external beauty is significantly diminished), if the man is still
attracted to her then the Torah assumes that his attraction to her was
not merely a function of the heat of battle but a function of the spark
of holiness in her that has now been redeemed. Having ascended to
a new level of consciousness over the course of the last month, the
captive woman is now ready to begin a new life, so she may marry
him. Despite the Torah’s permitting the marriage, the Sages warn
that such a marriage is fraught with difficulties. The Sages, always
open to coded meanings in the text, understood the juxtaposition of
the next two topics in the Torah portion as a warning against the
risks involved in making such a marriage. They suggested that such
a marriage – as these two topics indicate – can only lead to the cases
of a man who has two wives, a beloved one and a despised one, and a
couple who has a rebellious son.
Rabbi Ari Kahn, in his book Explorations, goes to great lengths to
establish that the true facts of the case are quite different from what
our initial superficial reading of the text leads us to believe. First,
using rabbinic sources, he establishes that in those days only the
most righteous of individuals were chosen to fight the Jewish people’s
wars. Secondly, he cites the Zohar’s comment that this captured
woman was no ordinary woman; rather, she was a “beautiful soul,”
a spark of holiness trapped in a pagan culture. Thus, he concludes
that the righteous soldier, who is attracted to her, is indeed drawn
to this spark of holiness and not just motivated by raw desire. This
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