31 December, 2023 08:51

Our Torah

There are verses in our Torah that go (something, paraphrasing) like this…

"When a man goes out to war,… and sees a woman…

He may take her … into his home"… … he then has to let her mourn, her nails and hair grown long (apparently to make her less sexually attractive) and then after 30 days he can marry her.

By the way,.. later there is the Torah of the "wayward son"… the one that is so insanely drunk, gluttonious, and hating towards his parents and elders, that we can take him to the city gates and stone this person to death.

Why does the Torah teach these verses and why do the commentators connect the wayward son to this union of the captured woman?

*, first our Holy torah knows human nature and accepts it, BUT also always is trying its best to aim us in the "right" direction.

There are wars. Check. There women who are kidnapped. Check. There is a sexual drive. Check. At each stage, the Torah says, yes, humans take other humans and want to have sex with them (rape or otherwise). Here is where God of Rachachimm steps in and says… you (men) cannot just do whatever you want. (Well, we can, so the Torah says "if") and advises us to do the right thing. It concedes that women will be taken. Nebuch. But stand on your head, what can I say that the verses do not?

So, the man in war takes this woman. He cannot touch her for 30 days. He is supposed to have her in the middle of his room where he cannot avoid what he has done. Then he marries her…. but (most likely) he has a 1st wife… and this new 2nd wife is spurned and u loved. You know who sees this his whole childhood? The boy who grows up to be the wayward son!

So, the Torah puts this chain of events together to show (possible) consequences of taking a woman in war