This week’s Parashah, Parashat Shoftim, discusses many important aspects of a just and righteous society. One of the aspects it discusses is the preparation for going into battle. The parsha mentions that we must always seek out peaceful options as the Torah prioritises and pursues peace. If however, all avenues for peace have been exhausted and they must go into battle there is a special announcement made. Right before the battle, the officers would announce that certain soldiers would be exempt from participating in combat. They called out three specific categories of combatants :

1. Anyone who has built a new house but hasn’t had a chance to live in it yet.
2. Anyone who planted a vineyard but hadn’t yet enjoyed its fruit.
3. Anyone who was engaged to be married but hadn’t yet celebrated with their bride.

And then, the officers added a fourth category. They said: If anyone is afraid, if a person is just too scared to fight, they should go home, too. The army didn't want one person's fear to spread and make everyone else nervous.

On the surface, this seems like a simple way to keep morale high. But the Talmud digs deeper. It explains that this fourth category wasn’t just about people being scared of war. It was for the soldiers who felt they had sinned so much that they weren’t spiritually worthy of being protected in battle. They were scared because they felt guilty.

This leads to a brilliant insight. Rabbi Yossi, another sage in the Talmud, says that the first three reasons: the house, the vineyard and the wedding, were actually created for the sake of the fourth. They were a cover story.

Think about it: In the middle of this huge national emergency, the Torah is incredibly worried about embarrassing someone. If only the guilty, fearful soldiers left, everyone would know why they were leaving. It would be obvious and humiliating.

So, the Torah created three other totally honourable and understandable reasons for leaving. That way, when a soldier walked away from the front lines, no one could know for sure why. Was he going home to his new house? To his vineyard? To his fiancée? Or was he afraid? No one could tell, and that was the point.

This is a powerful lesson for us. It teaches us that even in complicated situations like war, the Torah does not allow anyone to embarrass another person, to the point in which they would allow even the greatest soldiers to go home just for the sake of not embarrassing anyone - and we too should do the same: we should try our best to create and maintain a positive environment so that everyone can feel safe and happy.

Shabbat Shalom! 

Ariel, Grade 11