HaRav Shmuel Eliahu is Chief Rabbi of Tzfat.
In this week’s Torah portion it is written: “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive” (Devarim 21:10). The army of Israel goes out from the Land of Israel to attack and wage war on enemy territory. Also in the commandment regarding the purity of the camp of those going out to war, it says: “When you go out as a camp against your enemies, you shall guard yourself from every evil thing” (Devarim 23:10). Similarly, in Parashat Shoftim, in the command to the priest who strengthens the fighters before they go out to battle, it says: “When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not fear them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (Devarim 20:1).
This stands in contrast to what is written in the Book of Bamidbar regarding war on the soil of the Land of Israel: “When you come to war in your Land against an enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies” (Numbers 10:9).
I heard from my father and teacher, avi mori, the late Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu zt”l, that the Torah hints at the proper way to conduct war: when you take the initiative and go out to fight your enemies on their land, you prevail and take captives. But when you wait for the enemy to attack you on your land and you merely defend yourself from him, then you are in trouble from “the oppressor who oppresses you” (see Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch).
A similar explanation is brought by the “Shem MiShmuel” in the name of his grandfather, the Kotzker Rebbe, who said that one should go out to a spiritual battle against the evil inclination and not wait until it comes to you. They interpreted the verses as referring to spiritual warfare because in their days there was no physical war and no Jewish army. But there is no doubt that the plain meaning of the verses speaks of actual war against enemies. And even in actual war, the proper inner orientation should be one of attacking on their ground, not of passive defense behind barbed wire fences or Iron Dome shields.
The Best Defense is Offense
From the wording of the verse “When you (plural) come to war” and not “When you (singular) come”, we learn that even if you failed and the enemy attacked on your territory because you were asleep - from the moment you awaken it is your obligation to take the initiative and dictate the course of the war. This obligation is hinted at in the words: “When you come to war in your land.” According to the Sifri this means to attack - even when the enemies have preempted you and brought war into your land, the best defense is offense.
These principles are of great importance in our times. In the Six-Day War, we struck first and achieved great victories. In the Yom Kippur War and the Simchat Torah massacre, we waited, and we paid a heavy price from the enemy who struck us. Before that war, we thought we could rely on the protective wall of the “Bar Lev Line,” which turned out to stop nothing. Similarly, we sank into a mindset of defense behind the walls of Gaza - an illusion that shattered in the massacre of Simchat Torah. Had we studied this Torah portion well and applied it, we would not have failed in this way.
Let us learn this law and spread the Torah’s guidance so that it will reach the heads of the army and direct them to wage battles in a way that brings victory and not defeat. Thus did our ancestors fight, from Abraham our forefather, through Moshe and Joshua, until King David - and they prevailed. And as Nachmanides writes, "the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children." With God’s help, we shall prevail.