Hebrew Bible Study
Hebrew Bible Study

Halakhah for Deuteronomy 6:10

וְהָיָ֞ה כִּ֥י יְבִיאֲךָ֣ ׀ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֗יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֜רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֨ר נִשְׁבַּ֧ע לַאֲבֹתֶ֛יךָ לְאַבְרָהָ֛ם לְיִצְחָ֥ק וּֽלְיַעֲקֹ֖ב לָ֣תֶת לָ֑ךְ עָרִ֛ים גְּדֹלֹ֥ת וְטֹבֹ֖ת אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹא־בָנִֽיתָ׃

And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land which He swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee—great and goodly cities, which thou didst not build,

Gray Matter IV

Rambam (Hilchot Melachim 8:11) severely limits the application of this Halachah. He imposes the following four limitations: the Halachah applies only to front line soldiers, only when located in enemy territory, (where the supply lines from the Jewish army are disrupted) only if they are very hungry, and only if there is no other food available. The Kesef Mishneh (ad. loc.) explains that the soldiers are not dangerously hungry to the point that they will die if they do not eat. Rather they are simply very hungry and they cannot find kosher food. The Netziv (Ha’ameik Davar to Devarim 6:10) explains “that the permission granted is due to Pikuach Nefesh (danger to life), as being overly concerned about Kashrut during war can lead to endangering lives”.
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