II Kings 18:20 Jewish Thought: Akeidat Yitzchak

Since man is composed of two parts, the physical and the spiritual, he needs to operate with two kinds of perceptions, one which enables him to recognise the material, the worldly, and the other which helps him recognise and relate to spiritual phenomena or spiritual aspects of other human beings. When we talk about "knowing so and so," we define "so and so" in terms of height, width, colour etc. We perceive that he is human by a different cognitive process, a process reserved for recognising intangible abstract concepts. The former process is called hakkarah, recognition, the latter yediyah, knowledge. When the brothers brought Joseph's blood-drenched coat to their father Jacob, they said "do you recognise if this is the coat of your son?" This is a term applicable only to material things. When G'd talks about Abraham, prior to revealing to him the impending destruction of Sodom, He says "for I know him, in order that he will command etc." This clearly describes cognition of Abraham's personality, something intangible. Since it is not easy to acquire the latter facility, our sages have frequently illustrated abstract concepts by employing parables. The phenomena described in such parables are a sort of crutch to help us translate these concepts into the abstract. The master par excellence of such parables is king Solomon, whose parables acquired international and enduring fame. He employed the double entendre for instance, when he advised the lazy man to learn from the ant which lays in a food supply in advance of the oncoming winter. (Proverbs 6) The hidden message is that man who has been given a brain should use and condition it, so that when the difficult time (winter) arrives, he will be prepared to cope with it, since he is aware of the purpose of difficult periods. The Torah also employs such parables on occasion. When Moses says in Deut 32,46, "pay attention to all the matters which I testify against you this day...for it is not an empty matter... but it is your life," the reference is to the fact that words of admonition are not to be understood only at face value, but they address themselves also to our ability to comprehend spiritual concepts. (see our commentary about G'd talking to Adam in Eden, chapter seven) A similar double entendre is contained in the Torah's legislation about warfare. The Torah legislates about physical warfare, of course; but internal struggles in the soul are being described at the same time. By overcoming internal foes, the soldier readies himself to overcome external foes and to conquer foreign lands. (Internal struggles may also include the fight of the body to overcome a virus it has been invaded by, for instance) A person's face reflects inner struggles, just as warfare between nations is something visible that cannot be concealed. We see this from the comment of Yonadav to Amnon. (Samuel II 13,4.) In order to treat such internal struggles, a doctor needs to be thoroughly familiar with the chemistry of the body, and he needs to be able to compensate for any chemical imbalances in the system of the afflicted patient. The most difficult war however, is the struggle between conflicting emotions or characteristics that goes on within one's personality. When love and jealousy battle with one another, when greed and generosity find themselves in conflict within the same person, this is serious indeed. When Artaxerxes accuses Nechemyah of a face which expresses sadness and anger, pointing out that the latter was not physically unwell, he alludes to the inner struggle that leaves its mark on a person's facial expressions. (Nechemyah 2,3) (compare our commentary chapter sixty seven) In spite of visible symptoms of psychological illness, the doctor who undertakes to cure same requires even more expertise than the one who cures physical ills. Since G'd is the greatest of all doctors, David proclaims: "favour me O Lord, for I am bowed down. Heal me O G'd, for my bones are afflicted; and above all my soul which is very afflicted. (Psalms 6,3-4, et al) Discussion of the verses in our Parshah will be divided into those dealing with physical warfare, and those dealing with inner conflicts. The three main objectives of a general in charge of a military campaign are summed up by Sancheriv. (Kings II chapter 18) They are: 1) words of the lips. 2) counsel. 3) bravery. In other words, a list of objectives, (words) strategic and tactical planning, (counsel) and heroism and bravery in the execution of such plans. Sancheriv accuses Chiskiyahu of breach of trust, and asks "on whom do you rely that you have dared to rebel against me?" This provided the excuse for his attack. He then ridicules any hope Chiskiyahu may be entertaining of making a successful defence, by describing Egypt and any other potential allies as useless. Thirdly, since Chiskiyahu's plans would be doomed to failure anyways, he asks who would display the heroism needed when they knew they were fighting for a lost cause! Whenever the Jewish people mobilise for warfare, the above mentioned three basic rules are observed and are described in our Parshah.

When we look at the allegorical meaning of our passage, the city mentioned in this chapter described as under siege, represents the total body of man, all his physical attributes. It is the task of man's spiritual forces to harness and subdue his physical forces in order to further his spiritual advancement. When the physical forces surrender, having been called upon to do so, they will survive unimpaired in the service of man's spiritual self. Should they assert themselves however, by rejecting a subordinate role, they may need to be subdued by "siege," i.e. asceticism, fasting etc. until they have learned their true function in life. Man requires his body in order to survive, just as the tree needs the soil for its growth and the ability to produce fruit. Any human being likely to yield fruit, i.e. good deeds, is not to be destroyed in this struggle between the material and the spiritual forces of man. Only someone whose uselessness in his present form has been established, must have his body destroyed in order to hasten the rehabilitation of all the other people within whom the power of the spirit has not yet triumphed in the long drawn out battle for supremacy of the spirit.

When the passage describing Israel as marching into battle, adds "and the Lord will deliver him (your enemy) into your hand," this is to leave no doubt that all heroism and bravery notwithstanding, it is not the might of the Jewish sword that ensures success in battle, but the help of the Lord. "When you take prisoner"; first you capture people. Then the Torah instructs who is to remain alive, who may not be allowed to live, who must remain a prisoner, disposition of the bodies etc. (21,10- 20,20,14-15) The remarkable brevity used here in contrast with all the details the Torah lavishes on how to legitimize a marriage between a Jewish soldier and a female prisoner he has taken a liking to, suggests that the Torah is more concerned with the internal conflict raging within man, and how the Torah endeavours to help man overcome his physical urges step by step. Although the Torah is basically opposed to a sexual union with persons of non Jewish origin, knowing the power of our urges, the Torah blunts our potential disobedience of its laws. The Torah does this by permitting a modified union with the captured prisoner. (Kiddushin 21, 68) The Talmud makes it plain that the entire episode is meant to show how to wean us from enslavement to our basic instincts. After an initial union,-permitted because of overpowering carnal desire,- (vechashakta) once the lust has been assuaged, this woman is allowed into the soldier's house just as after the initial union of husband and wife, the two live under the same roof, although the bride is temporarily forbidden to her husband. Prior to the wedding, the young couple had not been allowed to be alone together under one roof since the power of their sexual urge had not yet been sated. The regulation about the prisoner cutting hair and fingernails serves to reduce her attraction in the eyes of her consort. Her mode of dress is designed to deprive her of any sex appeal, since she must remove the garments in which she had made herself attractive when taken prisoner. During her enforced month of mourning for her parents, her attraction is liable to diminish even further in the eyes of her captor. At that point it may be assumed that should her captor still want to marry her, such desire would not be based on merely physical considerations, but on other qualities he has observed in her which he cherishes. At that point her status as a saleable commodity, i.e. a slave, ceases, and from then on any eventual separation between the two will not result in financial benefit to her captor. Since many a man can control his lust when financial loss is involved in satisfying it, the Torah here adds a further deterrent to an eventual permanent union between captor and captive. We have observed that the Torah has employed seven successive steps to help cool the soldier's yetzer hara. When the Torah promises that our enemies will be put to flight by us in seven different directions, this is an allusion to the seven ways in which our internal enemies will be subdued if we follow Torah precepts. (Deut. 28,7) To complete the hyperbole, the line "when you go out to war against your enemy" refers to the fact that your yetzer hara "has gotten out of hand"; in order to regain control of it you have to mount a campaign against it. When the Lord delivers the yetzer hara into your hands,-as an acknowledgement of your efforts to tame it,- it will appear exceptionally attractive to you. Gradually, you reduce it to the point when you wonder how such an unattractive creature could ever have been able to get out of hand, to come close to seducing you. The final reference to dismissing the captive (verse 14) if the captor no longer likes her, would refer, allegorically speaking, to denial of all physical pleasures and living a life of asceticism such as practiced by a few saintly people. We find a similar homiletical approach on our Parshah in Succah 52, where Rabbi Akiva describes the yetzer hara as having seven names, each representing a different aspect of the charms it exudes. An examination of the details of that aggadah will lead to the conclusion that the power of the yetzer hara seems to have diminished throughout history. There is biblical confirmation for the claim that the people who wound up in exile, were actually tzaddikim from a moral point of view. (see chapter twenty four in Jeremiah) If we look at the three paragraphs in our Parshah that deal with warfare, they can be seen to parallel the three approaches to successful warfare quoted at the beginning of our chapter, "devar sefatayim-eytzah-gevurah. By employing the first two stratagems, the third, i.e. strength of character under conditions of stress becomes capable of achievement. When our sages teach in Avot 4,1, "who is a hero? he who can control his baser instincts," we find victory over the yetzer hara identified with heroism on the battlefield. The Talmud Berachot 34, describes the moral stature of the baal teshuvah, the repentant sinner as superior to that of the saint. This refers only to the kind of repentant sinner who has demonstrated that when confronted with an equally attractive challenge by his yetzer, he has not succumbed a second time. (Yuma 86) A saint would not even be allowed to expose himself to such satanic lures. Yet, a baal teshuvah, in a sense, has to expose himself, in order to prove that his repentance has really taken hold. Only in this way can he prove his resistance to the "germ." To put it into a different context, let us assume that a person falls ill and runs a temperature rising from one hundred to one hundred and four degrees. While the sickness is at that stage of intensifying, one hundred and two would be considered serious and alarming, whereas once the fever is on the way down, one hundred and two would be considered proof that the healing process had commenced. Similarly, the difference between the tzaddik gamur, the saint, and the baal teshuvah. The former never ran a fever. The latter, though still running a fever, is definitely on the mend. Some minor misdemeanours, which if performed by the "saint" would earn him the reputation of being wicked, would earn the baal teshuvah the reputation of being "good," since they represent such a vast improvement over his former mode of behaviour. When the bamah, private altar was castigated as a serious sin during the reign of the kings (Solomon), later kings who had eradicated all public idol worship except private altars (on which offerings were made only to G'd) are lauded for their general performance. (compare Assa, Yehoshaphat; Kings II chapter 22-23) From the proof adduced by the Talmud Berachot 34, "peace, peace to the far and to the near," (Isaiah 57,19) it appears that preference is given to the baal teshuvah. If the true meaning of "who is a hero, he who subdues his urges," is that the inner struggle and victory over the yetzer hara is the true meaning of heroism, the "saint" could quite easily qualify for the title "hero." He need not to have sinned and have regained his moral stature in order to qualify for that title. His very "saintliness" may be the result of having overcome his yetzer hara without having first succumbed to it, as did the baal teshuvah The Torah endeavours to teach this concept when it challenges us to assist our enemy when the latter is engaged in rescuing his donkey from collapse due an overload. (Exodus 23,5) This extends even to challenges involving us in expenditures to restore lost property to people who have demonstrated active dislike for us. The Kabbalah presents an interesting further little detail of this legislation. Supposing a person is faced with the opportunity of either helping a friend unload an animal, or assisting an enemy in loading, the latter has to be made his first priority. This brings home the point that the legislation represents a moral challenge, even more clearly. (Baba Metzia 32) It teaches that even when on a physical level the suffering of the friend's beast that awaits unloading is to be considered, the attempt to win over the enemy by offering him assistance is considered more urgent. This takes precedence even over what we commonly call "our self respect." We should rather belong to the category of people who feel slighted than to the category that does the slighting. (compare chapters 63 and 65)