Deuteronómio 21:12 Comentario: Rashi, Chizkuni, Da'at Zekenim & Ramban

ועשת את צפרניה means, AND SHE SHALL LET GROW HER NAILS — She must let them grow, so that she should becomes repulsive to her captor (cf. Sifrei Devarim 212:4; Yevamot 48a; see also Rashi on Genesis 1:7 and our Note thereon).

וגלחה את ראשה, “she is to shave off the hair of her head.” This is parallel to the rites observed by a person afflicted with the skin disease known as tzoraat prior to that person regaining a status of ritual purity. (Leviticus 14,9) Even Levites, prior to their appointment to their new status, had to do this, as it is a symbolic way of advancing to a level of holiness from the level of profaneness. (Numbers 8,7) [Whatever can be removed from that prisoner while she was still a gentile must be removed before she can become a member of a holy nation. Hence both hair and nails have to be removed.]

והבאת אל תוך ביתך, ”you will bring her inside your house.” According to the Talmud, tractate Kidushin folio 22, this means that after you had been intimate with her once, you must not do so again until after the procedures described in the verses that follow. Thus far the text in the Talmud as understood by Rashi. According to the version in the Jerusalem Talmud, however, even the first act of intimacy had been forbidden. The soldier cannot legally cohabit with her until all the details described in the Torah have been carried out. There are commentators who understand the words of Rashi, to not treat her harshly, to mean: “do not deprive her of the garments that she wore at the time of her capture.” [It is assumed that she had worn her best clothes so as to find favour in the eyes of any potential captor so that he would not kill her. Ed.] This is hinted at by the sequence of the verses here where she has been described as being brought into her captor’s house before undergoing a change of clothing in verse 13.