Comentários de Citação sobre Deuteronômio 20:8

Introduction Above in mishnah two we learned who returns from war if they are already out at battle. Those categories of people returned and worked in supplying food and water to the soldiers and in repairing the roads. In today’s mishnah we learn those who don’t go out to war in the first place and do not supply food or drink to the soldiers or fix the roads. The idea that there are some soldiers who return home is connected to Deuteronomy 20:8, while the idea that some are not even obligated to go out in the first place is connected to 24:5, as we shall see below.

ולא יקרא עוד את שמך, the word את after the verb in the passive conjugation "yikarey" is used to make something more clear. (the author dealt with this principle in his introduction to דקדוק המלים) Other examples of such a construction are found in Numbers 26,55 וכן יחלק את הארץ, as well as in Deuteronomy 20,8 ולא ימס את אחיו. Our sages say that when a person's name is changed this results in the cancellation of evil decrees that had been issued against such a person. (Rosh Hashanah 16) They point to Avraham and Sarah as proof. Both Avraham and Sarah after having had their names changes had become able to jointly produce Yitzchok.

ואברהם...את יצחק בנו, this verse is another example of the word את appearing in conjunction with verbs which appear in the passive mode. To name just a few such examples: Numbers 26,55 יחלק את הארץ, or Deut. 20,5 ולא ימס את לבב אחיו. What is the reason that the Torah saw fit to write this verse at all? Seeing that the Torah had told us that Avraham had been 99 years old when he had received the commandment of circumcision, and G’d had told him that Sarah would bear this son for him in the following year, we knew that he would be 100 years old at that time! (17,21) Perhaps the Torah wanted to tell us that Avraham had completed 100 years when Yitzchok was born and that the previous prophecy had been revealed to him when he had completed 99 years. In that event, Sarah’s pregnancy lasted fully 12 months, so that the news revealed in our verse is that her pregnancy was unnaturally lengthy.