Rabbi Howard Morrison

"When you go out to war against your enemies," our Parsha begins. Most years, I prefer the homiletical interpretation of the enemy being within yourself. Now, three weeks before the onset of the High Holy Days, the enemy is us. We need to conquer those base animalistic drives within ourselves which motivate us to make bad decisions, and which hurt ourselves and those around us. The season of Teshuva, repentance, calls on us to take seriously the model of wherever possible to RECOGNIZE the wrong we have done, to express REMORSE, to RECITE our error, to make RESTITUTION by fixing the wrongdoing, and effecting ultimate RECONCILIATION with those whom we have wronged -The five R's of repentance.  Most years, this would be my message on Shabbat Ki Tetze, three weeks prior to Rosh Hashanah. It is still a message for this year with a significant "HOWEVER."

One cannot gloss over the plain reading of the Biblical words, "When you go out to war against your enemies." We are at war! We have enemies.  Israel is at war with Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and others. The global Jewish community is waging a war against anti-Semitism. How much of today's civilized world remembers the war thrust upon the U.S. 23 years ago on September 11th? We Jews know only too well that last October 7^th was comparable to many 9/11's in a single day.

Parshat Ki Tetze contains more Mitzvot than any single Parsha in the entire Torah. Depending on the source, either 72 or 74 of the 613 Mitzvot are found in this parsha. They cover everything including war, an extension of last week's parsha which contained a digest of Jewish war ethics (see my sermon from last week on our website). Interestingly, today's parsha reiterates a Mitzvah which originated last week. Today's text reads as follows: "When a man has taken a bride, he shall not go out with the army or be assigned to it for any purpose; he shall be exempt one year for the sake of his household, to give happiness to the woman he has married (Deut. 24:5)."

In Jewish law, the full year exemption for a newly married man applied only to a voluntary war, which is inapplicable these days.

In today's IDF, Jewish law would characterize Israel being in an obligatory war, defensive in nature, which does not exempt Israeli newly marrieds from service. However, in the past year, what I find inspirational are the many stories of weddings which have taken place during war time. Young Israeli men and women have learned how to celebrate their love in the midst of war. Stories abound about the creativity in providing a wedding dress, a Huppa, and the like.

Our tradition teaches us that once a wedding is scheduled, it goes on, even in a year of bereavement. The Talmud instructs that if a funeral and a wedding procession are coming your way at the same time, join the wedding procession. With out disrespect to the sadness, the first priority is to love and to celebrate the union of a wedding couple. This ideology is understood to this very day.

As the opening of the Parsha confronts war time situations, so does the end of the parsha, which is known to us because it is read on the Shabbat prior to Purim: 

"Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt . . . Do not forget." While the Mitzvah here is to remember specifically the war against Amalek, which descended to Haman, an Amalekite himself, we Jews are prone to remember war. The Haggadah has us focus on our confrontation with Pharaoh. The Haggadah also includes references to other persecutions in antiquity, such as with the Roman empire. The Kinnot, dirges recited on Tisha B'Av, contain references to all kinds of persecutions throughout Jewish history. On Yom Ha'Atzmaut, we remember the War of Independence. On Yom Yerushalayim, we remember the Six Day War. Who does not recollect the 1973 Yom Kippur war every year on our holiest day? I am certain that when the dust clears, and we have some historical perspective, the October 7^th war, being waged right now, will also find its place in the annals of Jewish remembrance.

Yes, each of us needs to fight the internal war against our personal demons. I wish that were my only message this year on this Shabbat. As important if not more so, each of us needs to unite and join together in the fight which threatens the very fabric of our homeland and our heritage wherever Jews dwell on this earth.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Howard Morrison