[Avodah] Y'fas to'ar, etc.

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Wolberg asked:
> The explanation of pasuk 11 that if God did not permit
> her to him, he would then take her illicitly, flies in
> the face of the whole point of Torah. We are given the
> yetzer tov and the yetzer ra and are constantly challenged
> with overcoming the latter. With the reasoning Given, why
> not allow adulterous relationships when a man comes across
> a beautiful woman. Why not allow eating treif if one is
> overcome by a delicious looking steak?

One of my teachers used exactly this logic to show that for the other challenges, one DOES have the ability to overcome the yetzer hara. But for this particular situation, G-d made the world in such a way that it is NOT possible to be strong enough. Exactly why G-d chose to give us this weakness is a separate (and probably unanswerable) question. But from the evidence shown by the verses and R' Wolberg's questions, it does seem that He did make the world as described.

Another of my teachers proposed a slightly different answer, which is that we see from many reports of war, this challenge is indeed often too great for the soldier to fight. But with the additions of Hashem's mitzvah of letting her mourn, and the other things prescribed by the verses, this will tip the scales so that the soldier WILL be able to resist his urges. (But this answer does not resolve the problem of him being innocent if he does the rituals and succumbs anyway.)

Akiva Miller

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