[Avodah] Y'fas To'ar

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Sep 08, 2008 at 06:56:26PM -0400, Cantor Wolberg wrote:
: The common thread of most responses regarding my being bothered by the  
: laws of the y'fas to'ar is that it is beyond the soldier's control.

Well, beyond the control of those soldiers who follow through the whole
procedure.

To paraphrase Francis Mulcahy (the priest on the 70s TV show M*A*S*H,
a sit-com about a surgical unit in the Korean War), "We are around so
many violations of the [sixth] commandment, some of the others start
falling off as well."

As a parent, I sometimes have to choose my battles. If getting a teenage
son up and out of bed to be in shul before Barekhu is a challenge,
then perhaps I may choose not to comment on what he's wearing when he
gets there.

I thought of eishes yefas to'ar in similar terms. When someone was asked
to put their neck on the line for one mitzvah, maybe fighting them about
another issue right then isn't well timed.

One item that changes the whole mental image of the thing. Recall who
was left fighting. These are people who already passed the call "Mi
ha'ish hayarei verakh leivav" (Devarim 20:8). Those who weren't sure
their spiritual affairs were reasonably in order wouldn't have been at
the front to meet the yefas to'ar to begin with.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Time flies...
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