What Did You Have in Mind?

                     By Rabbi Joshua (constructively known as The Hoffer) Hoffman



  In this week's parsha, we learn of the 'eidim zomemim,' or conspiring witnesses, who testify falsely in beis din against someone in an attempt to have a certain penalty meted out to him. If another pair of witnesses comes to beis din and testifies that the first pair was with them at a different location when the crime supposedly took place, this second pair is believed, and the first pair is given the penalty that it tried to bring upon the defendant. The Torah tells us, "You shall do to him as he conspired to do to his brother, and you shall destroy the evil from your midst" (Devorim 19:19). This law applies even when the conspiring witness attempted to have the defendant executed through beis din, as the Torah goes on to say, Your eye shall not pity : life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Devorim 19:21). The medieval commentor Rabbeinu Yitzchak ben Yehudah, in his work  Pa'aneach Raza, points out that it is not insignificant that the next verse in the Torah begins the section on waging war. The message here is that in the merit of fulfilling the verse "and you shall destroy the evil from your midst" we will go out to war and be victorious. He does not, however, explain why this should be so. I would like to suggest an explanation, based on a teaching of Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Ha-Kohein Kook, as quoted by his disciple, Rav Moshe Tzvi Neriah.


  Rav Neriah, in his posthumously published Torah commentary, Ner LaMaor, mentions a Sifrei which expounds a verse at the end of the section on waging war, "and build a bulwark against the city that makes war against you, until it is conquered "(Devorim 20:20) to mean that a war to conquer the city from one of the seven nations is to be waged even on Shabbos. Rav Kook points out that since this derivation has the status of a Biblical law, the Shabbos violation referred to must be a Shabbos labor that is Biblically forbidden. For this to be so, the act must be done in a constructive manner. Even though waging war is, ostensibly, a destructive endeavor, the wars that the Jewish nation fought in conquering the land had, ultimately, a positive purpose, namely, 'to improve the world through God's sovereignty,' as we say three times a day in the 'Aleinu' prayer.  By destroying those nations that did not observe the minimal demands of the Noachide laws, the nation was clearing the way for the time in the future when God would be universally recognized as the true God. Thus, the war had a constructive purpose. Rav Kook says that this holds true for the wars to be waged against Amalek, as well. This war, the rabbis tell us, will ultimately lead to the building of the Temple, where all nations will come to serve God. Thus, these wars are truly 'wars to end all wars.' Anyone who does not have this ultimate purpose in mind when waging these wars, concludes Rav Kook, has not really fulfilled God's will through his participation in them. With this teaching of Rav Kook in mind, we can now understand the comment of the Pa'aneach Raza, which we began with.


  In the section regarding the conspiring witnesses, the Torah tells us that by meting out the appropriate punishment to these witnesses, which can even include putting them to death, we will destroy the evil from our midst. I believe that the Torah is not only telling us that this will be the result of the punishment, but that it also must be the motivation we have in mind when meeting out the punishment. This section is then followed by the section on waging war, and the Pa'aneach Raza tells us that this juxtaposition caries the message that in the merit of destroying the evil from our midst, we will be victorious in the wars we wage in Eretz Yisroel. This section is then followed by the section on waging war, and the Pa'aneach Raza tells us that this juxtaposition caries the message that in the merit of destroying the evil from our midst, we will be victorious in the wars we wage in Eretz Yisroel. The message here, I would suggest, is that just as we must carry out the laws of the conspiring witness with the express purpose of destroying the evil form our midst, and not for any personal motive, so too must we wage the wars in Eretz Yisroel for the purpose of destroying the evil from the land, and clearing the way or the universal recognition of God. The Torah is thus telling us that if we do carry out these wars for this purpose, we will be successful.



  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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