📜 Daily Chumash & Rashi – Parshas Shoftim Shishi: Laws relating to war

1. Miscellaneous Mitzvos:

• Stealing property: Do not steal another’s property by changing the line of the border.
• Witnesses: One may not accept the testimony of a single witness for any sin. Testimony is to be accepted only with two to three witnesses.
• Eid Zomeim-False witnesses: If false witnesses testify against someone and the judges discover their falsehood, one is to do to the witnesses just like they desired to do to their victim.

 

2. Laws relating to war:
   • Not to fear the enemy during war: When you leave to war and see horses and a great nation, do not fear them, as Hashem is with you.
   • The speech of the Mashuach Milchama: The appointed Kohen is to talk to you and encourage you not to fear the enemy, as Hashem will wage battle for you.
   • Exemptions from battle: The officers are to speak and announce to Bnei Yisrael that all those who are engaged to be married, built a home, or planted a vineyard, are to return. They are to also say that those who fear [the battle or their sin] are to return home and not cause the hearts of their comrades to be fearful as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Q&A on Rashi

 

📘 Rashi Q&A — Devarim 19:14–21 & 20:1–9

Devarim 19:14 — Moving Boundary Markers

Q1. What is forbidden in this verse?

1. Moving a neighbor’s boundary marker to enlarge one’s own property.

Q2. What does “לא תסיג גבול” literally mean?

1. Do not move a border marker backward into another person’s field.

Q3. Why is this prohibition needed if theft is already forbidden?

1. To teach that in Eretz Yisrael one who moves a boundary marker violates an additional prohibition besides theft.

Q4. Does this extra prohibition apply outside Eretz Yisrael?

1. No. Outside the Land, the person violates only the prohibition of theft.

 

📘 Devarim 19:15–21 — Witnesses and False Testimony

19:15

Q5. Can one witness convict a person?

1. No.

Q6. What principle does Rashi derive from the phrase “one witness”?

1. Whenever the Torah says “witness” without qualification, it normally means two witnesses.

Q7. What cannot be established through one witness?

1. Any punishment, whether monetary or physical.

Q8. What can one witness accomplish?

1. He can require the defendant to take an oath.

Q9. What does “by the mouth of two witnesses” teach?

1. Witnesses must testify directly in court, not through written statements or interpreters.

 

19:16

Q10. What type of false witness is described here?

1. A conspiring witness (eid zomem).

Q11. What is the classic example?

1. Other witnesses testify that the first witnesses could not have seen the event because they were elsewhere at the time.

 

19:17

Q12. Who are the “two men” mentioned in the verse?

1. The witnesses.

Q13. What law is derived from this wording?

1. Witnesses must testify while standing.

Q14. What additional law is derived?

1. Women may not serve as witnesses in this context.

Q15. Who are “the people between whom the controversy exists”?

1. The litigants.

Q16. What does “before Hashem” teach?

1. Judges and litigants should view themselves as standing before the Divine Presence.

Q17. What does “the judges who will be in those days” teach?

1. Every generation must respect and follow its own legitimate judges.

Q18. What example does Rashi give?

1. Yiftach in his generation is like Shmuel in his generation.

 

19:18

Q19. What must the judges do?

1. Conduct a thorough investigation.

Q20. What are they investigating?

1. The testimony of those accusing the witnesses of conspiracy.

Q21. When Scripture says “witnesses,” how many are implied?

1. Two.

 

19:19

Q22. What punishment do false witnesses receive?

1. The punishment they intended for their victim.

Q23. What key phrase does Rashi emphasize?

1. “As they plotted” (ka’asher zamam).

Q24. What does “as they plotted” teach?

1. They are punished for what they planned to do, not for what was already carried out.

Q25. What famous law is derived?

1. If their victim has already been executed, the false witnesses do not receive that same execution.

Q26. Why does the Torah say “their brother”?

1. To derive special laws regarding witnesses who sought to incriminate a daughter of a priest.

 

19:20

Q27. What is done after the punishment?

1. The sentence is publicly announced.

Q28. Why?

1. So others will hear and fear.

 

19:21

Q29. What does “eye for eye” mean according to Rashi?

1. Monetary compensation.

Q30. Does the same principle apply to tooth, hand, and leg?

1. Yes. They all refer to financial payment.

 

📘 Devarim 20:1–9 — Preparing for War

20:1

Q31. Why is the war section placed after the section on judges?

1. To teach that proper justice brings victory in war.

Q32. What must Israel remember about its enemies?

1. They are enemies who will not show mercy.

Q33. How does Hashem view the enemy’s horses and chariots?

1. As insignificant, like a single horse.

Q34. What about an enemy more numerous than Israel?

1. They seem numerous only in Israel’s eyes, not in Hashem’s.

 

20:2

Q35. Who addresses the army before battle?

1. The priest anointed specifically for war.

Q36. What is he called?

1. The Kohen Mashuach Milchamah (the priest anointed for war).

Q37. In what language does he speak?

1. Hebrew.

 

20:3

Q38. Why does the priest begin with “Hear, O Israel”?

1. Even the merit of reciting Shema can make Israel worthy of salvation.

Q39. Why emphasize that the enemy are “your enemies”?

1. Because they will not show compassion if victorious.

Q40. What four battle tactics do enemy armies use?

A.

1. Clashing shields
2. Stamping and neighing horses
3. Blowing horns
4. Shouting loudly

Q41. “Do not let your hearts faint” refers to fear of what?

1. The horses’ sounds.

Q42. “Do not fear” refers to what?

1. The clanging of shields.

Q43. “Do not be alarmed” refers to what?

1. The blast of horns.

Q44. “Do not be terrified” refers to what?

1. Enemy war cries.

 

20:4

Q45. Why should Israel not fear?

1. Because Hashem fights alongside them.

Q46. What do the nations rely on?

1. Human strength.

Q47. What does Israel rely on?

1. The power of Hashem.

Q48. What historical example does Rashi give?

1. The downfall of Goliath and the Philistines.

Q49. What accompanies Israel into battle?

1. The camp of the Ark.

 

20:5

Q50. Who is exempt from battle?

1. One who built a new house and has not yet inaugurated it.

Q51. What does inaugurating a house mean?

1. Beginning to live in it.

Q52. Why is this exemption granted?

1. The possibility that someone else will enjoy it causes anxiety.

 

20:6

Q53. Who else is exempt?

1. One who planted a vineyard and has not yet redeemed its fourth-year produce.

Q54. What is meant by “redeemed it”?

1. Redeeming or consuming the fourth-year fruit according to Torah law.

 

20:7

Q55. Who is also exempt?

1. A man who betrothed a woman but has not yet married her.

Q56. Why must he return?

1. So he will not die before completing this stage of life.

Q57. What if he ignores the exemption?

1. Rashi says he places himself in danger.

 

20:8

Q58. Who is “fearful and fainthearted”?

1. Rabbi Akiva: one genuinely afraid of battle.

Q59. How does Rabbi Yosei HaGelili explain it?

1. One afraid because of personal sins.

Q60. Why did the Torah provide the earlier exemptions?

1. To conceal the embarrassment of sinners returning home.

Q61. What would observers assume?

1. That the returning soldier qualified because of a house, vineyard, or wife.

 

20:9

Q62. What happens after the exemptions are announced?

1. Officers are appointed over the troops.

Q63. What is their role?

1. To strengthen discipline and prevent desertion.

Q64. What authority do they possess?

1. They may forcibly stop soldiers from fleeing.

Q65. What encouragement do they give?

1. “Return to battle and do not flee, for fleeing is the beginning of defeat.”