This week's Torah portion is chock full of mitzvot but we ended up going deep into just a few of them, particularly the laws surrounding the yefat toar, the war brides that Jewish soldiers are permitted to capture and marry. Commentaries portray this law as a rare accommodation to human passion, which, for the soldier in the heat of battle, might be too strong to overcome, and so the Torah provides a framework for allowing what would otherwise be a sin. But is this law an isolated occurrence, or does it have something to tell us about the nature of all desire. Aaron brings up a provocative passage from the Izhbitzer Rebbe, leading to some very interesting back and forth about how (or whether) sin can be constructive.
This week's Torah portion is chock full of mitzvot but we ended up going deep into just a few of them, particularly the laws surrounding the yefat toar, the war brides that Jewish soldiers are permitted to capture and marry. Commentaries portray this law as a rare accommodation to human passion, which, for the soldier in the heat of battle, might be too strong to overcome, and so the Torah provides a framework for allowing what would otherwise be a sin. But is this law an isolated occurrence, or does it have something to tell us about the nature of all desire. Aaron brings up a provocative passage from the Izhbitzer Rebbe, leading to some very interesting back and forth about how (or whether) sin can be constructive.