Kabbalah Library
Zohar for All, Volume 10
When You Go Out to War Against Your Enemies
1. It is written, “Israel has rejected good; an enemy will pursue him.” “Israel has rejected good” is the good inclination, which King Solomon called it good, as it is written, “Better a poor and wise child than a foolish old king.”
“An enemy will pursue him” is the evil inclination, man’s enemy, which King Solomon called “enemy.” It has many names, as it is written, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread,” and bread is the holy Torah, as it is written, “Go, eat of my bread.”
2. For this reason, a person must put words of Torah on the evil inclination so it will break, since there is no enemy to the evil inclination besides words of Torah. This is why it is written, “And these words that I command you today will be on your heart,” meaning on both your inclinations, both hearts.
3. why does the good inclination need words of Torah? It is because the good inclination is crowned with words of Torah, and the evil inclination surrenders to words of Torah.
4. This is why it is written, “When you go out to war against your enemies,” which is the evil inclination that we must go out against with words of Torah, and batter it, and then it will be given into man’s hands, as it is written, “And the Lord your God delivers it into your hand and you take it captive.”
5. Woe to this, and woe to that. It is written, “Under a slave when he becomes king, and a fool when he is satisfied with food,” since the good inclination is taken captive by the evil inclination, which is king over it.
6. “And you see among the captives a beautiful woman.” This is the soul, as it is written, “A woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised,” since each day, these associations and leaders of the souls, and those associations and leaders of the evil inclination are in perpetual hatred, battering one another, and all the organs of the body are agonizing between them, between the soul and the evil inclination.
7. “Then you shall bring her into your home,” the home from which she was banished. It is written about this, “and a maidservant that inherits her mistress,” meaning that the maidservant, the evil inclination, went into the house, and the mistress, the soul, was banished from there, and now he brought the soul back to the house. It is written, “She shall shave her head and trim her nails,” so she is purified from that filth which the serpent had cast into the soul.
8. “She shall take off the clothes of her captivity,” the clothes of impurity, and the bad kinds that she had since the sin of the calf, since at first, they had clothes of holiness that they received on Mount Sinai, and when they worshipped the calf, these clothes of honor were removed from them, as it is written, “And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.”
9. “She shall mourn her father and her mother a full month.” A full month means Elul, which is the time of repentance in which Moses went up to the mountain to plead for mercy before the Creator, to atone for Israel for the sin of the calf. And because of it, “She shall mourn her father and her mother,” since he exposed the nakedness of the Creator, who is the father of the soul, and the nakedness of the Torah, the mother of the soul, as it is written, “The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover,” and it is written about that, “My eyes shed streams of tears because they do not keep Your law [Torah].”
10. Israel were far from the king, the Creator, from the beginning of Elul until the Day of Atonement, when forty days had been completed and Moses came down from the mountain. Israel were fasting throughout that day, and then the king adhered to the queen, as it is written, “After that you will come to her and go in to her, and she shall be your wife.”
11. They made a covenant with the Creator not to commit idol-worship, as it is written, “Behold, I am making a covenant before all your people,” and it is written, “You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.” And this is why it is written, “But you shall not sell her for money,” meaning you shall not be untrue for gods of silver, as it is written, “You shall not make anything to be with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.”
12. Happy are Israel, on whom the Creator decreed fasting on this day, since it is written, “For any soul that is not afflicted on that same day shall be cut off from her people,” so that all their sins will be atoned for, as it is written, “For on this day, He will atone for you, to purify you from all your sins; you will be purified before the Lord.”
