"If you should go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God puts
them in your hand and you capture prisoners from them. And you see
among the prisoners a beautiful woman; if you desire her, you may take
her as your wife."
~ Devorim 21:10-11
You may take her as your wife. The Torah speaks only to go against the
evil inclination, because if God would not permit her, he (the Jewish
soldier) would live with her illicitly. But if he does marry her, he
will ultimately hate her, as it is further stated:
"If a man has two wives, etc. " [see 21:15] and ultimately he will
father, with her, a wayward and rebellious son [see 21:18]. That is why
these chapters adjoin one another.
~ Rashi on Devorim 12:11
Rashi's view is that the Torah grants permission to a Jewish soldier to
marry a captivating captive only as a necessary but unfortunate (and
ill-fated) concession to human nature. As I'm aware, this is not the
only instance of the Torah making such a concession.
For example, it is the opinion of Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook
that God granted Noah and his descendants permission to eat meat, after
the Flood, (Bereshis 9:3) only as a last resort, in recognition that
humankind had become desensitized to violence and
could no longer restrain its desire for meat [see Nehama Leibowitz,
Studies in Bereshis, p. 77].
These two instances are, at least, well within the realm of
Torah-approved allowances to our less refined tendencies. Two questions
we should ask ourselves, as we prepare for Rosh HaShana, are: What are
the allowances we give ourselves that fall outside the
realm of Torah-sanctioned concessions? And can we, perhaps, hold
ourselves to a higher standard in the upcoming New Year?
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