Parashat Lech Lecha
„That Yaakov should have a foreign power outside his soul, so that he could use, where necessary, the evil traits — but as an acquisition of the soul they would not be within him at all.”From Midbar Shur 29
In this week's parashah Avraham Avinu goes out to war because the enemy attacked and took Lot captive. Scripture describes how he strikes the enemy and pursues him as far as Damascus. In war as in war, he does not have mercy and does not make calculations. Yet a moment afterward he is unwilling to take money that is not his. Judaism defined moral definitions even for war — ones that hold no mercy for the enemy, but that hold mercy for us: a regard for captives, for values, and for the world of flora and fauna at a time when our soul is being scarred. So that we will remember and know that a time of war is outside the soul, so that we may succeed in returning, in our souls too, from the war.
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From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.