Parashas Ki Seitzei

Our Parsha this Shabbos , is Parashas Ki Seitzei . In the previous Parsha, just before this section, we just learned of the case where a body is found and no one knows who had committed the action, so we take the closest city and do what is prescribed by the Torah . The incident being described here ,took place , due to the fact that the closest city to this happening, did not take the proper care to escort a guest , and so , the guest met with tragedy . Now , this Parsha starts talking of going out to war . Thus, in going out from one's personal surroundings, one can encounter all kinds of danger .Why is this , we might ask? Because there is a deeper meaning here . When we " Go Out " - " Ki Seitzei," from Whom we should be working closer To - HaShem , we put ourselves in danger .So here , looking deeply into these words ,the ' Going out From ' refers to HaShem and His Commandments. Thus whenever we go out from HaShem and His Ways, we will fall short. The Haftorah this week is from Isaiah 54:1-10 and discusses how our desolation and exile will come to an end.Though things may look bleak , at the end , HaShem Returns to Zion . The time will come when Mitzvos will be kept and so , like our Parsha, staying with the Law, leads us back to HaShem .
The Parsha starts with the captive woman and then goes onto the Firstborn's rights, if a man had more than one wife and one becomes hated while the other loved, one must still treat the first born with the honor accorded , even if the firstborn , came from the one less liked . The Parsha continues on with the Laws of a wayward and rebellious son and the law that a body hanged, must not be left out overnight .
The Torah then teaches us to be concerned with another's property and animals. The concern for another must always go above the concern and feelings for one self .
HaShem then Instructs that the genders must not wear each other's clothing . HaShem Created both male and female and this is how Creation functions . To try change that with or for any reason , is to tell HaShem , a person knows better than Him . We each have a special role to fulfill in Creation and so must we always follow how HaShem Made everything .Torah mentions another Chok ( A Law not openly explainable ) about sending away the Mother's Bird , where our Rabbonim talk of how we must always be as compassionate to other's feelings as much as possible .
HaShem Created for us a safe World. We must continue to keep it that way .Thus we are to always be cognizant about another's safety and needs . Thus, if a new house is built, we are to make a barrier around the roof to keep anyone walking there , safe . The Law of Forbidden mixtures or fibers is then spoken of. 
HaShem Tells us to make Tzitzis on our Garments. 
Torah then gives us Laws on the defamed Woman . Adultery is then discussed as is the matter of the Betrothed here . 
HaShem Reminds us again who are some of those we are not able to marry. Among those forbidden, HaShem Instructs us that the Ammonites and Moabites are not to enter the congregation of HaShem.The reason for them not being able to enter our covenant , is because of their lack of simple human kindness, by them not giving us even bread and water when we, the Children of Israel , were headed from Mitzraim to Eretz Yisrael . On Kindness and Kind deeds , is this World built . HaShem Created Creation To Show Kindness and Giving .We are then reminded not to reject an Edomite or an Egyptian. 
HaShem then Warns us that our military camp and soldiers need to be pure and holy .This is sadly lacking today in today's nations military in so many ways . 
HaShem Teaches that a slave who runs away from their master, must not be given back . We are then told not to have any promiscuous women among us .We are not to take interest from our fellow. We are told to rather not vow, then promise and not repay, ,as well as the Law of a person working for you in the fields, who is permitted to eat while they work, but not put it in a basket.
HaShem Then Permitted Divorce and Gave us the Laws of the ' Get ,' as the Hebrew Divorce Document is called .
We are taught not to take the tools , a man uses to make his living .HaShem Tells us of the big Aveirah of Kidnapping and then the Laws of Tzaraas for Slander Loshon Torah , the sin that can ruin humanity .
HaShem Instructs us to pay workers and if they have no money, we are not permitted to take anything that belongs to them and keep it over night .
We are then told that when reaping our fields, we are to leave that which drops on the ground for the poor. 
HaShem Next Talks of the giving of 40 lashes, for certain types of sin and how , one is not allowed to give even the most minute amount of Lashes more, as the one whipping , would have to be responsible and face punishment for doing more than is necessary. This teaches us that when HaShem Metes out punishment , it is never more or less than we need to grow Spiritually , and is always for our own good .
Levirate Marriage and the Laws of " Yibum " are then mentioned and the whole procedure with the Yavam and the Yevamah is enumerated. This is in reference to a man who dies childless, and his brother is supposed to step in and do her the honor , so as to bring up children in his brother's honor .
Modesty is again brought up, in the case of a woman ,while her husband is busy fighting with another man, and by error, she stretches out her hand and mistakenly grasps his private place,while this other person fights with her husband, she will have her hand removed. Purity means purity in soul and mind . We are told to have honest weights and measures .The Parsha ends with a very strong reminder to never forget what our terrible enemy Amalek , from who was haman , agag and in modern times , gematrically hitler ,torquemada of spain and saddam hussein and many more of our enemies through time . We are never to forget what Amalek did to us as we left Egypt, where other nations feared HaShem after how HaShem saved us with miraculous wonders and also at the sea, yet Amalek, who are vile killers, did not fear G-D , and attacked those in the Israelite camp , who were hindmost and weaker ,at the rear , faint and exhausted and as HaShem Says, the Amalek that did not fear G-D at all and cared nothing for retribution as they felt they were above it. HaShem Commands us through time, to wipe out the memory of Amalek ( who descended from Eisav's son Elifaz's son who was called Amalek. ( Eisav's grandson ) , from under the Heaven . Elifaz himself was not a bad man and was even one of the friends of Iyov - Job who came to see Job when he was being tested and tried to persuade Iyov to have faith in HaShem . Elifaz learnt at the tent of his Grandfather Yitzchak . HaShem Says about Amalek and what they did and His Commandments , " Lo Tishkach " - " You shall not forget! " Our Sages say we fulfill remembering Amalek by reading this verse near Purim, when we remember haman , and just before Purim , we read this section on that Shabbos before and call it Parashas Zachor where ' Zachor ,' means to remember, in reference to this Torah Law of Remembering Amalek . 
The name of this Parsha is Parashas Ki Seitzei , which means ' When you go out ," and in this verse , it refers to when we go out to war against our enemies . The type of wars referred to here are not in the coming to and conquering Canaan , but subsequent wars . There is a deeper meaning here and if we follow it, we will never come to enticements , or harm in any way, from the Yetzer Horah or from outside Physical enemies. The deeper meaning here and within the words ' Ki Seitzei ," which , though in this context refers to going out to war and seeing a ' Yefas Toar ,' - ' A woman of beautiful form ,' the deeper meaning , and this is in the direct translation of the words ' Ki Seitzei ,' where the word ' Ki' can also mean because , thus rendering the term , ' When one goes out ,' is in reference to when one goes out from HaShem and His Commandments, we get caught by Physical enemies as well as ones of the Yetzer Horah that might Physically entice us away , Chas ve Shalom , from HaShem and His Commandments . Thus the secret to Holy living the way HaShem Wants us to live , is not to ' " Ki Seitzei ," - " Go out ," from HaShem or His Laws . The verse directly states, when we go out ' Lamilchamah Al Oyvecha ," - " To war against our enemies ," we note that in leaving HaShem's Care and Laws , we automatically put ourselves in the path of negativity for the Body and Soul - Physical and Spiritual and Emotional , that can lead us on a downward spiral further away , Chas ve Shalom , from HaShem , for the going out from HaShem ' Ki Seitzei ,' can end with us marrying one who is outside Judaism who is not always a Ger by choice, which leads to the next problem mentioned in this Parsha of the one wife loved and the other wife hated - thus family strife and problems effecting the children into the next generation and that leads further down the spiral to negativity , with the next problem mentioned in the Parsha of a Rebellious son . So did HaShem put this one after the other in the Torah , to teach us that one negative step away from HaShem in ' Ki Seitzei - " Going out " from His Presence , Chas Ve Shalom , leads one further away from HaShem's Holiness and leads more and more into negativity . 
We see how this happened to Dovid HaMelech , who married a Yefas Toar and from there , had Absalom, who ended up rebelling against his Father and forcing his own father to leave his Kingdom and hide with Batsheva and little Shlomo ,where every day Avshalom would wait outside the judging court of his Father , and bring rebellion against David . Such is the result of a Yefas Toar .
Thus the long string of negativity can start , by just starting with the first step of "Ki Seitzei ," Going out ," and , taking the " Ki," by its other translation , as " Because." We have our answer, for all the bad things that happened , were " Ki " - " Because ," one went out from HaShem and His Ways and Laws .
The fact is that every time one ' Goes Out ' from one's closeness with HaShem ' one is figuratively " Going out to war against enemies ." HaShem's Love for us is so great that even when we do the wrong thing sometimes , the verse states here , that HaShem will still ,"U'Netano B'Yadecha ," - " Deliver them into your hands ." HaShem's Love is Endlesss and most Faithful . The verse mentions " Ve Shavita Shivyo ." - " And you will Capture its Captivity ," which figuratively can also mean that when one goes out away from HaShem's Holy Path, one puts oneself in the position, to be tainted by their foreign pagan ways of negativity , Chas Ve Shalom . One must stay always close to HaShem and Follow always His Light and Torah like a Ship following a Lighthouse back Home to HaShem . 
The verse talks of " Ve Ra'ita Ba'Shivya Eishes Yefas Toar " - " And you will see a woman of beautiful form ' , we note that it doesn't just say that the woman is of beautiful form , but that she is seen that way - of beautiful form , for whether she is or not beautiful, the Yetzer Horah is always there to catch us , and so it is the subject , the one seeing her , that sees her as beautiful ( beauty is in the eyes of the beholder ) . HaShem Understands human need and nature and thus , ensures after she is taken captive , that she is made as unattractive as possible for a month , so that the Yetzer Horah can lose its power , for HaShem Tries quietly to help the person to see things as they really are . She mourns her family for a month by shaving her hair and removing her garments of her captivity ( which were the beautiful catching garments the women of these nations used to wear in order to attract the enemy soldiers so they could have their minds on other things and be easier enticed and beaten which was the method many of these nations would employ to win and defeat their opposition ) . If after this , the man still wanted her, she would be converted and they would marry . 
The words " Yefas Toar ," - " Beautiful Form ," suggest only the Physical, where the word ' Yefas ," refers to " Beautiful," and the the word " To'ar ," - means "Outside Appearance ." Thus it is only an outside beauty and desire that attracted him in the first place . Thus outside desire , is not a true desire and this Physicality leads to a line of negativity that ends up creating family problems and rebellious physical children. Again we saw this with David's son Absalom , who was constantly concerned about his Physicality and thought he was the holy of the holy, which he wasn't. His thoughts of trying to be a holy nazirite led him to not cutting his hair, and this became his downfall, for when he was being chased by Yoav, he got this very hair caught in the branches of a tree while he was trying to get away and Yoav pierced him through with three Javelins . Even that number of Javelins had a reason ( everything in life has a deeper reason we don't always understand and that needs to be ) , for when Avshalom had rebelled against his Father, he had disrespectfully cohabited with his Father's Three concubines and so, he ended up being pieced through with the Three Javelins as the Gemorah teaches us. He wasn't the only child of this Yefas Toar, for also Tamar (Avshalom's sister ) was also the daughter of Maacah bat Talmai,that was also of Physical Beautiful form that drove Amnon so crazy in a physical way , that she sadly got taken advantage of and raped , and then Amnon's physical desire suddenly abated as if it wasn't even there in the first place , for he was completely overcome by his Yetzer Horah , and so did these events lead to downfall and the killing by Avshalom of Amnon.
So we learn that when we go out from and stray and walk away from HaShem's Presence and Laws, it is then that we get caught by the Yetzer Horah , the greatest enemy of all , among other physical enemies . 
The answer to the path of Holiness , is never to " Ki Seitzei , " - " Go out " from HaShem and His Laws and we are to always Emulate HaShem , in all we do , even to the most minute actions , so that there is no place left for the Yetzer Horah to catch us and so that we can remain holy and pure always and never stray Chas Ve Shalom from Holy Ways and Paths that are Taught by HaShem . 
The story is told of a Rabbi , who was asked by his students why he traveled so far to his Rebbe and for what he went to see his Rebbe about . His answer was that he went so far in hard conditions just to see how his Rebbe ties his shoes , for , even how a holy man does something so slight and so apparently natural and simple , shows the morals of a person and his holy ways , for into every action we do , we can bring quiet humble holiness in emulating HaShem and His Holiness . To see , even a how a man ties his shoes , can show such a lot about the man and it is in the simple every day things that we do , that , if they are done with modesty and purity and holiness , with a mind-set to do all for HaShem , can teach us depths beyond depths of holiness . It is not always the big actions that count , but how holy people live moment to moment .Holy Lessons are taught not just by large actions , but how a person lives every moment and the example they show to others. That is a wonderful teacher of holiness to emulate . So must we always emulate the Holy Actions and Morals of HaShem .
I wish HaShem with Love , a Very Sweet and Blessed Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh with Love and to all my fellow Yidden , a very Sweet and Blessed Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh with love .