Leadership and favoritism: Parshat Ki Teitzei

Date

2023-08-23

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

The Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership

Abstract

Many sensitive interrelationships are mentioned in the opening chapter of this week’s sedra, Ki Teitzei. The first is the status of the captive woman who was taken in battle and captured the fancy of a soldier in that war. She was completely vulnerable and, in principle, unprotected. The Torah understood that the situation was one of natural exploitation and thus placed parameters around her care. The captive woman’s hair and nails were to be trimmed, and she was to exchange her old clothes for new ones, presumably resembling those worn by other Israelite women. The exoticism associated with foreign women was to be tempered to measure whether or not the soldier had true feelings for this woman.

Description

The weekly Bible portion

Keywords

Eshet yifat tohar, war law, law of the beautiful woman, favoritism

Citation

Brown, E. (2023, August 23). Leadership and favoritism: Parshat Ki Teitzei. The Torah of Leadership. YUTorah.org. Yeshiva University.