I. Prohibited Fear

Fear is a normal reaction that often serves a helpful purpose of avoiding danger. However, during war, fear can endanger lives by delaying response time and impeding important actions. The Torah seems to forbid fear during wartime. This raises the question how the Torah can forbid a natural emotion.

The Torah (Deut. 20:1) says: “When you go to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, and a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you.” Similarly, the kohen meshu’ach milchamah speaks to the troops before battle and tells them (ibid., 3): “He will say to them, ‘Do not be faint hearted, nor fear, nor panic, nor be frightened by them.’” Rambam understands this to be a prohibition against fearing the enemy during war (Sefer Ha-Mitzvos, prohibition 58; Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Melachim 7:15). In his glosses to the list of commandments at the beginning of Mishneh Torah, Ra’avad disagrees with the idea that this is a commandment. Rather, he considers this a promise. If the soldiers do not fear, then God will ensure their military success. Similarly, Ramban writes that this is a promise (commentary to Sefer Ha-Mitzvos, ad loc.).

Ramban argues that the fearful are exempt from battle. The kohen meshu’ach milchamah instructs anyone who built a new house, planted a new vineyard, recently married or is afraid to leave the field before battle (Deut. 20:6-8). If so, the prohibition against fear during battle is unnecessary because anyone who is scared is allowed to leave before the battle.

Rav Yitzchak Leon Ibn Tzur (16th-c., Italy) responds to Ramban’s two comments (Megillas Esther on Sefer Ha-Mitzvos, ad loc.). He asks how anyone could promise soldiers that if they are fearless, they will not die. Even if the Torah requires a false promise to encourage the soldiers, it would be hollow because any soldier who has experienced even a single battle knows that inevitably some soldiers die. Rather, it must be a commandment. Additionally, while the Torah forbids fear during battle, it also allows soldiers who are fearful to leave in advance so that during battle they do not discourage other soldiers. Perhaps we can respond on Ramban’s behalf that the Torah is not promising that someone who has no fear will survive the battle. It promises that God will fight the battle, not necessarily that each soldier will survive or that your side will win. You are submitting the final judgment to God and placing your fate in His hands. Regardless, modern authorities generally follow Rambam on this (e.g. Aruch Ha-Shulchan He-Asid, Hilchos Melachim 76:22).

II. Emotions and Commandments

But how can the Torah forbid a normal emotion? One approach is to suggest that the commandment is not on the feeling but resultant actions. Rav Yerucham Fishel Perlow (20th- c., Israel) suggests that the prohibition is against causing oneself to fear by thinking about disturbing things. If someone brings himself to additional fear by dwelling on the challenges he faces, rather than building up his confidence, then he violates this prohibition (Sefer Ha-Mitzvos La-Rasag, prohibition 128). Indeed, modern military psychologists and trainers have found a number of ways to inoculate soldiers against fear through a variety of methods so that the natural fear that arises does not grow. A soldier needs to address his natural fear in appropriate ways rather than allowing it to fester, and he certainly should not increase it by dwelling on counterproductive thoughts.

Rav Eliezer Waldenburg (20th-c., Israel) takes a different approach (Hilchos Medinah, vol. 2, ch. 5, sec. 4). The mitzvah is not just to place your faith in God but also to be willing to give yourself—your life—for a greater cause (mesiras nefesh). Part of loving God with “all your heart and all your soul” is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, to be martyred for God’s sake. According to Rav Waldenburg, a soldier is commanded not to fear giving up his life. Similarly, Rav Shlomo Min HaHar (20th-c.., Israel) writes in a guidebook for soldiers that it is “an obligation on every soldier to give himself completely—body and soul—to his holy activities [the war effort]. It is incumbent on him to remove from his heart his personal worries, to overcome his fears, and be prepared spiritually to completely and carefully fulfill all that is tasked to him” (Dinei Tzava U-Milchamah, par. 332).

Rav Eliezer Melamed (cont., Israel) offers a similar approach. He writes that a soldier must see himself as part of something bigger. A soldier is forbidden to fear for himself in battle because his concern must be for the entire nation (Peninei Halachah, Am Va-Aretz 4:3). He quotes Rav Avraham Kook (20th-c., Israel) who explains the practice of a soldier giving his wife a divorce before war (Shabbos 56a) as not just a means to avoid trapping the wife if the husband disappears. This divorce allows a soldier to rise from being a family man to a servant of the nation (Ein Ayah, ad loc., no. 61).

Rav Ya’akov Ariel (cont., Israel) suggests that the prohibition is not the emotion but any action taken due to the emotion (Be-Ohalah Shel Torah, vol. 1, no. 6). He points out that both Rambam (commandments at the beginning of Hilchos Melachim) and Chinuch (no. 525) say that the prohibition is to fear and to retreat. Why do they add retreat when the Torah only mentions fear? Rav Ariel says that the Torah does not prohibit emotions. Just like the prohibition against coveting is about taking an object due to desire, and not just the desire itself (Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Gezeilah 1:9), so too—argues Rav Ariel—the prohibition against fear during battle is about acting based on fear in a way that affects others, such as retreating. In an interesting twist, Rav Ariel argues that this prohibition applies not only to soldiers but to all Jews anywhere in the world. We are all forbidden to act based on fear, like fleeing the country due to war. When Israel is at war, Jews across the globe must find the courage to stand tall and support its efforts.

Rabbi Gil Student is editor of TorahMusings.com.