Mitzvos As Spiritual Weapons

בפסוק כ"ת מחנה ע"א ונשמרת מכ"ד רע

In the pasuk, "When you go out as a camp against your enemies, you shall guard yourself from every evil thing" (Devarim 23:10),

The Torah's warning to guard against "every evil thing" when going out to war is the starting point of this piece.

דרשו חז"ל דיבור רע

Chazal expounded that this refers to evil speech.

Chazal understood "evil thing" to mean specifically evil speech, lashon hara.

כי ב' אלו ברית הלשון והמעור הם כלי זיינם של בנ"י כדכ' רוממות אל וחרב פיפיות ואמת כי הם בחי' יעקב ויוסף התורה והברית

For these two — the bris of the tongue and the bris of the membrum (the covenant of guarding one's speech and one's sexual purity) — are the weapons of Bnei Yisrael, as it is written, "The lofty praises of Hashem are in their throats, and a double-edged sword is in their hand" (Tehillim 149:6). And in truth, they are the aspects of Yaakov and Yosef, of Torah and of the bris.

Guarding one's speech (bris of the tongue) and guarding one's purity (bris of the membrum) are described as the spiritual weapons of Bnei Yisrael, corresponding to Yaakov (Torah) and Yosef (the bris).

<b>ואא"ז מו"ר ז"ל</b> אמר כי השומר ברית דעלה איתמר חגור חרבך כו' מנצח אותו רשע שנא' לו ועל חרבך תחי' לכן כ' ויחלוש יהושע א' עמלק כו' לפי חרב פי' לפי כח החרב שהי' נמצא בבנ"י ודפח"ח

And my grandfather, my teacher and master, of blessed memory, said that the one who guards the bris — about him it is said, "Gird your sword upon your thigh" (Tehillim 45:4), and he prevails over that wicked one (Eisav/Amalek), regarding whom it was said, "And by your sword you shall live" (Bereishis 27:40). Therefore it is written, "And Yehoshua weakened Amalek and his people by the edge of the sword" (Shemos 17:13) — meaning, by the strength of the sword that was found among Bnei Yisrael. And these are pleasant and true words.

The Sfas Emes's grandfather taught that the one who guards the bris receives the "sword" that defeats Eisav and Amalek, who live by the sword; Yehoshua's victory over Amalek drew on this inner strength within Bnei Yisrael.

והם אלו ב' הזכירות אשר עשה ה"א למרים לשמור ברית הלשון ואשר עשה לך עמלק לשמור ברית המעור

And these are the two rememberings: "that which Hashem your God did to Miriam" (Devarim 24:9) — to guard the bris of the tongue, and "that which Amalek did to you" (Devarim 25:17) — to guard the bris of the membrum.

The two commandments to remember — what happened to Miriam and what Amalek did — correspond respectively to guarding the tongue and guarding purity.

והם ג"כ ב' האותות לכל איש ישראל תפלין ומילה שבת ומילה

And these are also the two signs given to every Jew: tefillin and milah, Shabbos and milah.

These two areas also correspond to the two physical signs every Jew bears: tefillin and milah (or Shabbos and milah).

דכ' בתפילין למען תהי' תורת ה' בפיך

For it is written concerning tefillin, "so that the Torah of Hashem shall be in your mouth" (Shemos 13:9).

Tefillin are explicitly tied to having the Torah of Hashem in one's mouth, linking them to the bris of the tongue.

ובכלי זיין זה יכולין להלחם עם האויב שהוא עמלק

And with these weapons one is able to wage war against the enemy, who is Amalek.

Armed with these mitzvos as weapons, a Jew can do battle against the spiritual enemy, Amalek.

להצילך ולתת א' לפניך הם ג"כ ב' בחי' להינצל מצד בחי' התורה כדמצינו ביעקב אבינו שברח ללבן וניצל מעשו כדכ' לך עמי בא בחדריך וכ"א במד' הצפינו עצמיכם בד"ת

"To save you, and to deliver your enemies before you" (Devarim 23:15) — these too are two aspects: to be saved through the aspect of Torah, as we find with Yaakov Avinu, who fled to Lavan and was saved from Eisav, as it is written, "Go, My people, come into your chambers" (Yeshayahu 26:20), and as is said in the Midrash, "Hide yourselves in the words of Torah."

The phrase "to save you" reflects the aspect of Torah, which protects through flight and concealment, just as Yaakov escaped Eisav by fleeing to Lavan and as the Midrash urges hiding in Torah.

אבל לתת אויבך לפניך הוא לצאת עמו במלחמה לעקרו ולאבדו והוא בכח ברית המעור כדאיתא כשנולד יוסף אמר יעקב שלחני ואלכה כדפרש"י שם

But "to deliver your enemies before you" — this is to go out with him in battle to uproot him and destroy him, and this is through the power of the bris of the membrum, as is brought that when Yosef was born, Yaakov said, "Send me away, and let me go" (Bereishis 30:25), as Rashi explains there.

The phrase "to deliver your enemies before you" reflects active warfare to destroy the enemy, drawn from the power of the bris, which is why Yaakov felt ready to confront Eisav once Yosef was born.

[והענין הוא שבתורה אור אין לו שום מגע והוא הצלה ובריחה ממנו

[And the matter is that with Torah, which is light, the enemy has no contact whatsoever, and it is a saving and a fleeing from him.

The deeper idea: Torah is pure light that the enemy cannot even touch, so it works by saving and escaping rather than direct combat.

אבל בית יוסף להבה שלוחם עמו בסמוך לו ומאבדו לגמרי] וכמו כן נתן הקב"ה המצות לישראל בכל יום להיות כלי זיינם

But "the house of Yosef shall be a flame" (Ovadiah 1:18), which fights against him at close range and destroys him entirely.] And likewise, the Holy One, Blessed is He, gave the mitzvos to Bnei Yisrael each day to be their weapons.

Yosef, by contrast, is a flame that engages the enemy directly and destroys him; so too Hashem gave Bnei Yisrael the daily mitzvos to serve as their weapons.

וציצית ותפילין בציצית הוא להצילך כמ"ש אשר תכסה בה

And tzitzis and tefillin: tzitzis are "to save you," as it is written, "with which you cover yourself" (Devarim 22:12),

Tzitzis embody the "saving" aspect, as the Torah describes the garment with which you cover yourself.

ותפילין לתת אויבך לפניך כמ"ש בזוה"ק לקשרא שפחה תחות גבירתא:

and tefillin are "to deliver your enemies before you," as is stated in the Zohar HaKadosh, "to bind the maidservant beneath her mistress."

Tefillin embody the "delivering the enemy before you" aspect, as the Zohar describes them as binding the maidservant beneath her mistress.

Summary: The Sfas Emes explains that guarding one's speech and one's purity — the bris of the tongue and the bris of the membrum — are the true weapons of Bnei Yisrael in their war against the spiritual enemy, Eisav and Amalek. These two correspond to Yaakov and Yosef, to Torah and to the bris, and to the two mitzvos of remembering (Miriam and Amalek) and the two signs (tefillin and milah). He distinguishes two modes of victory drawn from the pasuk "to save you and to deliver your enemies before you": Torah, like Yaakov, saves through flight and concealment because the enemy has no grasp on its pure light, while the bris, like Yosef the flame, goes out to destroy the enemy directly. Finally he applies this to tzitzis, which save and shield, and tefillin, which subdue the enemy and bind the maidservant beneath her mistress.