Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Commentary פַּרְשָׁנוּת
כִּי תָצוּר אֶל עִיר יָמִים רַבִּים לְהִלָּחֵם עָלֶיהָ לְתׇפְשָׂהּ
לֹא תַשְׁחִית אֶת עֵצָהּ לִנְדֹּחַ עָלָיו גַּרְזֶן
כִּי מִמֶּנּוּ תֹאכֵל וְאֹתוֹ לֹא תִכְרֹת
When you make a siege around a city for a long time to wage war and conquer it,
do not destroy its trees by using an ax on them, because you will eat from them. Do not cut them down.
This pasuk tells us not to cut down trees in war. And why is that? See the second half of the pasuk:
כִּי הָאָדָם עֵץ הַשָּׂדֶה
לָבֹא מִפָּנֶיךָ בַּמָּצוֹר:
Ki a person is a tree of the field
to come from before you in a siege.
This part isn’t so easy to translate! The word “ki” can mean different things.
Rashi thinks it’s a question: “For is a tree really like a person who might make a siege against you?”
And the answer is: No! The tree isn’t a soldier. It isn’t going to attack you. So you have no reason to cut it down.
הֲרֵי כִּי מְשַׁמֵּשׁ לְשׁוֹן דִּלְמָא, שֶׁמָּא הָאָדָם עֵץ הַשָּׂדֶה לְהִכָּנֵס בְּתוֹךְ הַמָּצוֹר מִפָּנֶיךָ – לְהִתְיַסֵּר בְּיִסּוּרֵי רָעָב וְצָמָא כְּאַנְשֵׁי הָעִיר, לָמָּה תַּשְׁחִיתֶנּוּ.
This “ki” is used to mean “perhaps,” meaning: “Perhaps the tree of the field is a person to enter the besieged city from before you, to suffer hunger and thirst like the people of the city?! Why would you destroy it?!”
Ibn Ezra thinks that “ki” means “because.” So the meaning of the phrase is: "Because people's lives depend on trees."
Ibn Ezra is telling us that people's lives and trees go together. Trees make human life better by providing fruit to eat.
כִּי חַיֵּי אָדָם הוּא עֵץ הַשָּׂדֶה.
For lives of people depend on the tree of the field.
- What evidence can you find in the pasuk for Rashi, and what evidence for Ibn Ezra?
- Why would the Torah tell us to care about trees in wartime? Shouldn’t we be thinking about people’s lives? What might this be trying to tell us?
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