30 Jul IS A SOLDIER ALLOWED TO BE SCARED?

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 G-d 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 G-d 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
cen., 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
G-d will fight the battle,
not necessarily that each
soldier will survive nor
that your side will win. You are submitting
the final judgment to G-d 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 cen., Israel) suggests that the
prohibition is against causing oneself to
fear by thinking about distressing 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 not increase
it by dwelling on counterproductive
thoughts.
Rav Eliezer Waldenburg (20th cen.,
Israel) takes a different approach
(Hilchos Medinah, vol. 2, ch. 5, sec. 4).
The mitzvah is not just to place your
faith in G-d but also to be willing to give
yourself — your life — for a greater
cause (mesiras nefesh). Part of loving
G-d with “all your heart and all your
soul” is willing to make the ultimate
sacrifice, to be martyred for G-d’s sake.
According to Rav Waldenburg, a soldier
is commanded not to fear giving up his
life. Similarly, Rav Shlomo Min HaHar
(20th cen., 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 cen., 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.