07 May WHEN TO INVADE RAFAH

I. A Time for War
Koheles
(3:6) notwithstanding,
there is never a good time
for war. We hope and pray
for a time when there will
be no war. But when war
is necessary, presumably
there should be no time
constraints to it. However, the halachah is
otherwise, as we will see. If the Israeli Defense
Forces were run completely according to
halachah, which they currently are not, when
would be the right time to begin a battle?
As of the time of this writing, Israeli forces
are preparing to enter the Gaza city of Rafah
in order to subdue Hamas troops and free
hostages. At the same time, negotiations for
a truce are ongoing. We will discuss here the
halachic considerations for an IDF invasion of
Rafah, even though it may not happen or may
have already happened.
II. Three Days Before Shabbos
The Gemara (Shabbos 19a) quotes a baraisa
which says: “One may not lay siege to the
gentiles’ cities fewer than three days before
Shabbos. If they already began, they need
not stop. And so Shammai would say: ‘[And
you should build a siege against the city that
is waging war with you] until it falls’ (Deut.
20:20), even on Shabbos.” According to this
view, we may not begin a battle within three
days before Shabbos. Rashi (Deut. 20:19)
quotes the Sifrei which says that this rule is

derived from the preceding verse, “If you
besiege a city many days to wage war against
it to capture it….” The plural word “days”
(yamim) implies two days. The additional word
“many” (rabim) implies more than two days,
namely three days. Rav David Segal (known as
the Taz) explains that you wage war “until it
falls,” even on Shabbos, only if the war started
at least three days earlier (Divrei David, ad
loc.). However, most commentators agree with
Rav Eliyahu Mizrachi (commentary, ad loc.)
that this is a rabbinical rule.
Commentators offer different reasons for this
rule of starting a battle only three or more days
before Shabbos. Rav Yitzchak Alfasi (Rif,
Shabbos 7b) explains that it takes three days to
calm down from an attack and enjoy Shabbos.
Rav Zerachiah Ha-Levi (Ha-Ma’or Ha-Katan,
ad loc., 7a) explains that if within three days
before Shabbos you put yourself in a position
in which you will have to violate Shabbos, it
is as if you are intentionally violating Shabbos.
Later commentators accept one or the other
explanations. However, the first approach
requires more elaboration. It assumes that
a battle will take only one day and then the
soldiers rest and calm down until Shabbos. Is
that always, or even usually, the case? We will
return to this question below.
Rambam seems to contradict himself about this
three-day-before-Shabbos rule. In two places in
Mishneh Torah (Hilchos Shabbos 2:25, 30:13),
Rambam writes that we may not lay siege to
a city within three days before Shabbos. He

explicitly adopts Rav Alfasi’s explanation, that
this rule is to allow soldiers to call down in time
for Shabbos (30:13). Rambam distinguishes
between laying a siege and fighting a battle.
You may not lay a siege within three days
before Shabbos but you may fight a battle any
day of the week. However, elsewhere Rambam
omits the three-days-before-Shabbos rule:
”One may lay siege to the gentiles’ cities and
one may engage in battle with them every
day, even on Shabbos, as it says, ‘until it falls’
(Deut. 20:20), even on Shabbos. This applies
to both a mitzvah war and a permissible war.”
(Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Melachim 6:11)
III. Two Approaches
Why doesn’t Rambam mention the limitation
of three days before Shabbos in Hilchos
Melachim? There are two main approaches
to answering this question. Rav Yosef Karo
(16th cen., Israel) asserts that the text must be
mistaken and therefore he amends it to: “One
may lay siege to the gentiles’ cities three days
before Shabbos” (Kessef Mishneh, Hilchos
Shabbos 2:25). Later commentators explain that
according to this approach, the key distinction is
whether the army is laying a siege or engaging
in battle. A siege requires an initial effort to
surround a city and then a lengthy period of
waiting and holding the siege. An army should
lay a siege at least three days before Shabbos
so that the siege will be complete and soldiers
will have time to calm down by Shabbos. In
contrast, a battle lasts a long time. Therefore, it
does not matter on which day it begins. Only a
siege has the three-day-before-Shabbos rule.
Rav Moshe Lifschitz (16th cen., Russia)
takes a different approach (Lechem Mishneh,
Hilchos Melachim 6:11). He argues that

Rambam mentions the three-day-before-
Shabbos rule in Hilkos Shabbos and therefore

does not need to repeat it. The key distinction
for Rambam is between a mitzvah war
(milchemes mitzvah) and a permissible
war (milchemes reshus). A permissible war,
whether a siege or a battle, must be started
at least three days before Shabbos. A mitzvah
war may begin on any day of the week, even
Shabbos.
Rav Yitzchak Ben Sheishes Prefet (Rivash,
15th cen., Spain-Algeria) seems to follow
an approach similar to Rav Lifschitz’s
explanation of Rambam’s view. He applies
the three-day-before-Shabbos rule only to
a permissible war (Responsa Rivash, no.
101). Rav Ya’akov Ben Asher (14th cen.,
Spain) writes likewise (Tur, Orach Chaim
249). In contrast, Rav David Ibn Zimra
(Radbaz, 16th cen., Egypt) seems to take an
approach similar to Rav Karo’s explanation
of Rambam’s view. He does not distinguish
between a mitzvah war and a permissible war
(Responsa Radbaz, vol. 4, no. 77). However,
rather than amending Rambam’s text, Radbaz
suggests that Rambam is discussing holding
a siege, not laying it. You may hold the siege
any day of the week, even Shabbos. But you
only lay the siege at least three days before
Shabbos.
Rav Shlomo Goren (20th cen., Israel) follows
Rav Yosef Karo’s approach, that a siege must
be laid at least three days before Shabbos

but a war may be started any day of the week
(Meishiv Milchamah, vol. 1, part 1, no. 2). Rav
Eliezer Waldenburg takes this approach, as well
(20th cen., Israel; Hilchos Medinah, vol. 2, part
10, ch. 3, par. 11). Rav Nachum Rabinovitch
does also (Melumedei Milchamah, no. 36).
According to these authorities, you may begin
a battle any day of the week. Since the entry

into Rafah is a battle and not a siege, the three-
days-before-Shabbos rule does not apply.

However, Rav Rabinovitch’s colleague, Rav
Yitzchak Shilat, adopts the approach of Rav
Lifschitz and not Rav Karo. Rav Shilat has
not only retranslated and published many
of Rambam’s writings, he also published
an edition of Mishneh Torah titled Rambam
Meduyak (Jerusalem, 2021), which is based
on the best Egyptian, Syrian and Israeli
manuscripts. In his recently published
Medinah, Halachah Ve-Kavanos Ha-Torah
(Jerusalem, 2023), Rav Shilat says that there
is no textual basis for Rav Yosef Karo’s
emendation (pp. 300-305). Instead, he accepts
the distinction between a mitzvah war and a
permissible war. Rav Yitzchak Herzog (20th
cen., Israel) rules likewise (Heichal Yitzchak,
Orach Chaim 37:3). The question then becomes
whether invading Rafah is a mitzvah war or a
permissible war.
IV. Practical Applications
It is notable that, as mentioned above, Rav
Ya’akov Ben Asher includes this law in his
Tur even though he usually omits laws with no
practical implications in his day. Why does he
include a law of war when there was no Jewish
state or Jewish army in 14th century Spain?
Rav Yoel Sirkes (17th cen., Poland) suggests
that this rule was practical even in Medieval
times if Jews were captured by bandits — other
Jews can go, together with gentiles, as a group
to fight to free those captives, even on Shabbos
(Bach, Orach Chaim 249). This seem to apply
directly to the proposed invasion of Rafah,
where many hostages are believed to be held.
Rav Goren (ibid., pp. 86-87) also discusses a
prolonged war with multiple starts and stops
to the battles. Does each new battle (or rather,
siege) require beginning at least three days
before Shabbos because it is a new start or is it
a continuation of an existing war? Rav Goren
suggests that any battle of a similar nature
against the same army constitutes the same war,
even if they take place over decades. The battle
in Rafah would be part of the war against the
PLO and Hamas, which has been ongoing for
decades, and therefore would be a continuation

which does not fall under the three-days-before-
Shabbos rule. Additionally, Rav Herzog (ibid.)

rules that once we are attacked, any military
response constitutes a mitzvah war. Since the
entry into Rafah is part of the response to the
October 7 invasion, it constitutes a milchemes
mitzvah that can be done any day of the week.