from the Rebbe on this week's פרשה, פרשת כי תצא. The parsha starts with the words כי תצא למלחמה על איביך, \"when you will go to war against your enemies,\" ונתנו ה׳ אלקיך בידך ושבית שביו, \"ה׳ will give them over to your hands, that means you will win the war and you will take captives, etc., etc.\" Rashi says on this פסוק, במלחמת הרשות הכתוב מדבר, that the Torah here is talking about a war of רשות. Now what does that mean? That means there are two types of wars that the Yidden went to fight. מלחמת מצוה means a war that you had to go, you were obligated to go, for instance to fight Amalek, to fight the seven nations in Eretz Yisrael when they went to Eretz Yisrael, or if goyim start up with Yidden, so then there's a mitzvah to go and fight and fight the goyim, that's called מלחמת מצוה. Then you have מלחמת רשות, when the Yidden, the king so to speak, would decide that he wants to go to war against a certain country, he was not, it's not an obligation, but if he wants to, he could go. And then the Torah says here that when you go to war against your enemies, so Rashi says it's going about talking about מלחמת רשות, a war that you don't have to do, it's a war that's not obligated, but it's a מלחמת רשות. But the

Rebbe asks a shaalah, we know it says in sefarim brought down in Chassidus and Likutei Torah etc. etc., that this פסוק, כי תצא למלחמה על איביך, when you will go to war against your enemies, refers also ברוחניות the war a Yid wages against the yetzer hara. You fight the yetzer hara. And the Torah says that if you go to war against your enemy the yetzer hara, Hashem will give you success and you will win the war. But the question is, how does what Rashi says, that this is talking about מלחמת רשות, fit to this pshat in Chassidus that this goes talks about the war against the yetzer hara? Because Rashi says we're talking about מלחמת רשות, a war that you don't have to do. But if it's talking about a war against the yetzer hara, obviously you have to do it, you have to fight your yetzer hara. So how does this that Rashi says fit to the חסידישע פשט in the פסוק? And we know that Rashi has יינה של תורה, which means Rashi also fits to the secrets of the Torah, to the deeper פשט in the פסוקים, to the סודות התורה, the חסידות of the פסוקים. So Rashi has to fit to that, too. So if על פי חסידות the פסוק is talking about the fight a Yid has with the yetzer hara, how does that, how does Rashi fit when Rashi says we're talking about מלחמת רשות, which means it's a war that you don't really have to fight? So the Rebbe explains it like this: The

war a Yid has against the yetzer hara is twofold. One, there are certain things the yetzer hara wants a person to do which are asur, or he wants him not to do things which you're mechuyav to do. That war against the yetzer hara is called a מלחמת מצוה. You have to go to that war. You have to fight a yetzer hara who challenges you from doing things that you are mechuyav to do, that you're obligated to do. That war is a must. But then sometimes we're not talking about the yetzer hara trying to fight against you doing something wrong, not allowing you to do something that you have to do or making you do something wrong. We're talking about that the yetzer hara tries to convince you not to do something that's extra. We know there is a concept of hidur mitzvah. Certain things that you do, you're yotzei if you do it a certain way, but you could do it better, you could be מהדר במצוה. That's not something that's you're obligated to do, you don't have to do it, you're yotzei even if you don't do it, but it's definitely the right thing to do. Or what we call לפנים משורת הדין, more than the din, the law requires. And the yetzer hara comes to a person and tries to convince him that you don't have to do that. Now the war against this type of yetzer hara is called מלחמת רשות. It's a war that you don't have to fight. And a person could think to himself, meileh, if the yetzer hara wants to stop me from doing what I must do, then I understand I have to fight him. But the yetzer hara is trying to tell me not to do a hidur mitzvah or not to go beyond the letter of the law, who says I have to fight him? Who cares, so I won't do the hidur mitzvah as long as I'm doing everything right. But the truth is it's not so. A Yid should try to do the best he can, even if he is not really obligated from the letter of the law. And that's what Rashi says, that the pasuk that says here, כי תצא למלחמה על איביך, you will go to war in your enemy, and the Eibershter promises that you will win the war, במלחמת הרשות הכתוב מדבר, we're talking also if it's a war that you don't have to go. In other words, even if the war with the yetzer hara is not concerning a mitzvah that you must do or an aveirah that you're not allowed to do, even if it's a reshus, it's something that you don't really have to, you can manage without it, nevertheless, the Torah says that even by a מלחמת רשות, you should go to war. A Yid, a Yid should fight his yetzer hara even when it comes to do a hiddur mitzvah. what things we did throughout the year, and which things we have to fix, so we have to keep in mind, it's not only בנוגע things that I had to do or I was not allowed to do, but even things that I didn't really have to, but it was a hiddur and it was the right thing to do, even concerning those inyanim we have to make a cheshbon hanefesh, and make up our mind to fight the yetzer hara who is trying to stop us from doing these things, that even the hiddur mitzvah we have to do. And the Eibershter, who pays back midah k'neged midah, if we do more than we have to, the Eibershter will also do to us more than, so to speak, he has to, and he'll give us not only our needs, but he'll give us even extra, something that is not a must that we must have, but even if it's something that is good if we have it, even though we don't have to, Hashem will give it to us all, and this will be included in the כתיבה וחתימה טובה, לשנה טובה ומתוקה.