Understanding the Beautiful Captive During War - Ki Tesse LaMilchama 5778

 “When you go out to the war against your enemies, and theL-RD your G-d delivers HIM into your hand and you capture HIS captive    And you see among the captives a beautiful woman and youdesire her and would take her to wife,   How can the Torah permit soldiers raping and capturingwomen in battle and keeping them against their will? It seems so inconsistent with so much else the Torah teaches us about marriage – and about waging war?   The Status of Those Defeated in War in the Past: In ancienttimes, the victors of wars would do whatever they pleased with those they vanquished. Any type of abuse was considered acceptable, both legally, and morally. Those who fell in captivity were considered the property of the victors. Many of them were killed and publicly abused (for that reason, King Saul asked to be killed with his own the sword, rather than be captured by the Philistines). Some were slaughtered as sacrifices on the altars of their gods, while others were taken for murderous games and used as gladiators in wars against wild beasts or between one another, until death.