אבן עזרא — מי האיש אשר בנה בית חדש ולא חנכו / נטע כרם ולא חללו / ארש אשה ולא לקחה

Q — Before battle, the shotrim release three categories of men: one who built a house and didn't inaugurate it, one who planted a vineyard and didn't use it, one who betrothed a woman and didn't marry her. Rashi reads the rationale as עגמת נפש — it would be tragic to die before enjoying what you've worked for. Is the concern emotional or operational?

A — Ibn Ezra reads it as battlefield psychology, not pity: "לבו וכל תאותו לחנוך ביתו... לבו לביתו לא למלחמה, על כן ינוס ויניס אחרים." A soldier whose attention is elsewhere is dangerous — he will flee, and his flight will cascade. The released categories are precisely the men most likely to be psychologically absent from the fight: their hearts are at home (in the new house, the new vineyard, the new marriage), not on the battlefield. The phrase "פן ימות במלחמה ואיש אחר יחנכנו" is reframed: not a warning about a tragic outcome the army wishes to avoid, but a description of the *content of the soldier's own preoccupation* — the thought eating at him, the thought that pulls his head off the fight. Sending him home protects the line. The Rambam codifies the underlying principle as halacha (Melachim 7:15): once a soldier enters the battle "ישים נפשו בכפו ולא יחשוב לא באשתו ולא בבניו אלא ימחה זכרונם מלבו ויפנה מכל דבר למלחמה." Rabbenu Bachye explicitly follows Ibn Ezra. Military discipline emerges from the peshat.