Gfyuki

Sotah 8:7 says that for obligatory wars all go out to fight, "even a bridegroom from his chamber and a bride from her canopy". Historically, was this in fact our practice? Did women participate in the conquest of the land (which Rabbi Yehudah says was an obligatory war) or in defending it before we were conquered and the temples destroyed? Did women fight alongside the men, or did they participate in ways that didn't involve fighting directly? If they fought, (how) were they trained?

In his commentary to Rambam's codification of this law (Hilchot Melachim 7:5), R. David Ibn Zimra asks: Is it the way of women to wage war? And he cites the verse (Psalms 45:14) "All glorious is the king's daughter within the palace" in support of this. He then suggests that the women were (not actively fighting, but) supplying food and water to their husbands, and he notes that this is the current practice of the Arabs(?).

ברייתא כלשון רבינו אלא דקשה וכי דרך הנשים לעשות מלחמה דקתני וכלה מחופתה והא כתיב כל כבודה בת מלך פנימה וי"ל דה"ק כיון דחתן יוצא מחדרו כלה יוצאה מחופתה שאינה נוהגת ימי חופה ואפשר דבמלחמת מצוה הנשים היו מספקות מים ומזון לבעליהן וכן המנהג היום בערביות