To War
INTRODUCTION TO
PARASHAT HASHAVUA
PARASHAT
KORACH
To
War
By Rabbi Yaakov
Beasley
Time flies, and the Jewish people find
themselves at the edge of the land of Israel nearly forty years later. Like the second year in the desert,
there are setbacks the deaths of their two beloved leaders, Miriam and Aharon,
the complaints at Meriva, the attack by the king of Arad and the snakes that
plagued the camp. However, these
are minor obstacles, not the ultimately fatal roadblocks of the challenges that
faced the previous generation. Now,
the people prepare themselves to enter the land promised to Avraham their father
so many years ago.
"Israel now sent messengers to Sihon
king of the Amorites, saying, 'Let me pass through your
country.'"
This request, innocuous though it
seems, raised many questions among the commentators, based on Moshe Rabbeinus
recounting of the episode in chapter 2 of Sefer Devarim. There, Hashem stated that there are
three nations which our ancestors were warned not to harass: Edom, about whom it
says, "I will not give you of their land" (Devarim 2:5); Moav, about whom
we were warned, "I will not give you of its land" (Devarim 2:9); and
Ammon, about whom we are told, "I will not give any part of the land of the
Ammonites to you." However, when they approached Sihon, it
says:
"See, I put into your hands Sihon the
Amorite, king of Cheshbon and his land.
Begin to possess it, engage him in battle." (Devarim
2:24).
The questions are best phrased in the
commentary of the Abravenel in our parasha and in Sefer
Devarim:
If the land of Canaan which Hashem
gave to Israel extended from the Jordan and onwards (i.e. westward) and the
lands of Edom, Ammon, and Moab were not given to them, why did Hashem give them
the land of Sihon, Og, and the cities of the Amorites which were across the
Jordan since those areas were not included in the grant that Hashem made to
Abraham? Furthermore, if they were given by Hashem as an inheritance, why was
Moshe sent to negotiate peace with Sihon - do we not know that "there is no
peace, said Hashem, for the wicked"? (commentary to Sefer
Bamidbar).
If Hashem on High said to Moshe, "Up!
Start out and ... begin to possess it; engage him in battle" (Devarim
2:24). How could Moshe have sent peace feelers in contradiction to Divine
command? If Sihon would have responded: "Here the whole land is before you, the
way is clear" then what would our lord Moshe do? Would he have ceased his battle
against him? It would have been a violation and rebellion against Hashem's word!
If he would battle him after the peace announcement, then it doubtless would
have been inappropriate to recant and rescind after having made an appeal for
peace that was answered favorably! (commentary to Sefer
Devarim)
To answer how Moshe took the
initiative to send a peace mission to Sihon, King of the Amorites, one of the
seven nations, when not only was Moshe not told to make peace but also he was
told "engage him in battle," Rashi answers curtly, based on a longer Medrash in
Bamidbar Rabba:
"Let me pass through your
country" - Although they had not been commanded to initiate peace
negotiations with them, they nevertheless took the initiative to seek peace with
them.
Rashis words are predicated on the
understanding that for the seven nations of Canaan, there is no requirement to
initiate peace negotiations.
However, this is not a universally shared assumption. Here are the words of the Ramban on our
verse, and in Sefer Devarim:
"Israel now sent
messengers ... 'Let me pass through your country...' - "Although they had
not been commanded to initiate peace negotiations with them, they nevertheless
took the initiative to seek peace with them." This is Rashi's language. I will
yet explain, with the help of Hashem, in its [proper] place (Dev. 32:10), that
[unlike Rashi's explanation] they were commanded to initiate peace [terms
before beginning to fight] all the nations, except for Ammon and Moab. But in
truth, when Moshe said to Sihon, "Let me pass through your country..." he did
this of his own accord by way of conciliation, for the land of Sihon and Og was
[part of the] inheritance of Israel, since it had originally belonged to the
Amorite, [and was included in the territory promised to Israel]. Thus had Sihon
and Og responded peaceably, and opened [their cities] to them, they would have
been entitled [to take] "all the people that are found therein tributary to
them" (Devarim 20:11), and they would serve them.
But Moshe knew that
Israel would not conquer now all ten nations, and he wanted all their conquests
to be "on the other side of the Jordan, and forward" (Num. 32:19), so that they
all should dwell together, and [also because] it was "the good land"
(Devarim 8:7) which is "flowing with milk and honey" (Devarim
13:27). Thus you see had not the children of Gad and the children of Reuben
requested it [the land captured east of the Jordan] from [Moshe] (Num.32),he
would not have left anyone live there, but would have allowed it to be a
wasteland!
Similarly, the sages
have taught in the Sifre (Ki Tavo, 229, Devarim 26:3):
"To give you their
land - this excludes [the land] beyond the Jordan [eastward] which you took for
yourself." Our sages have furthermore said (Numbers Rabba 7:8) that the east
side of the Jordan is not suitable for the Temple...
Now they did not send
to Og a message of peace, because when he saw that the Israelites had defeated
Sihon, he [immediately] went forth into battle against [the Israelites]. (Commentary to Bamidbar
21:22)
"See, I put Sihon
into your hands ..."
This statement is the same as the one stated below, "See, I begin by putting
Sihon... at your disposal" (Dev. 2:31). Before that, Moshe sent to [Sihon]
messengers "out of the wilderness of Kedemot" (v. 26), but after Hashem had
commanded [Moshe] "Begin to possess it, engage him in battle" (Devarim
2:24), he would no longer send him words of peace, saying, 'Let me pass through
your country...'." For if Sihon would have listened to him, Moshe would have
been transgressing the words of Hashem, and if Moshe knew in advance that Sihon
would not listen, his message would have been pointless... But the meaning of
the expression "and I sent messengers" is that I had already sent
messengers... (Commentary to
Devarim 2:24)
In addition to understanding how what
the requirement to make peace entailed differently than Rashi, the Ramban raises
several other issues worth noting.
First, he explains that the reason that Moshe did not send peace feelers
to Og as he did to Sihon is based on Ogs decision to attack the Jewish people
immediately after their battle with Sihon, and not due to an active decision by
Moshe. Second, he suggests that
Hashems command to engage Sihon in battle only came after the failure over
Moshes original peace overtures.
Otherwise, one of two untenable situations would have occurred: either
Sihon would have accepted Moshe offer of peace, causing Moshe to violate the
Divine command to "engage him in battle," or stating that Moshe knew ahead of
time that Sihon would refuse his peace offer. While this could justify Moshe' actions
in such a way that they would not have been in violation of the Divine command,
than ultimately Moshe was sending a purposeless or aimless
mission.
Finally, the Ramban makes the
fascinating suggestion that Moshe knew that ultimately, the Jewish people were
not destined at this point in time to conquer the land of Israel that lay on the
eastern side of the Jordan River.
Had the two tribes not pressed him in chapter 32, he would have left the
conquered areas empty. Instead, it
was better that the people remain united on one side of the border, under Divine
protection, as Sefer Yehoshua states (22:19): "But if the land of your possession be
unclean, then pass over to the land of the possession of Hashem, where
Hashem's tabernacle dwells."
We conclude with the words of the
Midrash that Rashi alluded to earlier in his commentary:
"Israel now sent
messengers" - This has bearing on what Scripture says, "Trust in the Lord,
and do good; dwell in the land, and cherish faithfulness" (Tehillim
37:2). It also says, "Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it"
(Tehillim 34:15). Now the Torah did not insist that we should actually go
in pursuit of the mitzvot, but said: "If you chance upon a bird's
nest..." (Devarim 22:6); "If you encounter your enemy's ox..."
(Shemot 23:4); "When you see the ass of your enemy..." (Shemot
23:5); ""When you shake the fruit from your olive-trees... that shall go to the
stranger, the fatherless, the widow" (Devarim 24:20); "When you gather
the grapes of your vineyard... that shall go to the stranger, the fatherless,
the widow" (Devarim 24:21);... In all these cases, if they come your way
you are commanded to perform the duties connected with them, but you need not go
in pursuit of them. In the case of peace, however, "seek peace" wherever you
happen to be, and "pursue it" if it is elsewhere.
Israel in fact acted
in this way. Although the Holy One Blessed be He had said to them, "Begin to
possess it; engage him in battle" (Devarim 2:24), they pursued peace, as
it says, "Israel now sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, 'Let
me pass through your country.'"
In our
parasha, the Akeidat Yitzchak (R. Yitzchak Arama) cites a mishna from
chapter 4 of Pirkei Avot when he says, "the advice of Rabbi Matia ben
Harash is quite correct when he states, 'Initiate a greeting of Peace/Shalom
with everyone." Peace is not
something that mankind achieves naturally.
Instead, we are commanded to be like Aharons students, to love peace
and pursue it."
Shabbat
Shalom