Good Shabbos!
The Holy Land of Israel is described in numerous ways throughout our Torah. It is most often called:
- The land of Canaan
- The land God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
- A land flowing with milk and honey
Knowing that history is written by the victors, why does our text bother to call the land of Israel the land of Canaan and why must we conquer it? One might imagine a desire to push against this name and to stick to those that make clear our connection to our ancestors and their connection to the land. Instead, our text here focuses on those enemies of ours who inhabit the land, who are synonymous with the land.
Why?
(יב) זֶה שֶׁאָמַר הַכָּתוּב (תהלים קיא, ו): כֹּחַ מַעֲשָׂיו הִגִּיד לְעַמּוֹ, אָמַר לָהֶם הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, יָכוֹל הָיִיתִי לִבְראוֹת לָכֶם אֶרֶץ חֲדָשָׁה, אֶלָּא בִּשְׁבִיל לְהַרְאוֹת לָכֶם אֶת כֹּחִי אֲנִי הוֹרֵג אֶת שׂוֹנְאֵיכֶם מִפְּנֵיכֶם וְנוֹתֵן לָכֶם אֶת אַרְצָם, לְקַיֵּם מַה שֶּׁנֶּאֱמַר: כֹּחַ מַעֲשָׂיו הִגִּיד לְעַמּוֹ לָתֵת לָהֶם נַחֲלַת גּוֹיִם.
(12) This is as the verse says (Psalms 111:6) "God revealed the strength of God's deeds to God's people, [in giving them the heritage of nations]". The Holy Blessed One said to Israel, "I could have created for you a new land; but, for the sake of showing you My strength, I will kill your enemies before you and give you their land; in order to fulfill what is written, "God revealed the strength of God's deeds to God's people, in giving them the heritage of nations" (ibid).
(6) The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying: You have stayed long enough at this mountain. (7) Start out and make your way to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negeb, the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and the Lebanon, as far as the Great River, the river Euphrates. (8) See, I place the land at your disposal. Go, take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to assign to them and to their heirs after them.
(19) We set out from Horeb and traveled the great and terrible wilderness that you saw, along the road to the hill country of the Amorites, as the LORD our God had commanded us. When we reached Kadesh-barnea, (20) I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which the LORD our God is giving to us. (21) See, the LORD your God has placed the land at your disposal. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you. Fear not and be not dismayed.” (22) Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead to reconnoiter the land for us and bring back word on the route we shall follow and the cities we shall come to.” (23) I approved of the plan, and so I selected twelve of your men, one from each tribe. (24) They made for the hill country, came to the wadi Eshcol, and spied it out. (25) They took some of the fruit of the land with them and brought it down to us. And they gave us this report: “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving to us.” (26) Yet you refused to go up, and flouted the command of the LORD your God. (27) You sulked in your tents and said, “It is because the LORD hates us that God brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to wipe us out. (28) What kind of place are we going to? Our kinsmen have taken the heart out of us, saying, ‘We saw there a people stronger and taller than we, large cities with walls sky-high, and even Anakites.’” (29) I said to you, “Have no dread or fear of them. (30) None other than the LORD your God, who goes before you, will fight for you, just as God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes, (31) and in the wilderness, where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as one carries their child, all the way that you traveled until you came to this place. (32) Yet for all that, you have no faith in the LORD your God, (33) who goes before you on your journeys—to scout the place where you are to encamp—in fire by night and in cloud by day, in order to guide you on the route you are to follow.” (34) When the LORD heard your loud complaint, God was angry. God vowed: (35) Not one of these people, this evil generation, shall see the good land that I swore to give to your ancestors— (36) none except Caleb son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his descendants will I give the land on which he set foot, because he remained loyal to the LORD. (37) Because of you the LORD was incensed with me too, and God said: You shall not enter it either. (38) Joshua son of Nun, who attends you, he shall enter it. Imbue him with strength, for he shall allot it to Israel. (39) Moreover, your little ones who you said would be carried off, your children who do not yet know good from bad, they shall enter it; to them will I give it and they shall possess it. (40) As for you, turn about and march into the wilderness by the way of the Sea of Reeds. (41) You replied to me, saying, “We stand guilty before the LORD. We will go up now and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.” And you all girded yourselves with war gear and recklessly started for the hill country. (42) But the LORD said to me, “Warn them: Do not go up and do not fight, since I am not in your midst; else you will be routed by your enemies.” (43) I spoke to you, but you would not listen; you flouted the LORD’s command and willfully marched into the hill country.
Additionally, it was taught in a baraita with regard to affliction: Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai says: The Holy One, Blessed be God, gave Israel three precious gifts, all of which were given only by means of suffering: Torah, Eretz Yisrael, and the World-to-Come.
6. Now, in the merit of the Torah which we draw, we merit to the Land of Israel, as in (Psalms 105:44), “And God gave them the lands of the gentiles.” But the Land of Israel is one of the three things which are acquired through suffering (Berakhot 5a). And the main suffering is the detractors, the wicked people, those “who had given a bad report about the land” (Numbers 14:37).
In the case of the spies, what occurred was really the more expected outcome. See R. S.D. Luzzato, Bemidbar 13:2, who writes that God had actually planned that the Jews would stay in the desert for forty years. It was truly difficult for the spies to understand how the Jews would survive and prosper in the land that they saw, unless God would constantly perform miracles for them – which they had good reason not to expect. After all, the Jews had been asked to take it on faith that things would somehow work out. Yet that very faith was undermined by the sending of the spies. The scouting mission itself created a paradox, in that the scouts were given a detailed and thought-out plan to analyze an entity that could be secured only by faith! Understanding their mission this way, it is no wonder they failed. Yet, the fact that two of the spies met the test showed that it was humanly possible. Furthermore, significantly, the view was held by two individuals and not just one, demonstrating that it was not a completely exceptional feat. Still, the failure of their mission, which with our new perspective comes as no surprise, resulted in a very weighty consequence, to say the least. The difference between the Jews’ potential transition into the Land of Israel, led by Moshe and with original generation intact, and their actual transition is like the difference between night and day.
The non-intuitive use of faith to physically conquer and settle the land turned out to be too much for the only generation that would even have a chance at this unusual endeavor. Yet, having been brought up on miracles, the children of Israel were also not able to adjust to the new, post-crime plan, which was to go through a slower, more gradual preparation toward the conquest and settlement of Canaan. This would be something for the next generation to accomplish. The generation that had seen constant, miraculous intervention in Egypt could not be the same one that would inherit the land with its own hands and with God only in the “background,” as it were. And once the desert generation showed itself incapable of conquering the land with faith, as would have been expected from a people who experienced so much Divine oversight, as well as unable to conquer the land with its own hands, there was no alternative but for it to die in the desert.
As mentioned elsewhere, man having a spiritual side as well as a physical side, can be viewed as having two wives. One wife is beautiful, diligent, keeps house in an exemplary fashion, but, alas she has no children. The other wife, while lacking the many virtues of the first wife, bears numerous children for her husband, is of good character and intelligent. Because of the relative merits of the two wives, their husband strives constantly to maintain a degree of tolerance and peace between them. After all, they are both indispensable to him, each in her own way. He tries to please both of them, and take care of their respective needs. In fact it is incumbent upon him not to show preference to either one of them, just as in the case of the father who must not show preference for the son of the wife he loves better, if the one he loves less is the mother of his first born son. (Deut. chapter 21) When the Torah states (Deut. 30,15) "I hereby offer you this day life and goodness, or death and evil," the reference is to two different lifestyles...
The reason Moses touches on this problem at this juncture, when a totally new lifestyle for the people is imminent, is perfectly logical. A parable may illustrate the husband's dilemma. A man has two wives, one beautiful, the apple of his eye, the other plain looking but the mother of his children. One day the beautiful wife is abducted while her husband was away on business. Thereupon wife number two appeals to the king for assistance in locating and freeing the wife who has been abducted. The king is impressed with the plain looking wife who is so concerned about her better looking competition. Since he is of a kindly disposition, he not only promised to help locate the abducted wife, but assures the family of his financial support until the whole family would be reunited, the husband had returned and the captive wife freed. After a while, news of the whereabouts of the abducted wife is received, and the king sets out to free her and succeeds. He then calls in the husband, being aware that the latter had always displayed a preference for the wife who had been abducted. He warns the husband not to neglect or maltreat his other wife since it was she who had been instrumental in the family surviving and being reunited. The king threatens punitive action should the husband fail to treat the second wife fairly.
Now that the land of Canaan, -i.e. wife number one,- is about to be restored to the Jewish people, normal economic factors will provide the people's sustenance, instead of the miraculous help from the king. Israel is warned not again to neglect its soul, the unseemly wife, while enjoying the companionship of wife number one, delighting in her physical endowments. Moses' warning about the need to observe all the mitzvot now that Israel is about to enter the holy land, is a reminder that the period of dependence on the king's largesse is drawing to a close. The king warns that neglect of the rules he had laid down would be viewed as a serious act of ingratitude for past favours. Such ingratitude could lead to Israel forfeiting the land itself. Should the nation ask how they could ensure their economic survival if they had to be constantly occupied with spiritual matters such as studying the Torah, they are reminded that they had learned during forty long years that the pursuit of material values is not the only way to ensure one' economic success in the world. "Remember the way your Lord guided you,...God fed you the manna...your clothing did not rot..." The whole purpose of allowing wife number one to be kidnapped, was to demonstrate that survival is possible without all these accoutrements. On the contrary, harm and failure will result from neglect of our spiritual equipment, rather than from our neglecting our business in favour of Torah study and mitzvah performance. We find this type of warning in Avot 6,2, "woe to the creatures because of the insult they heap upon Torah." Neglect of Torah spells retribution according to the midah keneged midah, measure for measure principle. "One who tries to divest themselvef of the yoke of Torah has the yoke of government and bureaucracy imposed upon them." (Avot 3,5.) If one encounters certain difficulties in life, one often does not have to search very far for the reasons. It is usually due to an imbalance in the way one has handled one's priorities. Torah study, mitzvah performance, have to be given equal time with the pursuit of one's economic goals. Nourishment of the soul is not provided by the same source as nourishment for the body. A healthy body is needed to enable the souls to function at full capacity. For that reason, all reasonable efforts have to be made to provide the body with proper sustenance. We know that Torah and mitzvot are the primary food for the soul from Solomon (Proverbs 6,23) "for the mitzvah is like a candle, whereas the Torah is like light itself." In the Torah (Deut 8,3,) we are told "a person does not live by bread alone, but by everything which emanates from the mouth of G'd does a person live." Onkelos renders Leviticus 18,8, as follows: "You shall observe My statutes and My social laws so that one ensures eternal life for themselves when they carry them out." The expression "to live thereby," accordingly refers to sustenance for our spiritual half. All the commandments that become applicable upon entry into the holy land, give sustenance to the spiritual part of the Jew. The land is described as one in "which you do not eat bread therein out of scarceness" (Deut 8,9). It is a land that does not demand so much physical labour that its inhabitants cannot find enough time to devote themselves to their spiritual tasks. Verses 11-14 are the warning not to immerse ourselves too deeply in the effort to acquire material riches. This could lead to forgetting G'ds goodness and the purpose for which we travelled forty years through the desert. Whereas, notwithstanding G'ds generosity, our own contribution to economic stability is required, or at least permitted, we must never forget what it is that gives us the strength to perform economic miracles. Should we fail to remember, our fate will be the same as that of the nations whom we are replacing in Canaan. If any reminder were needed as to by whose grace conquest of the country was accomplished, reference is made to the relative physical and numerical strength of Israel vis a vis the nations it has conquered. Those nations had inspired such awe in any would be conquerors, that to credit our success merely to our own strength would be sheer lunacy. G'd is also anxious to disabuse us of the thought that it was our moral superiority that led to our successful conquest. God points out that it was the wickedness of the land's inhabitants that caused them to be dispossessed. Already at the time of Abraham, G'd had promised that fulfillment of G'ds promise to him had to await the inhabitants' cumulative level of sin reaching a stage that would give G'd legal justification to dispossess them. (Genesis chapter 15) Israel's own waywardness is recalled, to remind them further that it was not their righteousness that led to the conquest of the land of Canaan. Precisely because G'd had forgiven so many of their past misdemeanors in the desert, they had to be warned now that they could not count on G'd being indulgent with them in the future. Also, the argument which Moses had used successfully up to now, namely that demise of the Jewish people would be interpreted by the nations at large as the Jewish G'ds inability to make good on God's promise to the people, would no longer be valid. Once Israel had conquered the land of Canaan, G'd would have demonstrated God's ability to deliver on God's promises.
Judaism and war
Judaism does not regard violence and war to promote justice as always wrong. It accepts that certain kinds of war will be ethically justified, and that it is sometimes morally acceptable to kill people.
Before declaring war or starting a battle there must be a genuine attempt to make peace and avoid the conflict.
Jewish law only permits combatants to be deliberately killed in war. Innocent civilians must be given every opportunity to leave the field of combat before a battle starts.
Old Testament
In much of the Old Testament God gives his clear approval to war. He is identified as a warrior, and is shown as leading the Jews in conflict, bringing them victory, protecting them from enemy forces.
But at the same time the Old Testament is filled with Jewish longing for peace.
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Isaiah 2
Peace
Peace is seen as something that comes from God and that will only be fully realised when there is justice and harmony not just between peoples, but within individual communities.
Some of the present day arguments put forwards in the context of terrorism take up this idea that there can be no real peace without justice for all.The importance of peace to the Jewish people is emphasised by 'Shalom', the conventional greeting between Jews from the earliest times, which means 'peace'.
Self-defence
The Talmud states that a person (a Jew or a non-Jew) is permitted to kill "a pursuer" to save his own life. This ruling applies to both individuals and groups of people (including states).
The Rabbis
The ancient rabbis thought that there were three types of war that a Jewish state should consider:
Obligatory wars: these are wars that God commanded Jews to fight. They include the biblical wars against the Canaanites and against the Amalekites.
Defensive wars: (These are also obligatory.) If the Jewish people are attacked, they are obliged to defend themselves. This doctrine covers pre-emptive strikes (which is when a country attacks an enemy who is about to attack it).
Some writers think that a war of self-defence doesn't count as a war, but is merely the normal action that can be taken under the Jewish law dealing with attackers and based on Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed."
Optional wars: These are wars undertaken for a good reason, and where no other form of "negotiation" remains possible.
The rules of war
The Jewish tradition is clear that before declaring war, or starting a battle, there must be an attempt to make peace - any military action without doing this is probably unlawful (Deuteronomy 20:10).
Only combatants are allowed to be killed intentionally in war. Military commanders should give non-combatants a good chance to leave the combat area before the battle starts. (This is usually impractical in modern warfare.)
However some authorities say that if a non-combatant knowingly stays in a place where a battle is about to take place, they lose their protection.