The Biblical Borders of Israel — What G-d Told Joshua: The Book of Joshua Part 1 - Rabbi Lazer Brody

[music] My Lord, it's [music] from you my Lord. It's [music] all good, my Lord. [singing] >> [music] >> Lordem with Hashem's loving grace. Tonight we begin learning Tanakh which is Bible. And I'm going to explain exactly what it is. If you've never learned a day in your life Bible start right here tonight. Try to make everything as clear as possible. And not only that, in the particular section of Bible that we're learning, the prophets, few people know them. people they talk about scripture but few people know them and another reason they had impetus if you Google Google the book of Joshua Google any any one of the prophets you come up three dozen non-Jewish websites and there's a problem it's problematic the translations their knowledge of biblical Hebrew is lacking and even if you have an objective translation something secular translation it waters down the meaning when we translate this is what we did in the book of psalms that we learned learned together for two and a half years. This was monumental and I think it's one of the greatest projects ever of my life. Not only putting the book out but learning together with a with a group. Two and a half years we learned the psalms one by one and in spoken English. But when we learned in spoken English the spoken English each word is an interpretation a classic interpretation of our classic biblical interpreters has a special different word. Give you example. What does that mean in English? English is a very material language. English you have every word you possibly need for business, for commerce, for spiritual concepts, it's very weak. The holy tongue, which is classical Hebrew, biblical Hebrew, we call it the holy tongue, lashes, it is full, it's a very spiritual language. And there are words that I literally have to invent in translation because they defy they defy translation. So we're going to do this as one by one. I these words I I guarantee you this is not uh some automatic thing. Prepare from the sleeve. Prepare tonight's lesson one by one. But bes learning the book of Joshua, we're going to take it to overview of Tanakh of the entire Bible. How it's constructed, how it's built, and then we'll get into the book of Joshua. So first of all, Joshua is one of the greatest leaders. He's a tremendous hero. And it's worthy that we begin learning the book of Joshua in October 7th and dedicate tonight's lesson to all the civilians and the soldiers that lost their lives in October 7th and in the subsequent war that is really still going on till today. So we ask ourselves first question, what is Tanakh? Okay, Tanakh, that's the Bible, right? To understand the book of Joshua, we need to understand what Tanakh is and how it's built. Okay. So, Tanakh is the divinely ordained compilation of Jewish sacred texts commonly known in the English as the Hebrew Bible. The word Tanakh is a Hebrew acronym. It comes from three letters, tough, nun, and the tough stands for Torah. The Nun stands for Naveim and the stands for kuvim. Torah is the law, the teachings, the five books of Moses. Nim is the prophets and ketubim is the writings. Let me elaborate a little bit more. Okay. The Torah is the five books of Moses. It's named Why is it five books of Moses called the five books of Moses? Because they were received from Hashem in direct divine dictation. Hashem to Moses top Mount Si. Now Moses, he got every single letter of Torah was spoken to Hashem. And that's why the Torah is so sanct. We cannot only change a letter in Torah, but even a portion of a letter is not written. If we have a Torah scroll, there's a prescribed way that a ceremonial scribe has to be ordained to write a Torah scroll. If even one half of one letter is not written properly, the entire Torah, which contains 600,000 letters, 600,000 letters correspond to the 600,000 Hebrew souls. the 600,000 letters. If a half a letter is no good, it could be the most expensive, most classic fancy writing that that a $200,000 safer Torah $200,000 Torah scroll. It's rendered not kosher. It can't be. And if it's a a name, one of the divine names that's written improperly, it cannot be corrected. It's got to be it's a it has to be buried the Torah. Okay? That's a Torah. It's every letter was spoken to from Hashem to Moses on Mount Si and it therefore holds supreme legal authority and every single letter is entirely unalterable. Now there's all types of ways to interpret the Torah. You have to you have to learn Torah to interpret. And where do we learn the interpretations of Torah? They're elaborated in the oral Torah. This is was later given the subsequent Moses was three times 40 days and 40 nights learned with the Shem. The first 40 days and 40 nights he got the oral Torah. That's the five books of Moses. On the second and third terms of 40 days and 40 nights was the Shem dictated the oral Torah because you can't know how to implicate how to apply the written Torah without knowing the oral Torah. Okay, so that's the oral Torah. This is something completely different. That's Mishna and Gomorrah. But we're all talking about this is the written Torah. The Bible is the written Torah. Look at the Tanakh. So that was Torah. Now we go to Naveim. The second part. Naveim is the prophets. These include the divinely communicated insights, messages, and visions which the major prophets expressed in their own words and style. They all receive messages from Hashem. But each one would say in Hebrew that the wine receives the taste of the cup. So although there are thousands of prophets, the prophesize the prophecies that are codified in the Bible neighbor Bible, the Tanakh are the ones that have a general importance. In other words, there were many prophets that had local importance or personal importance. They're not codified for generations. All the ones like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Joshua, these are the ones that have eternal eternal significance. Now we come to the third part of Tanakh, which is kuvim. These include the Psalms, the book of Psalms, King David, proverbs by King Solomon, the Song of Songs by King Solomon, Ecclesi Ecclesiastes by King Solomon, the book of Esther, McGill's Esther that we read on Porium, the Chronicles, Lamentations that Jeremiah the prophet wrote destruction of the holy temple, the book of Ruth, book of Daniel and Ezra, which were all the result of divine inspiration we call wasn't dictated. The difference between the prophets, the Naveim and the writings, the Kuim that the Naveim, they got direct message from Hashem and the Kufuim, the the writings, they are divinely inspired. They come from Hashem in divine inspiration. So now these the three once again the three sections of Tanakh the Hebrew Bible the Torah and the prophets and the holy writings and that means the first letter. So the book of Joshua is now this is the first of the book of prophets picks up. Now why are we the book of Joshua begins where the five books of Moses leave off. The five books of Moses leave officers. We completed the five books of Moses on this past Shabbat. And right away we began if we we don't stop at learning Torah. We finished the Torah and what do we be in the beginning? So this week's Shabbat, then we will learn the Torah portion of BLI. We will recite and synagogue the Torah portion of BLI. So we ended the Torah in par. the last Torah portion where it records the death of Moses. This is the last eight verses of the Torah were dictated to Joshua because Moses some say that Moses wrote about his own death before he died that Hashem told him what to write and so that these were written in tears instead of ink they wrote in tears and another the the more prevalent interpretation is that Joshua himself wrote them down. Okay. So either way we have one one holy sources that say both that say both. We say it looks like a discrepancy but actually both are correct. Right? So let's begin with Joshua's background. Who was Joshua we talking about? And I promise you one thing. I promise as we go along you'll see that you'll be sorry that you spent time in Facebook and in Netflix and all types of things when the greatest action and the suspense and romance it's all right here in the book of in the book of Joshua in particular and the prophets in general. So Joshua in Hebrew is called Yahosua. He was Moses's understudy and successor. He's most intended attendant you might call him who led the nation of Israel into the land of Israel, the holy land that Hashem promised to our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now the Torah describes Joshua as a devoted student. Uh right, he completely nullified himself to Moses, to his master and teacher, and that is why he became the successor. Joshua was so humble just like Moses was so humble. The Torah talked about but in addition to humility where do we see that Moses was humble and Joshua was humble that the God says if someone is poor and someone is weak and someone is just a what we call in Yiddish a neb he's a weakling and not particularly successful. He says so I'm [laughter] humble. What do you mean you're humble? What do you have to be so proud about? But imagine someone as mighty and he's strong and and good-looking and charismatic and a great leader and despite all these positive as aspects, he's still humble. Then that is real humility. And this is what the Torah attests that Moses was the most humble human being who ever walked the face of the earth. The second is Joshua. Joshua most underststudied. Joshua nullified himself to a way that he had no in completely negated his own intellect in order to emi to embibe the intellect of Moses the divine the divine wisdom that Moses received directly from Hashem and this is why our chain we call the chain of kabala kabala literally means passing from rabbi to teacher kabala is the reception it's reception to and we don't have we don't have nuances in in and Torah learning. We get it's from rabbi to student to rabbi to student to rabbi to student. And the reason you hear me mention the meliser rebi all the time he's he's my he's my teacher my ro and would feel next to our teacher that feel like a tiny like minuscule. This is the way Joshua felt in front of Moses and that's why Joshua was the most worthy successor of Moses. Nobody knew Moses better than than Joshua. Nobody knew Moses' teachings better than Joshua. And that's why Joshua would listen to people thought they he would set up the chairs before the Torah, the Torah le, but he was right there listening every word, gleaning every word more than anyone else, more attentive than anyone else. So when Moses would leave the room, Joshua would repeat would repeat by word of mouth, by memory, repeat the entire lesson. And then he would pass this on. And this we have we see this in the first chapter in the Mishna the ethics of the fathers of vote where it talks that Moses received the Torah from Hashem and passed it on to Joshua and Joshua to the elders the elders the prophets etc etc. Okay so Joshua he the Torah describes him the five books of Moses when the Torah mentions Joshua as most underststudied and then the Torah later mentions Joshua as Hashem tells tells Moses to ordain Joshua. You don't become a leader by elections. It's by divine ordination. And Hashem told Moses to ordain Joshua. He said, "Put your hand on his head." And that's called when you rest your hand when you rest your hand on someone's head. Your hand it's called that's so this day resting a hand to one's head. The word has come to mean divine ordination. Rabbi has he's got divine ordination. And what that literally means is that his teacher put his hands on Joshua's head. Now, Hashem told Moses, "Rest your hand on Joshua's hand." Okay? But Moses did more than that. He put two hands. He put two hands on that. Rabbi Nakman says that Moses by what did he do by giving Joshua two hands? He says, he says, "I hope that you have double my wisdom. I hope you have double my capability, double my ability." This is the magnanimous mo Moses and his humility that the people are you know maybe they don't want their student to be greater than them. Now the Gmorra doesn't say that the Gmoras tells us that there are two types of people that a person is not jealous of his own offspring and his students. That's why a true Torah teacher, he wants all his students to be great. He wants all his students to be teachers. He wants all his students to be able to pass on to to their students. He wants he wants everyone to be great. It's not just that the show is about him and he doesn't want any competition. No, but a real teacher he hopes is bigger prayers. My my students should only be smarter than me. They should have more fear of Hashem than I do, more of Hashem than I do, more Torah knowledge than I do. This this for him is a dream. It's a dream that he can uplift his students. And if this is the the sign of a successful teacher, you brought your student to a [clears throat] higher level than you are. What what greater success is that? Okay. So this is you have to understand for a true altruistic Torah teacher that the success of his students is more important to him than his own success because that's a sign of his success, the success of his students. This was Joshua. This is Joshua. Joshua wanted any everyone to be a servant of Shem. But not only was Joshua a fantastic spiritual leader, he was a mighty warrior. He a mighty warrior and he already was showing the Torah where he he led he led a task force. He led a task force on on several missions that Moses sent him. So chronologically uh well first of we say to sum up what we just said that Joshua was a leader in all fronts material and spiritual and he demanded it was it wasn't easy. He demanded uncompromising adherence to the Torah because he knew the Torah's laws he got from his teacher and his teacher got them straight from Hashem and there's no room for compromise. And he valiantly led the military conquest of the Holy Land. We'll soon see Moses by decree was not allowed to enter the Holy Land. So therefore, that's why the Torah, the book of Joshua begins with the death of Moses. In other words, the end of the 30-day morning period for Moses. And that's when Hashem now speaks to Joshua. Until then, some didn't speak directly to Joshua. He spoke to Moses. Now, why did he speak after right after Moses died? Because Joshua was grieving and the divine presence can't rest on person in grief. So, as soon as Joshua got up from the 30-day morning period, then Hashem talked to him as we'll soon see in chapter one that to take the people into Egypt. So, chronologically, Joshua was born in 2406 in the Hebrew calendar. That's 1355 BCE and he was 42 at the time of the excess of Egypt. And 40 years later in the year 2448 and 2448 was the year they left Egypt. It's also the year we received Torah Moses to Mount Si. 40 years later after souring desert that was 2488 and this is when Moses died and the Israelites crossed the Jordan River tent the land of Israel and then Joshua was 82 years old but he was a very young 82 he led the people for 28 years until his passing was in 2516 that's already 1245 BCE and he died at the age of 110 and the book of Joshua that we're about to learn records his whole story right so Mo once again Joshua was the faithful servant disciple of Moses most faithful not only that the attendant said the guy that sets up the chairs before the lesson and the Torah relates that he never budged from the tent of Moses he was always there so even if he Moses was one of was alone and convening with the shem was right outside the the tent door right there if Moses called him he was right there he was ready and he was devoted heart and soul to his master and teacher and He patiently waited by the foot of Mount Si. When Moses went up, he didn't become impatient. Then 40 days, 40 nights, he did not budge. He waited for his teacher to come down. And as we learned, we mentioned in trackctate a vault and the Mishna that Joshua was a vital link in the chain of transition, the chain of Kabala, the chain of reception from rabbi to student Moses taught Joshua the Torah and Joshua passed on the teachings to the elders. And they were they relayed them they relayed them onto the next generation of the prophets. So when Moses went to the tent of meeting to what we call Mo the tent of meeting where Hashem he would come in with Hashem Joshua always accompanied him. Okay. So Joshua was also the spy of unserving loyalty. It would have been parachut in numbers. Uh Joshua had we saw learned about the 12 spies. the 12 spies. So Joshua represent. He was the spy that represented the tribe of Ephraim. And he was one of the 12 tribal [clears throat] leaders that Moses commissioned to scout out the land of Canaan, this future land of Israel, its terrain, its inhabitants. And although their assignment was to gather intel, to help them capture the promised land, to help them conquer the promised land, 10 of the 12 return with gloomy reports that the land is impossible to conquer, the enemies are too mighty, they can't overcome them. only Caleb, Caleb, Benifuna, Caleb from the tribe of Juda, of Judah and Joshua from tribe of Fryim. They tried to convince the Israelites that Hashem would surely deliver the locals into their hand just like Hashem promised them land of milk and honey. But the other 10 remained steadfast in their liel. They said bad things about the land of Israel. And this was the infamous sin of the spies that triggered the subsequent decree that no one of that generation would be allowed to enter the land of Israel except Joshua and Caleb. Joshua and Caleb were the only one of gener of that particular generation that entered the land of Israel. Okay. Caleb got the inheritance of Hevron. He got a personal above above and beyond the tribes and Joshua inherit the per personal inheritance of Jericho. Jericho belonged to Joshua and uh the Hashem deemed that Caleb would come to why but Caleb Caleb went he didn't want to the other 10 spies to influence him and he knew that Joshua had Moses' blessing he didn't have blessing Moses he wasn't Moses understudied so he knew he had to do something drastic Joshua alone he went across the land of Israel from west to east this is from right now right south of Ashdod between Ashd and Ashcolon and he crossed the mountains up to and he went to the Makah cave and where the our forefathers and and our our ancestral grandmothers are buried and he prayed them. He prayed that they should intervene and and help that by their in their behalf that the Shm promised the holy land to our our ancestors and that he should be able to do his his task loyally. So he followed completely in the footsteps of Moses. And before Moses departed from the physical world, Moses publicly appointed Joshua as a successor. And this was history's first ordination public. Moses did this in public in front of Elazar, the high priest. Elazar, the son of Aaron. He was high priest because Aaron had already died previously. And Hashem commanded take Moses. Hashem told Moses to take Joshua. The Torah says, "A man of spirit." Joshua is the a man of spirit. What does it mean a man of spirit? It's a man that his spirit, his ru, his his soul, his soul is dominant. A man of spirit, there's a difference between a man of spirit and a man of body. Man of body is bodily oriented. He's worried about his his six-pack abs and his 22-in biceps. I guarantee you Joshua had 12-pack abs and he had maybe 24 inch biceps and he was there was nothing nothing not the slightest flip leg but he was spiritually oriented. He was he was involved as his mind was in Torah day and night. So he was called the land of spirit and we said Moses was commanded to put one hand on Joshua's head put two hands on Joshua's head. can read about that ordination in chapter 27 of the book of numbers. And Moses imbued Joshua with a double portion of his own lofty spirit and laying both hands on the head. Then this would once again what we call smika. So Moses performed ordination not only in front of Elazar the high priest but the whole congregation of Israel. Everybody was there to see that this is Moses ordaining Joshua and everybody knew that Joshua would be the next leader and this was sanctioned from Hashem. Hashem told Moses to do that. So after no this is once Moses says once I'm not here this is your leader that Hashem decided. So the whole community by this done in public why Moses do this in public take all the trouble. So they make sure that the entire community would obey him. So Joshua's mission begins on the seventh day of Nissan. The seventh day we're being exacting in the dates. They research got all these dates on 2488. This is exactly 30 days after when Hashem revealed himself to Joshua. It was 30 days after death of Moses which on the seventh of Adar. Adar is the Hebrew month before Nissan. It's the last Hebrew month of the year and Nissan is the first Hebrew month of the year. So from seven of Adar to seven Nissan exactly 30 days. This was in the 30-day morning period ended. Now 30 boys. So Joshua is getting up from morning and he's putting aside his grievance because we're not to grieve more than the prescribed period. And what's the secret here? That the divine presence can only hover can only rest on a place of joy. So when a person is grieving, the divine presence can't be with him. That's why I said gives you if we wouldn't need Hashem's help, even when we're in trouble, we still have to be happy that we have Hashem to turn to. We could have all types of other emotions, fear and what but we have to be Hashem we can turn to and that way Hashem comes and helps us. So after the 30 day morning period of Moses concluded, Hashem commanded Joshua to prepare the nation across the Jordan River into the land of Israel. 3 days later Joshua led the people through the miraculous split river. The Jordan River split just like the Red Sea. It's not a miracle. We'll see. Okay. Joshua had a precise mission to fill. He would enter the land of Israel, conquer its inhabitants. It was a difficult war. There were 31 31 hostile kings, the Canaanite kings. And then Joshua's task was to take the whole entire land of Israel and aortion it among the tribes. And Hashem promised him, "No one shall stand against you all the days of your life." Hashem to him said to him, "As I was with Moses, so I shall be with you." Famous two words, "I will be with you." So I'm neither fail nor abandon you. Be strong and have courage. And this brings us to chapter one. So in chapter one quickly we're learning that once the morning period for Moses over, Hashem commands Joshua to prepare the nation to cross the Jordan River entering the promised land. And one thing as I do when I teach Tanakh, but that we did in the book of Psalms, I say the the passage in the original biblical Hebrew and and then translate it. Once again, our translation, it's I take responsibility for the translation. It's in spoken English and each word e each word we did each word has been attended to because it this is enriched uranium. This is the word of Hashem. And if in oral Torah you're not exactly one thing, not exacting maybe it's it's a big deal but not a big deal but not with the written Torah. The written Torah we have to be very exacting. So the book of Joshua begins Mosheu after the death of Moses, Hashem's servant. Hashem said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses attented. Now here, Moses is called Hashem's servant. We have to notice even after his death, even after Moses died that Nvi, the book of Joshua, still calling him Hashem's servant. This shows that the sadikim continued to serve the shem in the next world just they did in this world and right for this is we now go into verse two and we will see this is hashem speaking from verse two through verse 9 for the next seven vers we now begin with hashem's hashem's dialogue and I'll put to when hashem finishes finishes speaking okay so once again we mentioned we already explained that uh hashem is now speaking to Joshua because he already speak to Joshua that hem wouldn't speak to Joshua during the 30-day morning period because Joshua was grieving with the loss of his teacher and so this is against this boy who died on the seventh of Adar. So this is the seventh of Nissan where the morning period ended the very first opportunity spent is speaking to Joshua. We also see if Hashem is speaking to Joshua, we look how Joshua bounces back because someone you take somebody you really really love. Joshua knows that to do his job, he has to sh and and simple. So he right away bounces back. He gets up from grieving. Okay, grieving is putting aside and getting up. You see this with with the Sadikim. I'll never forget was maybe 25 years ago that the military I saw this with my own eyes. The way that Sadik M the military lost his oldest daughter. She had four children. She was married to the bestina rebina represent that represent Mir his daughter Mir. And she died of the nasty big C. We don't like to say that sixletter word. It's a nasty word. And Reb would mourn and he cried one thing. He said in in in his eulogy of her he mentioned the also lost a daughter and Melba says Hashem now that I don't have the love for my daughter Mar there's more room to love you this is the way he loves Hashem despite everything but then three weeks later another daughter got married and he was smiling and dancing and I asked the rabbi I had tears in my eyes I asked the rabbi I said reb you lost your old daughter and I said I know this next daughter she married, but how can how can you be so happy three it's less than a month after the the morning before you for your daughter it's not over yet and now another he says well there's a a time when it what Ecclesiastes says there's a time to be sad a time to be happy a time for mourning a time for rejoicing he says when I have to mourn I mourn when I have to be happy I have to be happy because see it's all the service of Hashem the self is completely nullified this was Joshua Joshua It was time for mourning. He mourned for Moses. As soon as he got up, he has to be happy. Has to be a leader. And was as he was happy, he was now a worthy vessel. So you see within these little nuances and there's no one see this is the way we learn Torah exacting. What a bounce back. What a bounce back. And right away the first possible moment Joshua makes himself available for divine prophecy. So in verse two, Hashem says, "My servant Moses has died. get ready to cross the Jordan River, you and the entire people, into the land that I'm giving the children of Israel. So, we see that the shem it seems superfluous. Wait a second. Verse one, we already learned that Moses died. So, and Joshua, he just been finished spending 30 days of mourning for Moses. And what does Hashem have to say? My servant Moses has died. Joshua doesn't know that. Thank you, Hashem. I just don't This is It's not It looks like it's superfluous, but it teaches two things. First, that Hashem would not speak to Mo to Joshua if Moses were still alive. Moses was still alive. Hashem would only speak to the leader. Speaks to the leader. What doesn't speak to the to the understudy? And second, there was an irrevocable divine decree. When Moses hit the rock and water came out, Hashem told Moses, "Speak to the rock." And because Moses had the 600,000 people were yelling at him, "We want water. We want water." And they were yelling. So Moses had he forgot a moment that Hashem said to speak to the rock and he hit the rock. Well, the water came out of the rock. But he got punished for that. He and Aaron that they were not for this. He was not allowed to enter the land of Israel. So he could see Hashem is very exacting with the Sadik. very exactly with the righteous. And so since he as long as Moses was alive, Hashem wouldn't speak to Joshua. And as long as Moses were alive, Hashem couldn't give the command to enter the land of Israel. So now that Moses is no longer alive, Hashem is speaking to Joshua. And now that Moses is no longer alive, Hashem is giving the command to enter the land of Israel. That's why he says in the beginning of verse two, "My servant Moses died." I said, "Get ready to cross the Jordan River, you and the entire people, into the land that I'm giving the children of Israel." So why it says it? We said, "Get ready to cross this Jordan River." And exactly the Hebrew words it says this Jordan River and this entire people. This people why say this or the to show when you say something this, it means they're right close. So it's not to show that they're not far away from the Jordan River. They're very close to the Jordan River. this Jordan River and the people not uh some of the people that with you. These are this people that I took out of the land of Egypt. And that's why Hashem is being very specific. Hashem is very specific in his commands. And [snorts] so Hashem is is granting the land of Israel wisely to the children of Israel because those follow the children of Israel. They're not just a bunch of riffraff. You call the children of Israel if they follow the ways of Israel. Israel. That's another name for Jacob. Jacob after he wrestled, he he wrestled the angel of God. He and prevailed. He got the name Israel. Israel in Hebrew, Israel means the wrestling with an angel of God at prevailing. That's what the word Israel means. So the children of Israel literally is the children of Jacob. So you're talking about one one of the person the children of Jacob. And not just genealogically, not just that, but when they follow in the laws of the forefathers, which laws of the Torah. Okay. We now go to verse three. Verse three. I will give you every place your foot shreds as I promised Moses. What does it mean? Every place your foot shreds will soon see what the biblical borders are. The biblical borders are unbelievable. What Hashem promised the promised land promised land is from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates that includes mo the all land of Israel that includes most of Lebanon most of Syria half of Iraq all the way to but Hashem says where your land foot shreds you will only inherit where you conquer wherever your foot shreds if there's a place if you haven't reached Iraq and you haven't reached Syria and you haven't crossed the you're not going to get that land all right this is you can have this land this is but you where your foot treads And this is what Hashem promised Moses. And then we go in verse four. She this the UN has to take a look at this verse chapter 1 verse4 and when they complain about uh our territory it says that book of Joshua word of Hashem your territory this Hashem telling Joshua Hashem is giving the borders. So we listen to we listen to you when okay your territory should extend from the wilderness the wilderness with the wilderness that's the wilderness of Kadesh the wilderness of Kadesh is northern Sinai it's this southern negative that goes over the Egyptian border into northern Sinai and the Lebanon to the great river the river Euphrates that right Hashem tells right what the great river the great river the river Euphrates Euphrates begins in Turkey and goes all the way down to the the the border between Iraq and Iran all the way down into the sea into the hormos. And so this is and it'll be on the Mediterranean seats for west from the Mediterranean all across the fertile crescent in the Middle East which includes Lebanon, half Assyria, uh all of Jordan. all of Jordan that Jordan was a an invention trans Jordan was an invention of the British before but this is uh the original biblical Palestine includes all of Jordan that's a no-brainer okay and that's why there were the inheritance we'll see the two tribe the tribe of God the tribe of Ruven and the halftribe of Manasha their inheritance was on the east side of the Jordan River in today's in today's Jordan in the land land of Jordan and then in verse five loy We now have the key to military success. Military success is when Hashem makes this promise. He says to Joshua, and Joshua is a great fighter in his own right. No one shall be able to resist you as long as you live. What a life insurance policy. As I was with Moses, so I shall be with you. And this the promise that what I shall be with you. That means that Hashem's divine providence will not budge from Joshua just like it was with Moses. That's that's the promise. I will neither fail you nor forsake you. Don't have no doubts. Things might look tough, but I haven't left you. And Joshua will see many difficulties. We'll see. But Hashem's promised. So says now you're not going to have it. It's not going to be Sesame Street. It's going to be difficult. So Hashem tells him in verse six, be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. What's why does Hashem say be strong and courageous? Because strong is physical strength. Courageous is moral strength, internal strength, spiritual strength. What gives a person courage? Biceps don't give a person courage. Amuna gives a person courage. When a person has a muna, a person knows that Hashem is with him. And this is what King David tells us in Psalm 23. Though I walk in the valley of death, I fear no evil because you were with me. This is courage. This is SP as a as a person could be a sometimes you see a little weak person who's very tenacious and very courageous and you can overcome someone much much stronger and this is something that Goliath didn't understand he says what this bar mitzvah boy fight you're going to come to fight him but this is the courage of king David because amuna king David said like the book of psalms is said call it the book of amuna that's what we learn amuna that's why we spent two and a half years learning the book of psalms it's the book of amuna so tells him be strong and courageous he tells Joshua for you shall aortion the people the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. And then he says in verse seven, we'll say it several times. Hashem says to him, but you must be very strong and courageous. to so many you mean a small you have to be very strong and courageous to make sure is really giving us charge to Joshua make sure to do everything according to the entire Torah the gonavila he interprets this what's a make sure make sure means that you avoid doing the negative commandments and to do that's to make sure you do the positive commandments And they said what the the way they're going to fill every single word it's important one word by word everything has significant meaning and we're really learning this and in one lesson we're running on that. We could really spend a month on this but we want to we want to we want to learn review this going to keep a certain pace. Okay. He says do not deviate from the right or the left. What's the right or the left? Again the right is stringency. Don't be a right-winger. Don't be stringency. When Hashem says, "I tell you to to do something, okay? To do something. I tell you to have a seven-day festival." No, I'm not going to be I'll make a nine-day festival. No, you don't make a nine-day festival. And I said, you don't and don't to the left to left. Don't make a week. Nah, seven days too long. I'll do three days. Okay. She says, "Don't be a zealot and and don't be a reformer." Now, right there, do it as I command you. This I command. This telling Joshua, don't go to the right or to the left. Don't go to stringencies. Don't go to leniencies. do things exactly as I'm as you're told. Now, why is Hashem doing this? Remember, if we buy a brand new Mitsubishi, we look in the glove compartment and we've got the owner's manual. Listen, the Tanakh is the owner's manual for the soul. Where's the soul comes from? Comes from Hashem. Hashem knows what good for the soul. Everything that we learn in Tanakh, everything we're learning together, this is for the health of the soul. And the reason that people aren't happy and the reason people have emotional problems, it all stems from the soul because emotions come from the soul. So this is to keep us happy, to keep us healthy, to keep us courageous, to keep us charismatic. Someone that's really connected to Hashem, someone has a muna and this sh the inner glow that a person has knowing that Hashem loves him or loves her and they love Hashem back and that we know Hashem gives us the gift the gift of the Bible, the gift that we we have this open up and read it whenever we want and go this is such a fantastic gift. So then we go to verse eight and Hashem tells him I don't need a Rambo. I needed you got to be a spiritual leader. He says, "Don't let the book of the Torah, remember Joshua, he had the five books of Torah that he got from Moses, the five books of Moses, don't let the book of Torah, Lord told the scroll, depart from your mouth. Think about it day and night. So you'll make sure to do everything in accordance with what's written in it. Only then will you succeed in your endeavors and then you will make wise decisions. Why does Hashem say only then will you make wise decisions? Says when you're thinking about Torah day and night, then you ask yourself, what would Hashem say about this? What would the Torah say about this? Well, this decision I have to make, were there similar decisions to Torah? How did our forefathers act? How did Moses act? How did Joshua act? And and this is we make our decisions with divine wisdom. Where do we get divine wisdom? From our Bible learning, from our Torah learning. This is where we get it from. Okay. This is Hashem says to Joshua, you don't budge. If you want this is divine knowledge. Okay. And in verse 9, so this is the third time Hashem says to him and the Torah is not redundant. A single letter means that we need it. I have commanded you be strong and be courageous. Be strong and be courageous. This again he it he says be strong. That means be strong in your Torah learning. Be strong in your observance of Torah and courageous and courageous in battle. You're going to be learning Torah, a lot of it, and you're be going to battle. You're doing a lot of battle. So you have to be strong and courageous. So Hashem says over and over, Hashem is what is Sheming doing? Hashem knows the human brain. He created the human brain. There's a thing of retention. We hear something once, maybe forget it. We learn it again, comes in deeper. We learn it a third time. Sometimes when we review, people get bored. Well, I need to review. No, it's in order to retain. We do review to retain. It's easy to learn something the first time, but as fast as we learn it, we forget it. The more we review, then the more we retain. So important part of our Torah learning is retention. That's why we learn the five books of Moses every single year we go through. But here one of the reasons they chose to teach the book of prophets and begin with Joshua that said few people learn them. Few people know what's in there. They things important parts of our history important lessons but they they don't know because it's something that that the the prophets and the writings are they here they are quote here and there from Jeremiah a quote here and there from Isaiah. Maybe something from King Solomon a little juicy bit of wisdom but there's something we have to learn. And they took it on par with the milit military reb's blessing that we're all learning together. And this is something universal. This is something it's perfect. It doesn't matter. You don't have to be you don't have to be Jewish. You have to be believe in Hashem. You have to believe in Hashem. You believe in Hashem. And and our group is an amuna group. Group is a based on Hashem. And we don't we're really we're above religion. We're all connecting to Hashem. And this is the way to connect to Hashem. This way to connect to Hashem. So now in verse 9, okay, this was this is Hashem's closing verse in this particular part of Hashem's dialogue. Now Joshua begins to speak in verse 10. Joshua then ordered the marshals of the people and he said, what did he say? So Joshua says, "Go through the camp and command the people. Make sure that there's nobody. There's word of mouth." Okay? No cell phones, no text messages. The commanding the leaders, the tribal leaders that go through, go through the camp, make sure everybody says, "Prepare provisions for in three days time." They got three days to prepare themselves. You're going to be crossing the Jordan River in order to enter and possess the land that Hashem, Hashem, our God, is giving us to inherit. And this is the the command. So what's the provisions? They're still eating the mana. So what they're doing, they're gathering mana and Hashem is doing a miracle to the mana. The mana would usually be spoiled after one day and on Shabbat to get a double portion that would last for two days. But now Hashem is giving mana that is going to sustain them for 5 days until they get into the land of Israel and until they can eat from the local grain land of Israel. So what they're doing they're they're preparing box lunches out of mana or whatever they want. The greater thing you decide what kind of say you want a corn beef sandwich, you want a a cheese sandwich, whatever you make, you can do with your mana, whatever you do. So they're preparing their provisions and then I got to Joshua's calling in on markers. Remember that the two and a half the tribe of Rub and the tribe of God and the halftribe of Manasha they asked Moses for their inheritance. They had a lot of flocks a lot of livestock and a tremendous grazing areas in Jordan more so in the land of Israel. They asked for on east side of the Jordan River to get their inheritance. They'd have all this grazing area. And Moses said, "Well, we made them promise." He said, "What do you mean? You want to go and you want to settle and you're going to send your brothers into the land of Israel and they're going to fight the war and you're going to sit back already with make money with your crops and your family and this?" He said, "No." And they promised Moses, we will spearhead the children of Israel where the is Israelite nation and we'll be the first fighters in there and we will not go back to our tribal lands until everybody receives their own. Moses said on that condition, you got a deal, guys. That's it. If you come and you spearhead the conquest of the land of Israel and you help your brothers sell in settle in their particular land appropriations, then once they settle, you go back. In the meanwhile, what they did, they did the elders and the women and the children, they already stayed on the east side of the Jordan. They didn't cross the Jordan River. So do we we see we have to explain this because in verse 12 Joshua says to the men of the tribes of Ruven God and the half tribe of Manasha God g a d God g a d okay not go g a d okay that's one of the 12 tribes so he says in verse 13 he's reminding them guys you got a debt to pay. Remember what Moses, the servant of Hashem, commanded you. So mind the servant of Hashem. It's not Moses out of his own head. It's Moses because Hashem said when he said what Moses said, you could find this what the in in the chapter 3 of Deuteronomy verse 18. Moses said, "Hashem, your God, your God is granting you a haven or resting place and is giving you this land." So it's the women and children of that the advantage for them that they're the women and children and the elders they didn't have to wander anymore. They could stay right where they were. They go to their respective lands. They were already on the east side of the Jordan River. And that's it. And once the other nine and a half tribes, the other half tribe, half of the tribe of Manasha was on the west side of the Jordan near what today's Hadera. Uh that is the half tribe of Manasha all the way to the Samaran Mountains. They're on the west side of the Jordan River together with the other nine tribes. So we have nine and a half tribes on the west side of the Jordan and two and a half tribes on the east side of the Jordan. So he says once the other nine and a half tribes on the west side of the Jordan they make their conquest and they can settle down then you guys can go back. You go back and you fulfill your promise. Okay. So Moses tells them now in verse 14, your wives, your children, your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses assigned you on this side of the Jordan. The side of the Jordan, meaning the side of the Jordan they are presently on, which is still the east side of the Jordan. They haven't yet have not crossed Jordan yet. That's going to be another three days. But your mighty warriors shall cross over. was the mighty warriors. The mighty warriors at at the the the army age, they'll cross over. Where do they cross over? Cross over the Jordan River, which means that the elders elders, they'll stay and they'll protect the women and children. And you'll go come armed. You're going to be armed when you cross the Jordan already. In other words, you guys are already with swords and shields and you're in battle gear and you're leading your brothers and assisting them just as you promise. Assisting them means assisting them in battle. So in verse 15, we learn This is continuation of verse 14 that you'll assist your brothers in battle until Hashem has given your brother tribes a place to settle such as you have and they too have gained possession of their lands that Hashem has granted then you may return to the land of your inheritance which Moses the servant of Hashem granted you as your possession on the east side of the Jordan River. Now in verse 16, now the tribes of the leaders, the tribal leaders of God and uh Ruven and the half tribe of Manasha, they now answer Joshua and they say, "We will do everything you have commanded us and we will go wherever you send us." In other words, we're true to our word. We intend to carry out our word. And they say in verse 17, But now they give a little pinch to Joshua. They said, "We're going to do we'll obey you just like we did Moses provided." They have a kicker here kicker. We're going to unconditionally obey Joshua. No, they said this is we're going to obey you provided that Hashem your God will be with you as he was with Moses. In other words, when Hashem is with you, this is a sign that you're the worthy leader that that you must as long as you're worthy leader and Hashem is with you, nobody's going to violate because if they violate it, that they they'll see that. In verse 18, they say what they're going to do, they will do. Joshua, you don't need a police force or your police. They say if you as long as you're with Moses. In verse 18, anyone who disobys your commands and fails to eat everything in order in everything you command shall be executed. No joke here. Only be strong and courageous. So after Hashem told Joshua three times, be strong and courageous. Now the tribes are telling him be strong and courageous. In other words, you be strong and courageous. Joshua is getting it from up and from below. 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