When Victory Becomes a Spiritual Risk - Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

Okay. So again we were looking yesterday at uh Peric Yud and I want to juxtapose for a moment Peric Yud and Peric Olive because both of them talk about military campaigns and both involve multiple kings. So if you're pericu you'll remember the misa was that there were five kings including Adonit Sedek the Melik Shallayim that declared war against Givon because the Gonim made peace with Ben Israel and they thought that would endanger the Canaanite position and the Gonim then turned to Yahosua for aid and Yahushua gathered his army against those five kings. uh the armies were defeated, the armies were annihilated and the five kings were executed and hung. And uh the two significant aspects of that story is number one uh as the uh armies of those kings were retreating before they were massacred and defeated, there were hailstones, huge hailstones that came down Min Shamayim. And the Pusk says the people that died from the hail was even greater than the casualties of the war. And the second part of the story is of course the very famous stopping of the sun for either 6 hours or 12 hours or 24 hours. Some even say more than that. Different opinions. The great great miracle. And uh we we left off with the statement that this has never happened. There was never a situation where God listened to the voice of a man ordering the sun to stop. And uh yesterday we discussed the fact that well this is not the first time that the sun stopped and it's not the last time the sun stopped. The sun stopped for Moshe. Uh the sun stopped for Yakovu. The sun stopped for Kiskio when he was sick. And the sun stopped much much later for Nakimono and Ben Goran in order that he should be able to meet his commitment to pay back the water that he had borrowed. But the Maporam say that in all of the other cases the sun stopped. Hashem in the merit of the saddak hashem gave a great miracle but it was not at the order of a person. A person didn't order the son to stop. Uh here mameish listened to Yahushua that said sheh let the sun and give stop. Now when it describes that miracle there's another phrase that's used behold this is written in the book of the upright meaning if you want to know about this miracle behold it is written in the safer hayashar uh that's very enigmatic what is the safer hayash what is safer hay So there are many different opinions about this. The Gammoran of Zora says that safer hayash is actually um a raz to either the Tyra as a whole or in particular safer bracius or bracius. that boratious is called seafair hayashar uh because uh it is the story of a yitzk and yakov that are called yesim they are called the upright ones so essentially say ish borious so derkav the in his tod say for bracious actually goes into this idea Why is safer braces called safair hayoshore? Uh because he explains that the idea of yoshore is not so much bay. It is primarily in the book of boratious. There are relatively few obligations of bay. I mean the mitzvah were not really given yet. Yeah. The aos may have kept the whole Torah before it was given. But in terms of mitzvah, what how many mitzvah do you have in gracious? You actually have three mitzvah that out of the 613. We have the mitzvah of puerv being fruitful and multiplying. The mitzvah of procreation. We have the mitzvah of brisma circumcision which was given to Arab and we have the mitzvah in this week's para the negative commandment of not eating the sciatic nerve not eating the what's called the gan to commemorate the idea of yakov struggling with the angel and the angel smiting him on the thigh. So say forish boratius is not a book about mitzvos that hashem commands you. There's no reference to shabas to kash tofill and all of these things came later even if the obos may have kept them but that's not recorded meaning the kish does not talk about that but he says the primary thing you take from braces is about midos about sodaka about and and the like and that is the idea of yashim is safer okay so whatever the reason if safer means boracious. So what does the puss mean? Yoshua ordered the son to stop and behold this is alluded to in safer. Well, where is it alluded to in Kishius that Yahosua is going to stop the sun? So Rashi on the on that puk actually says it is alluded to in pari the last para inshes. Remember that YaKob is on his deathbed and Yakov cannot see very well and he asks for Yoseph to bring his sons Zafar and Manasha to him and then you'll remember the story that Yoseph puts Manasha the older son to Yakov's right because the older son is supposed to get the better bra. Although it's interesting that Yakov should well Jacob knows that that's not always the case but whatever it is. So, Manasha is placed to Yakov's right and Ephraim is placed to Yakov's left and Yakov switched his hands. So, his right hand, his left hand would be on Manasha and his right hand would be on Ephraim. That Ephraim would be more dominant than Manasha. Ephraim was more righteous, whatever it would be. And Yahushua bin Nun comes from Sha Ephraim. And when Yoseph asked him, why don't you put your right on the older son? So he says, Manasha will have but with Ephim Zarro. This is in in Zaro. His seed will do something that will fill the nations of the world with envy. So Rashi understands that that is an indirect illusion that the seed of Ephraim, the descendant of Ephraim, Yoshua, will do something that will amaze the whole world. And that's what it means in Yeshua. Behold, this is alluded to in the safer which is precious. Rashi learns the Pak zare which is going on at Fryim shall fill the nations with admiration and amazement because when the sun stopped apparently it was a worldwide phenomena. Now obviously you have to figure this out. Maybe we need an astronomer because half of the world is dark. So I assume when it was dark it was dark but at least every part of the world that had daylight the day was prolonged. So everybody saw this great great miracle and that's Zarro. There is another which I don't think has a mukar in but some say that maybe it is alluded to in Yose's dream. So it's not it's not Ephraim specific meaning Rashi's makur is Ephraim specific. The second vakar I'm going to tell you is not Ephraim specific but it's Yoseph and Ephraim of course comes from Yoseph and that is when Yoseph's dreams in next week's para so Yseph had a dream that the sun and the moon and the 11 stars bowed down to him. Now although Khazal interpret the sun is Yakov and the moon is Yoseph's mother although not Rael because Rahul died but Bilah who eventually bowed down and the 11 stars are the tribes but perhaps the bowing down of the sun at least this doesn't explain everything else is a rem that a descendant of Yoseph shall have power over the sun ordering the sun to stop moving. So, so we have tuphat meaning safer yashar means gracious and there are two possible illusions to the stopping of the sun by either Yoseph and his descendants of Yoseph or Ephraim specifically. One is Yakovu's statement vizarro yeaim or Yoseph's dream that the son will bow down to him i.e He the son will be subordinated su n. The son will be subordinated to the zera of yoseph which is ephra. Okay. So that's just the reference to seafair hayoshar. Okay. Now so chapter 10 period is essentially a southern war meaning all of the kings that were enumerated are in the south of Israel. Uh remember the two cities that we can identify is the king of yushlay adonited and the king of kavon. So this is typically called the southern campaign. This got us the southern portion of Israel which we will see later was largely occupied by shvet yehuda but we'll we'll get to the division a little later on. Peric Yud Alf discusses a second campaign against the Jewish people led by kings of the north. Uh and in particular the lead king here was the melik of Katsur. Katsur was a major major city uh in the north and they had heard what had happened in the south and they got together and they waged war against the Jewish people and a war took place uh near a uh near a lake that is called May Marome. May Marome which literally means high waters. What is May Marone? Well, um, May Maron is extinct. May Maron is gone. Uh, if you think about the waterways, right, we have the Yardane River, which there are other rivers narrative as well, but the Yardane is the main river. That's Israel's version of the Mississippi River, so to speak, although it's a lot smaller. And uh, if you go the the Yardane ends in the Dead Sea, right? The Ardane flows into the Yamaha. But if you go north along the Ardane, uh you will see that the Yardane flows from Yaminer. Although the truth is the streams of the Ardane are much north of Yaminer. It flows into the Kinerat and then it uh keeps on going past the Kinerat until it reaches the Dead Sea. Now, if you look at old maps of Israel, by an old map, I don't mean an ancient map. You look at a map of Israel in 1948 or 1950 or 1960, you will actually see that north of Kerat, north of Yaminer was a small other lake, another lake north of Kiner that used to go by the name Kula. And Kula, what's called Kula was in fact May Morome. It's called Morome because it's higher. It's higher than Kerit. It's going north, so to speak. And the reason why, right? So tell your guide you want to visit Lake Hoola. He will look at you as if you're nuts because Lake Kula is no longer there because um basically it became a very mosquitoinfested area. Became marshy. It was a very small lake to begin with and the uh the Israeli government simply drained it. So there is no lake hoola anymore. Uh but uh I know people who remember Lake Hoola. They used to go there for different recreational activities. Uh this goes back into the 40s uh the 50s and the like. And lake hula is alluded to in the book of Yeshua. This was the war of the kings of the north. May and once again it describes Yahosua as defeating them. No person was allowed uh to to live. They did not accept shalom and and the like. Now here though although obviously it was a great great military victory ali there is no supernatural miracle that is recorded. Meaning unlike the what's called the southern campaign where you had both the hailstones and the stopping of the sun there is no nace nigla that is recorded in what is called the northern campaign but there are some unusual things that happened in that war up north that I don't really have a a a a great mahalik for and the maforam don't help you very much. First of all, interestingly enough, uh they were commanded that when they since the king of Katsur was the leader, uh they were commanded to not only kill the people, but Katsur as a city was to be totally burnt out. And as far as I know, this was the only city in the kibbush of Erat Israel that the physical buildings. Well, Eureka, okay, Eureka, yeah, Eureka was that way, too. But Eureka had a special miracle. The walls collapsed. Um, now it doesn't say, I mean, it's interesting. It does not say that you had to destroy the buildings of although it does say anyone who rebuilds the walls will die. So we discussed this. It's possible that even you were allowed to live in if you didn't rebuild the walls you can live in. So, so I'm going to look at the language again, but as far as I know, Katsur is the only city in which not only were the inhabitants killed, but the actual physical city had to be destroyed and burnt. I don't know why. Meaning to say, okay, the king of Khsor was a bad guy who, you know, organized kings to go against the Jewish people. But, you know, frankly, all of the Kenna were bad guys. So it's it's hard it's hard to know, right? That's why with Syria, right, the Syrian government collapsed. Well, are we happy or not? You know, you know, I mean, Hashem that Assad is gone. Okay. So, who's replacing him? You know, they may be worse. You know, you don't know. So, it's not like, you know, the Russia is replaced by the Saddic. In fact, somebody was talking to me. It was interesting about the notion how it's not just the Israeli army, but like all armies find ways to romanticize the mission so that people very much want to join an army. Like he gave me an example, and this actually was a soldier in the army. This is actually someone who's actually in the army. He gave me an example of Russia versus Ukraine. Like why would somebody, let's say you're Ukrainian, why would you give your life to prevent Russia from taking over? I mean, your life is lousy under the Ukrainian government and it'll probably be lousy under the Russian government. So like what what is it that say I'm going to give my life so I can continue to be ruled by tyrants in Ukraine and I'm not going to let the tyrants in Russia like lafamina meaning the whole idea is kind of a very very strange idea that you know you're loyal to these causes that have no impact on your actual life. Okay. But but be it as it may, so one thing to know. So I'm g just I'm just pointing I'm not giving you an answer. The unique idea that is physically destroyed as a city. None of the other cities were. The second thing that's unusual about the northern campaign is that all of the chariots of the enemy whether from Katsur or from the other kings the chariots they came with a lot of chariots have to also be burnt destroyed now shal it's not like the spoils of war the gold the silver the clothing that could be taken even from >> okay so it's not the same is the spoils of war were permitted to be taken but the city of Katsur had to be destroyed and all chariots had to be destroyed as well. I'll give you a little explanation for that in a minute. So there's the destruction of there's the destruction of the chariots and then there's the the third thing which is the most problematical of all. All of the horses that are taken from these northern armies, whether Katsour or the other kings, have to be ham hamstrung. You know what hamstringing a horse is? You cut the tendon, the ma the major tendons in the back of the leg. A hamstrung horse fundamentally can obviously not run, but it also cannot cannot really walk very well. It limps. Basically, you're mutilating the horses. Now, again, this is absolutely unique. This this did not occur. There's something about this northern campaign that has some special rules that don't apply anywhere else. And of all of the things uh the hamstringing the horses seem to be the biggest biggest problem because we know there's an issa of sar of causing pain to animals. So some fortune want to say well hamstringing a horse doesn't really cause pain to animal but you know listen I mean musas is mitus I mean uh say oh no it doesn't bother the horse. Well, you know, it does bother the horse. Um, you know, horses are made to run, to gallop. The thing is a You're making the horse a There's no question that this is a pula of now. If Hashem says to do it, so you do it. So it's not a question of how could they do it, but the question more is why would Hashem command it if it causes sarim. So here the malam says I mean they give they give answers but the I don't know I mean it's not for me to judge. uh the answers are not mishaka meaning they they don't really persuade so much but I'll tell you what the answer that the maforim give you know we see later in the well not later earlier in the right in parim the Torah talks about a mel is not allowed to accumulate a lot of horses lest he return the people to mitim so here we have a little bit of a similar idea we don't want the Jewish people to accumulate a lot of horses and a lot of chariots. This it's the same thing. Because then they might be led astray into thinking that their later victories are because of their military might, because of their armaments. In other words, wants the Jewish people to kind of be underweaponized, underfunded. So they will always have the hakara that the nits comes from Hashem. So if they would keep the chariots and not hamstring the horses, they might attribute subsequent niton to ki vote which the Torah itself identifies as an occupational hazard. Therefore the horses are hamstrung and the chariots are burnt. Now, I'm assuming, although I don't have Aria, that if you're told you have to hamstring the horses, you you you do have the option of just killing the horses outright, which might be better. Meaning, if you want to keep the horses, this is what you have to do, but I don't think you have to keep the horses in that condition. You could kill them either before you take them or hamstring them or afterwards. That way, you take them out of their misery, whatever it is. Well, this is the reason before give uh but number one it only applied here. We had other wars where there was no such restriction unless you're going to say in the other wars there weren't chariots and horses. I mean you're still picking a particular war and you're giving us these special rules. So I'm just going to leave that uh as a something to think about. So again when you compare Pericud and Pericud Perk Yud is the war of the southern kings including and that was distinguished by the hailstones and the stopping of the sun. Pericidal is the war at Mayor Kula north of the kineret. And here we don't have miracles but it was a great military victory. And we have the unusual rule uh rules of burning the city of Katsur, destroying all chariots and hamstringing the horses. And again, those were unique only for those particular wars. Now, a final point about the northern campaign is the word north is actually a misnomer because it's only called north because that's as far north as Yeshua got. In modern Israel, we would actually call that Mecaz or maybe uh the southern part of the Galile. Uh there are areas far north of that going into Lebanon which in fact were not even captured in Yeshua's lifetime and were captured later. So when it says north, don't think of this as the northern boundary of Arit Israel. It simply means it's as far north as Yeshua got. Which basically means that the conquests of Yoshua take you uh somewhat north of Yaminer, right? Somewhat north of Taria. Uh what used to be Lake Koolah may morome was the as far as Yeshua got. But the northern boundary of Erit Israel is much further. Even the state of Israel is further than that. And of course uh Erat Israel goes beyond the northern boundary of Medina Israel going into uh going into Lebanon and and and the like. Okay. Again we'll discuss what happened to those other territories. Now you'll remember I did mention getting ahead of myself that when the land is divided among the tribes even the unconquered land is divided. So Asher, for example, is far north. Osher is given territory that was not even conquered in Yeshua's lifetime, but it was assigned to him. Right? So don't confuse the extent of Yeshua's conquests to the extent of the land that is going to be divided among the tribes, which includes areas that Yeshua did not conquer yet. Okay. Now, we then move to Perk Yudb. So it's yud yudalif and yud is essentially a summary by the end of Yeshua's life because Yeshua is towards the end of his life actually uh well the la last seven years of his life because he dies shortly after the division of the land is completed and it's a summary of Yeshua's or not just Yeshua's conquest but the land that the Jewish people have conquered up to this point and It starts with a an a reiteration of what Moshe Rabenu had already conquered. So you'll remember that Mosher Rabenu, this is in the 40th year of the Midbore uh had conquered land east of the Ardane. And the two kings whose land had been conquered is Son Melik and Mori. Sikhon, the king of the Amori, and Og, the king of Bashan. And the land of Sikhon and Og were conquered by Ben Israel in the Midbar before Mosher Rabenu died. And that land was given to the tribes of Ruvane and Gut and Kati. Kati doesn't mean half, by the way, but it means a portion. certain families in the tribe of Manasha had their land east of the yard. Okay. So essentially uh pericid bays gives us some of the boundaries. So again um the geography of safer Yeshua is actually a very very important part of the safer but it's a part that's we don't always know exactly because we don't know where all of those places are. But I just want to go over very very briefly just a few landmarks so you'll have a generic sense and maybe I'll maybe actually if you take an article you can see different maps which once again are subject to makum anyway. Uh maybe I'll I'll get a map duplicated or whatever. Uh again you have to remember envision the Yardain River that flows it's it starts north of Yaminer. flows through Mayor Rome then into the kineret then past the kinerat and it flows all the way to the dead sea. Now the dead sea itself has a number of rivers or streams that flow into it. I mean the yard flows into it from the north but there is another major river that flows into the dead sea uh that is called nal nal means a stream or a river are known. So if you could picture a map in your head. So you have the Dead Sea and right in the middle of the Dead Sea, meaning going from north to south, in the middle of the Dead Sea, coming from Jordan, you have a big river that's called Nal Arnon. Nal Arnon is the southern boundary on the east of the Jordan of Sikhon Meli. Meaning south of Arnon was not the Malus of Sikhon. South of Arnon was not conquered by Beno. So let me give you some background here. The Gomorrah explains that originally the land east of the yard was the possession of the nations of Ammon and Moab. Now Ammon and Moab are the descendants of Lot and his daughters. Remember after Saddam was destroyed. So, uh, Load got drunk and the daughters, uh, uh, one daughter had relations with him when her father was drunk and got pregnant and she named the child from that relationship Moaf, which means from my father. Not too modest there. Uh the second night load again got drunk had relations with the second daughter and she said Ammon nation my people a little more reticent. These became the nations of Ammon and Mo. And where did they live now? Lot originally lived in stone but but eventually they lived east of the Ardane. East of the Ardane was originally the territory of Ammon and Moab. By the way, Moshe uh Fin writes to Misa uh this is the Hakdam of one of the Igros Moshas that there was a man in Russia who was when when Russia was in Russia who spoke very disparagingly about the daughters of Lot kind of saying that what what type of futos are these women that they go ahead and they have incest with their father. And that night he had a dream. Rosha would tell the story. Rosha was not like a misa teller in which these radiant women who looked like angels shining with holiness came to him in a dream and they told him we're Lot's daughters and you don't realize that we acted totally for the sake of heaven because in the aftermath of Saddam we thought the whole world was destroyed. So we have to do what we have to do to perpetuate humanity and you will be punished very much because uh you disparage our righteousness. And the man suffered a horrible death something like he kind of choked on his tongue. His tongue went like this is a problem with epileptic seizure. Sometimes the tongue goes back and uh whatever the person died a very very horrible death and Moshi used to tell the story that one has to be zah in the coven of even load's daughters but be it as it may the original occupiers I mean there was a nation before them but uh but in the time of the Torah the original occupiers of a hayard were ammon now the Torah commanded Ben Israel that we are not allowed to wage war with Ammon and Mov because God gave them this land and therefore we're not allowed to take it away from them. But we were not allowed to wage war against Ammon and Moab. But Melori conquered Moabitete territory from Nal Arnon going north till another river Nal Yabok that flows into the Jordan. Nal Arnon flows into the Dead Sea. Nal Yabok flows into the Jordan. The land of Sik that Sikon conquered from Moab is from Arnon to Yabok. South of Arnon was still the land of Moab. From Arnon to Yabok is the land of Sikh. Now the Gammoran Giten explains once took the land from Moab we were then permitted to take the land from Sikhon because we're no longer taking Moabiti territory we're taking Emoret one of the seven nations although it's not Eric Israel uh the kaduca in terms of Truma Mser and Schmita of Alyard there's a huge huge maklo I mean do you have to take Truma samas in They really are it's a very very big discussion but we were given permission and authorization to conquer it. Okay. So the land of is uh from Arnon to Yabok by the way Yabok is very very important. It is actually mentioned in this week's para when Jacob is coming from Karan which is Syria and he comes back to Erat Israel he crosses Yabok and he's going to enter the land south of Nak Yabok and then you'll recall he forgot some small jars and he went back himself to cross the he crossed north right he crossed the river north and that is where he encountered the mysterious man that is the angel of Asaf. Okay. So, uh I don't expect you to be experts in geography. I I am not an expert in geography, but just to know some of the landmarks. Nahal Arnon Nal Yabok south of Arnon is the land of it's still the land of Moab. So, we're not allowed to conquer it. But Sikhon had conquered from Arnon to Yabok to Yabok, but only a certain amount going east. Meaning to say far further east is the land of Ammon. So Son was able to conquer the Moabitete land. He couldn't conquer the Ammonite land. So the way it works is south of Arnon is Moab. North of Arnon until Yabok is Eriton. But as you go further east, there's an Ammonite border. So Sikhine could not conquer the Ammonites. And we were not allowed to conquer the Ammonite territory because we could only take what was conquered by by Sikh. Now north of Yabok, north of Yabok was also conquered, but that was the land of a different king. Og me Melik Habash. Okay. So from Arnon to Yabok is Erett although to the east of that would be Ammon. North of uh north of Yabok begins the land of Og me Mel Habashan and we were allowed to conquer that as well. And in terms of Ruvane and Gud the basic idea was Ruvane and God divided the land of Son and Kati Shvasha got the land of Og. That's more more or less approximately the way that division worked. So before the pericy discusses I'm sorry pericy base discusses Yoshua's conquest it goes over the uh conquest of Mosher Rabenu and it gives you the boundaries of Ethon Oak and the territory that still belonged to Moab and Ammon that we were not allowed to touch until Moshiach comes. After that, it then enumerates the kings that Yeshua had vanquished in his seven years of conquest and it mentions 31 kings. You you probably have heard this kazal constantly say uh Yeshua was able to vanquish lammed alim 31 kings. However, even that is a little misleading because vanquishing the king doesn't always mean conquering the territory. The one outstanding example is when it mentions the 31 kings that Yeshua vanquished. It mentions melim. But as I explained yesterday, even though the king of was killed, we actually did not conquer. Most of the other ones we actually conquered but you seem we actually did not conquer. Now I'm going to leave it for for next week. There is in after that list a very very perplexing puss a very difficult idea. It makes the point there was not a single city except the Gonim that made peace with Ben Israel that accepted Shalom. Okay, that's true. and that's why they were annihilated. But then it says and this came from Hashem in order that Ben Israel should be able to destroy these nations and they shouldn't be a mael to claw Israel. So what you seem to be having here is the old problem of Hashem hardening Pyro's heart. Meaning the implication of the puss is sure if the Jewish people are achieving victory after victory after victory and every victory they wipe out a city. One might assume that the gonim shouldn't be the only one who want to make shalom. So why didn't other cities make shalom? Again this is only a kash like the rambom that they have the option of making shalom. And it says hashem hardened their hearts so that we would destroy them. That's what the Pik says. So this is something we need to to talk about and think about and that is well gee is that fair? If the mash is they would have made shalom had they been able to act on the basis of their desire. Is it fair that Hashem is taking away so to speak their free will? Is hardening their heart so that they will get killed? Because that's the alternative. It's a pretty drastic alternative, right? Uh if you don't make shalom, if you're of the seven nations, you die. And Hashem wanted them to die. Therefore, Hashem took away their free will to make Shalom. So that that that we're going to have to talk about. And again, it'll be very much connected to Hashem hardening Pyro's heart and getting punished for it. Same problem. Uh is that going to be just? Is that is that fair? Okay. So, we'll stop here. Thank you for listening to this awesome production. To find out more and to partner in our mission, please visit or.edu.