How The Land of Israel Was Really Divided - Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

So, uh again, we're discussing the uh second part of Yeshua, the first part of the safer, uh with seven years of kibbush, the seven years of conquest, and the second part of the safer is the chalukah, the division of Eretz Yisrael, uh uh among the conq- conquered territories, >> [snorts] >> according to Chazal, uh the conquest took seven years, and the [snorts] chiluk, the chalukah of the land actually took uh seven years. Uh remember, however, again, we've said it a number of times, and the psukim say it a number of times, that the conquest was actually not completed, meaning to say, they conquered most of the land, some of the land they did not conquer, they then divided all of the land, even the parts of the land that were not conquered. So, some people, some shvatim got chalukim of Eretz Yisrael that were not even conquered yet, so they literally didn't have any place to go home to. And as well, the Malbim is mechadesh, although there's no makor in Chazal directly, that there were certain stachim that were not assigned to any given shevet, and that allowed for potentially expansion. The shevet was given permission on its own to wage war, to conquer uh that territory, and use it for increased populations and the like. That's a shtikel chiddush. But the one thing that is not a chiddush, is very interesting thing, apparently, once land was allocated to a shevet, it became that shevet's responsibility to conquer it, meaning you no longer had the benefit of a national army. So, when the land is going to be divided among the shvatim, and let's say, for example, shevet Ephraim, that's one of the examples mentioned, is given territory, uh their allocated territory for which they have not yet completely conquered it, they're on their own, meaning the national army only conquered the land before it was divided amongst the tribes. Once land was divided amongst the tribes, it became the individual tribal responsibility to conquer that land, and they could not necessarily uh call upon the national army uh to work with them, although they could make private agreements with tribes. Sometimes you'll find one tribe helping another tribe and the like. So, it's a little peculiar, meaning it wasn't always the situation that Klal Yisrael conquered Eretz Yisrael. Sometimes a given shevet had the job of conquering its own individual territory. So, that's a shtikel chiddush. So, in a sense, for reasons that are not entirely clear, uh the land that was conquered before the chalukah was primarily the land that went to Yehudah. So, it's interesting therefore Yehudah essentially got its territory by virtue of by virtue national conquest, as opposed to many other tribes that got their lands only by their tribal conquest because they had their portion, and then uh they had to fight on their own. So, that that's one thing to keep in mind. Now, again, uh forgive me for repeating, but these are a complex system, so you need to need to reiterate them a lot. Remember [clears throat] the big machlokes Rashi and the Ramban about how the land was divided among the tribes. So, uh remember of course that two and a half tribes, their territory was b'chlal not even part of Yehoshua's aseq. Uh this was the land of Sichon, Melech Emori, and Og, Melech HaBashan, east of the Jordan. It's called Ever HaYarden. And uh that was conquered uh under Moshe Rabbeinu's leadership in the desert. and that was the land that was given to Reuven and to Gad, and [snorts] Chatzi doesn't mean half, but part part of the tribe of Menashe. They were Everly Arden, but remember too, just to review this, that Moshe Rabbeinu made them swear that they would not return, they would not settle. They would leave their wives, their children, and their sheep Everly Arden, but they would not settle there until the Jewish people completed their conquest. And therefore, Reuven, Gad, and Chatzi Menashe are fighting with the rest of the Jewish people in the years of Kibosh. One question I I honestly honestly did not see an answer when I don't really understand. The very end of Safer Yehoshua, this kind of a moving ceremony where Moshe Rabbeinu not Moshe Yehoshua discharges Reuven, Gad, and Chatzi Menashe, and he gives them permission to return to their home by basically telling them, "You've done your job. You've kept your promise to Moshe Rabbeinu. Baruch Hashem, you're able to return home." The question is that this happens after the seven years of Chaluka. Why I In other words, I understand that that for the first seven years they had to be there because they were conquering the land. But why do they have to stick around for the next seven years? If if if the if the next seven years are described as the years of Chaluka, then why why would that create any obligation on Reuven, Gad, and Chatzi In other words, they were gone for 14 years? Now, maybe they had uh what do they call it? Leaves, right? When soldiers go home, and maybe we don't we don't know that they didn't they didn't go home at all for Shabbat or whatever it would be. I don't know the military plans of Yeshua's army, but in terms of settlement, they were in they were conscripted apparently for 14 years. >> [snorts] >> Why is that so? I mean, they should have been sent home after 7 years. But it could be, I'm just thinking out loud, that maybe what happened was during the 7 years of division that also included the conquest of the individual tribes. I mean, the land was divided, individual tribes were conquering their land, and maybe Reuven, Gad, and half of Menashe were like augmenting forces that could join. So, essentially, it's a little misleading when you say 7 years of conquest, 7 years of division. It could be that even in the 7 years of division, they were continuing conquest of individual tribes, and Reuven, Gad, and half of Menashe were engaged in in that as a supplementary service. Again, that's a hidush. I did not see any explanation of that, but otherwise, I think it's a pella. Why Why were they there Why were they even there for the other for the next 7 years? Okay, but be it as it may, Reuven, Gad, and half of Menashe, they have their like ever le Yarden. Uh there is a whole whole big discussion in Halakha what is the Halakhic status of ever le Yarden? Are you liable in trumos and masros? Uh does the laws of shmita apply because on one hand, it was settled by two two and a half tribes, and it was under Moshe Rabbeinu. On the other hand, it's not within the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael. So, how does that apply for mitzvos telyos be'aretz? Okay, that's a whole whole discussion. But be it as it may, their Halakha is not relevant here because that was taken care of Moshe Rabbeinu. So, now we have the rest of Klal Yisrael. So, the rest of Klal Yisrael, we exclude Shevet Levi because Shavei at Levy does not get a portion in the land. So, essentially therefore, Reuben, Gad, and half of Shavei at Menashe are ever the Arden. Shavei at Levy which will be discussed, will be getting 48 cities dispersed throughout the tribes. >> [clears throat] >> Uh, but they don't have their own chelek bi aretz. And indeed, there'll be an enumeration of are in the vein in every tribe in every tribe of Am Yisrael. 48 is divisible by 12. There will be are in the vein including ever the Arden. Now, let's just ponder that for a moment. Uh, Shavei at Levy did not have an identifiable chelek in Eretz Yisrael other than their are in. And around the are in, there was a migdash. Migdash is like a park land or pasture. Right, so you had a city surrounded by pasture land and the like. Now, what is the reason why Shavei at Levy did not get a chelek in Eretz Yisrael other than the are in the vein? So, there are really two different reasons to consider. And both reasons are right. Reason number one is that they shouldn't be distracted. Kohanim and Leviim, their job is to be osek in ruchniyus both in terms of the avodah in the Beit Hamikdash or the avodah in Mishkan. The Mishkan is in Gilgal. It'll be moved to Shiloh. But be it as it may, Gilgal Shiloh. Uh, that's one idea and therefore, we don't want them get involved in in land ownership and politics and running a city state or running a a kind of a state a tribal grouping. Now, here the Meshech Chochmah makes a very important point. If you were a kohen or you were a levi, on the average, how much time did you spend working in the base of miktash or working in the mishkan? How often? Now, obviously it depends on the population you have, but eventually what eventually happened was, you'll remember, let's take Kohanim first. Kohanim are divided into 24 mishmaros, 24 watches. Family-based, meaning all the Kohanim are divided into 24 family groups. A mishmar does avodah in the base of miktash one week at a time. A mishmar starts Shabbos afternoon. Right? The old mishmar does the tamid of the morning, but in the afternoon the new mishmar works from Shabbos afternoon through next Shabbos morning. And the mishmar in turn is divided into but they have those smaller families which took charge of day by day, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. So, there are 24 mishmaros kehuna. So, what that means basically is, putting aside Yom Tov and which I'll talk about in a moment, uh the cycle is gone through approximately twice, meaning you have 1 through 24 for 24 weeks, and then you start again, 1 to 24. Right? So, it's only one mishmar per week. Now, eventually one mishmar could be thousands of Kohanim. So, if you're a kohen, okay, let me just mention one thing. Now, Yom Tov is a little different. On the Shalosh Regalim, Pesach, Shavuos, Sukkos, all of the mishmaros showed up. And they would have to draw lotteries as to who got to do the avodah, okay? So, there were three times a year in which a huge number of Kohanim were there. All the mishmaros showed up. But, if it was not a Yom Tov, it was only one mishmar did the avodah for the entire week. Now, the same way there were 24 mishmaros of kehuna, there was also 24 mishmaros of levi'im. Meaning, a given Levi family was attached to a given Kohen family, and this would be their week, right? The And the levi'im were musicians, the levi'im were singers, the levi'im were actually administrators. They were in charge of the maintenance of the Beit Hamikdash and the like. Now, there was a permanent staff, meaning to say there were some levi'im who literally were permanent. But, in terms of the bulk of them, they too were based on a mishmar system. So, 24 mishmaros of kehuna together with 24 mishmaros of levi'a. And uh the the actual names of the mishmaros are given in Divrei Hayamim, the Book of Chronicles, which actually goes through the particular families. Extremely complicated, by the way, to try to make a list of just to make a list of the 24 uh mish- Well, the 24 mishmaros of kehuna are very straightforward, actually. The kehuna is straightforward. The levi'im is kind of a mess because there are so many different lists of levi'im in Divrei Hayamim that there's a big machlokes among the meforshim which are the mishmaros and which are some other family groupings or the like. But, again, it's not nogea to us. So, any given mishmar may have thousands of Kohanim. And the avodah was allocated based on the lotteries, drawing lots. So, if you were a cohen, you might actually go through a whole year >> [clears throat] >> and not do anything at all. First of all, you're only in the base hamikdash two weeks a year and the sholosh regalim. And you're part of maybe a thousands of kohanim. And if you didn't make the lottery, then you didn't get anything. Now, granted in Yeshua's time, the populations were much smaller because how many kohanim were there? We actually don't know. Maybe there weren't that many. So, maybe [clears throat] you were on duty more often. But the Meshech Chochmah makes the point that you see how important avodas Hashem is. That you need to prepare an entire year just so you can do one thing, maybe one thing a year. If that. In proper kavana. The Torah says we don't want the cohen or the levi to own land, so they should be able to dedicate themselves to avodas Hashem. But what do you mean? Avodas Hashem? I mean he'll he'll be on stage for for a half an hour in the whole year. The answer is it takes a whole year to prepare yourself for the half an hour. That's the Meshech Chochmah says there. But even without the Meshech Chochmah, I think I think we can answer that the idea is that the cohen and the levi, their spiritual mission was not limited to what they did in the mishkan. They were also teachers of Torah, etc., learners of Torah. So, essentially they needed to be panui to focus on their spiritual mission. And they were supported by the trumahs, by the mass rows, by the corbanos that they ate, etc. Okay, so that's reason number one why the Levium, Kohanim and Levium were not given a chelek in Eretz Yisrael in order to free them up to be able to focus on their learning on their avodah in the Mishkan, etc. Reason number two is we want the positive influence of the Levium to be dispersed throughout all levels of the nation. Meaning, if Shevet Levi would have gotten a chelek part so there would have been a portion of Eretz Yisrael where all the Levium are that would mean in the other tribes there would be no Levium. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted there to be a system where the beneficial beneficial power of the Torah and the mitzvahs and the kedusha of Shevet Levi would spread throughout all levels of Am Yisrael and therefore through the system of the 48 cities of Levium every single tribe, every single tribe of Klal Yisrael had a some cities of Levium on the average four cities, right? If you divide 48 by It's not exactly right, but it's almost almost right. We'll we'll look at the calculation later. But basically every tribe had uh with with only one one or two exceptions had four Levite cities in their boundaries. The only way that's thrown off is Yehudah had five Levite cities and Naftali had three. That That's the only exception and why that's so is also a bit of a mystery. But other than the five and the three, every other tribe had four. Now, that's an important point. The point is you want the of Torah not to be limited to a certain geographical area. You want the influence to be spread throughout all of Israel. So, these are two different reasons why the Levite, why Levites were not given a in the one is to prevent them from being distracted from their function. And the other is that their influence should spread and permeate throughout all of Israel and not be limited. Now, it's interesting to go back a little bit. If you go back to our Venus blessing or curse. Remember we read two weeks ago about the story of Shechem where Shechem raped Dinah forcibly. And Shimon and Levi tricked the people of Shechem is both a city and a They tricked the people of Shechem to circumcise. And when they were weak on the third day of their circumcision Shimon and Levi wiped them out. Killed them uh because they said you cannot make our sister a harlot, a prostitute or whatever. And without being in that particular story, uh Jacob was very upset, but as the Rambam points out Jacob was not upset over what they did. He was upset that it was not the right thing to do because it would endanger us among the local population. And the Rambam actually says there was a justification. The Rambam writes Shimon and Levi were not stone murderers. Shimon and Levi had a justification for what they did. Because Dinah's kidnap and rape on the part of the Shechem, the individual, was a violation of the Noahide laws, which prohibit both the theft and arayos. Kidnapping is theft. And violation of the Noahide laws creates a free of misah on the part of the person. But then the Rambam says the seventh Noahide law is the commandment to set up a court system to punish the other six violations. And since Shechem, the city, did not set up a court system to adjudicate Shechem, the person, the Rambam says they were free of misah for being mevatel dinim. And therefore Shimon and Levi justifiably had the right to kill them. Yaakov was angry because you shouldn't have done it because that endangers us. We're a small group of people. We're in a big hostile population. Right? This is the famous shita of the Rambam that actually provides a halachic justification for Shimon and Levi. Um it is a very If you think about it If you think about how to apply the Rambam today, it's a real, real, real problem. Because essentially what the Rambam is saying is if a non-Jewish society does not punish violations of the Noahide law, not only can I be a vigilante and kill the guy who violated the Noahide law, I could kill the community that didn't adjudicate violations of Noahide law. Wow. I mean, think of what that would mean. So, again, don't record this. So, you know, whatever. Again, I'm just I'm not saying this alacha l'maaseh, absolutely not. But I mean, this would mean if you have, let's say, terrorists and the Palestinian Authority, Hamas certainly, is not going to adjudicate those terrorists, then even the inner innocent civilians. The so-called innocent civilians are higher of Mesa because they're not Makayam the Noahide law of Dinim. I yay yay. I think it's Okay, so so the truth of the matter is the Rambam Shita Thank you for the glass. The Rambam Shita is very dangerous to say the least. It's a bit It's a bit revolutionary if you try to apply it, but nevertheless this is the Rambam's famous Shita about Shimon and Levi. So now, let's go back Yeah. Does Rambam also poskin in a in a clear way that this is Halakha L'Maaseh that He does not say it He does not say Halakha L'Maaseh, but he doesn't say it's not not Halakha L'Maaseh. I mean I You have to assume if he says it uh it's meant to be a Halakha, but he doesn't say it before that it would apply to this. Yeah. Even in that case where you would be allowed to like kill the the people there who are they [clears throat] were not fulfilling their obligation, you would still need a bait din to poskin that those people are failing to fulfill their obligation, right? Well, you might assume that, but let me ask you this. Uh what bait din did Shimon and Levi themselves have? I mean I mean you're you're back to the same problem. That's why I call it a vigilante thing. It is if May May May I hear you say see I can make that decision, right? Okay, that's a big problem. Okay. But but again, this is very very fascinating. It's actually very very relevant to contemporary situations, uh but that's that's not what I want to focus on. I want to focus on the blessing that Yaakov Avinu gave on his deathbed. Right, Yaakov Avinu uh blessed or not uh each of the tribes, each of his sons. And uh the truth of the matter is the the first three didn't really get much of a blessing. I mean, Ruvein uh he called Ruvein unstable unstable like water. He called Ruvein that you're not going to be the firstborn, etc. And that's primarily because of Ruvein's sin. After Rachel died and Yaakov put his primary residence with Rachel's maidservant Bilhah, so Ruvein moved the bed into his mother's tent. Now, the Torah describes it as much worse. The Torah actually says Ruvein slept with Bilhah. >> [snorts] >> And that's what it says. But Chazal say it doesn't mean he did that, but it means he interfered with Yaakov's relationship with Bilhah. So, Ruvein kind of gets a little bit of a knock. Then Shimon and Levi are combined together. So, there's no real bracha till Yehudah. Shimon and Levi says, "I curse their anger because they destroyed a city and etc." And then he says the following about Shimon and Levi. Al chalqem b'Yaakov I will scatter them. I will divide them among Yaakov, among the nation of Yaakov. He uses both of his names. Afitsam, I will scatter them b'Yisrael. So, he So, Yaakov's curse or maybe blessing, we'll see, was that Shimon and Levi will be dispersed and not concentrated because their concentration is too dangerous. It's like nuclear energy. Now, how was this fulfilled in the days of Yeshua? It was fulfilled in two different ways. Vis-a-vis Shevet Levi this was fulfilled by 48 Levite cities which includes Kohanim, by the way. When I say an array of Leviya, some of the cities were Kohanim cities, others were Levi'im cities. Uh so, "Acha chem bi Yaakov by Shevet Levi" was fulfilled by dispersing them throughout Eretz Yisrael. How was it fulfilled with respect to Shevet Shimon? So, here we we read in Sefer Yehoshua that Shimon was very, very different than any other tribe. Shimon did not have its own territory. Shimon was assigned a number of cities within the territory of Yehudah. Okay, so there was no part of Eretz Yisrael that was chelek of Shimon. Shimon had many cities, many cities indeed, that were muvla not throughout Eretz Yisrael, but that were muvla within the nachala of Shevet Yehudah. So, you would be in Shevet Yehudah, and at some point you'd come to a city, and I don't know if there was a sign or whatever it is, this is Shimon territory. So, Rashi first points out that this is why Yaakov uses two different terms, right? He He repeats the idea of dispersal twice. Because there are [snorts] two different reasons why you might divide something. You might divide something because you want to spread its influence, and you might divide something cuz you want to weaken its influence. And he says, "This was the nafka mina between Shimon and Levi." Because if you think about this, both Shimon and Levi acted out of zealousness to stand up for what's right, to stand up for the covenant of Hashem and the covenant of their mishpacha. Who are the nation of Hashem. And they did what they did and there was halachic justification for what they did. And this represents kana'ut. Zealousness can be a very very good thing. But if you then look at the direction in which each of them went, you see opposites. The kana'ut of Shevet Levi eventually got directed into kedusha of the highest order. They were the ones who punished the sin of the golden calf. And they were the ones that were given the zechut together with Kohanim of avodah in the Beit Hamikdash. And they're the ones that became the holiest of the tribes. Shimon on the other hand, the kana'ut turned into a bad thing. It became a Zimri, right? Zimri in the Midbar, uh fornicated with the Midianite woman Cosbi, etc. So, Rashi first points out kana'ut can become good or kana'ut can become actually an evil, egotistic selfishness. So, he wants to suggest that with Shimon it morphed into something negative. And they needed to be dispersed to weaken their influence. With Levi, it became something positive. They needed to be dispersed to increase their influence, to expose more and more people to it. Okay? So, that's why Shimon is kind of contained within Yehudah as opposed to Levi that is spread throughout the uh throughout the lands, right? So, the truth of the matter is this was already foretold in Yaakov Avinu's bracha well before Yehoshua that Levi and Shimon are going to be split albeit in different ways, right? Levi, 48 cities in every tribe. Shimon, the cities are movla bitayich uh Yehuda. Yeah. How did this work with the goral when they were at 12 and 12? Yeah. Uh we're going we're going to look at that. Uh you know apparently uh you know how does the goral work, right? You you can't have you can't have something called uh cities within Yehuda. I mean and then what if the other tribe gets it, right? Now of course Hashem worked everything out but still how can you have a goral when you have a particular match? We'll we'll we'll we'll we'll try to try to talk about that. Now uh one thing that one might ask the following question. And I'm getting ahead of myself but okay. Years later after Hamelech so you'll recall that the uh Jewish nation splits into two kingdoms. There was the southern kingdom which had malchei Beis David with chavam and all of the righteous Jewish kings. And uh that was focused mainly around Yerushalayim and south. And that was called malchus Yehuda. Malchus Yehuda. And then there was the northern kingdom of the 10 tribes which included ever the yardain, included ever the yardain which was called malchus Yisrael. Yeravam ben Navat etc. And uh that uh that is in the book of Malachim, right? The one of the difficulties is there's a constant zigzag between describing the malchei Yehuda and the malchei Yisrael. Now here's the question. The southern kingdom it is said comprised Yehuda and Binyamin. It's called malchus Yehuda but Yehuda and Binyamin. The northern kingdom had everything else. Now the question would be, given the fact that Shimon is one of the 10 tribes, and Shimon was located in the land of Yehuda, what exactly happened when the kingdom of the north was proclaimed? I mean, Shimon is now in enemy territory. Right? And how do you reconcile Shimon as being one of the 10 tribes when Shimon's cities are located in the land of of Yehuda? So, there are a few different approaches to this. There are a few different approaches. >> [clears throat] >> Approach number one is that Shimon vacated its cities. That is indeed quite possible that essentially when a northern kingdom was proclaimed, which was a rebellion against Rechavam, Malchus based on it, Shimon evacuated its cities, went up north, and those cities were taken over by Yehuda. Right? So, possibility number one is Shimon didn't live there anymore. That's one possibility. Possibility number two, uh which is kind of unusual, but it but we we we know it in our own society, is it became like um West Berlin. Meaning to say, if you remember, for you born already, but uh when there used to be an East Germany and a West Germany, and Berlin was was situated uh Okay, I don't want to I have to look at a map again, but I think it technically was was in East Germany, but West Berlin was an enclave. In other words, it was an enclave of West Germany that was moved in East Germany. So, uh and you have that, right? So, as a result of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, right? Guantanamo Bay is in Cuba, but it belongs to the United States. So, possibly you had a Berlin type of situation where the cities of Shimon were enemy territory. They probably had walls and fortifications, but they were there, right? They were in the uh lower in in the uh in the Malkhus Yehudah. So, that's possibility number two. So, possibility number one is they vacated. Possibility number two is they created a Berlin wall type of situation. Possibility number three is that maybe Shimon was not part of the 10 tribes, meaning to say, when we say the southern kingdom was Yehudah and Binyamin, maybe when we say Yehudah we're including Shimon because Shimon was in the territory of Yehudah. And Shimon is not one of the 10 tribes. And how do you get 10 tribes? Because you're counting Shevet Levi. Because here's the thing. Most of the Levi'im, most of the Levi'im were located in the north because most of the tribes were north of Yerushalayim. So, as a result, most of the Levi'im were part of the northern kingdom. So, maybe when you talk about the 10 tribes, maybe you're actually counting Shevet Levi as one of the 10 tribes, and you're counting Shevet Shimon as nichlal in Yehudah. So, these are three possible answers. And by the way, the fact that most of the Levite cities were located in the northern kingdom may give rise to a question. I think it's come up in Q&A, and I don't know if I said it at the time, but it's a very, very simple answer. And that is people ask, why are there so few Levi'im? Why are there more Kohanim than Levi'im? It really makes no sense because Kohanim come from a small group within Shevet Levi, Aaron, etc. There ought to be many more Levi'im than Kohanim. Right? So, what is the dearth of living in quality sale? The short answer is because most of the living were destroyed as part of the lost 10 tribes. The Kohanim on the other end, in fact, you'll see this in Yeshua. The cities of Kohanim were located in proximity to the base of mikdash, which was to the south. So as a result, the argument would be that after the korban base of mikdash, there were more Kohanim than living. Because living were nichlal in the 10 tribes that were the lost 10 tribes. That actually That I think is actually a a pretty, pretty good answer uh to that uh to that uh question. And that may also explain how you get 10 tribes without Shimon. Shimon belongs to the south. Uh but we allocate living to the north even though there were some Kohanim Most Kohanim and all and some living were in the south, but most were in the northern kingdom. And uh that explains why there was uh a sharp reduction in their in their numbers. Okay? All righty. So Thank you for [music] listening to this awesome math production. To find out more and to partner in our mission, >> [music] >> please visit ohr.edu.