Belief and the Inheritance of
Israel
Parshat MASEI is both a very relevant and controversial parsha when
applied to our situation in the Land of Israel
today. It is this Torah
portion in which HaShem commands Am Yisrael to expell the gentile
inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael from before us
upon our conquest of the
Land.
In parshat MASEI, the Torah gives us a very interesting mitzvah that
raises many questions on
how we are supposed to deal with the gentile
inhabitants in our Land. Due to the vicious war currently being waged on
us by a hostile
population in Eretz Yisrael, these questions have become
more and more relevant throughout Israeli society, both in religious
and
non-religious circles. While a recent poll conducted by Haifa University
concluded that well over half of the Israeli public supports
the policy
of "transfer" (relocating the Arabs from Eretz Yisrael to an Arab
state), some claim that halackicly speaking, this was a one
time mitzvah
pertaining only to the seven Canaanite nations in the time of Yehoshua
Bin Nun. Others admit that it might be a standing
mitzvah in our day, but
one that we should not fulfill due to the likely negative reactions from
the international community. In order to
reach a better understanding of
this mitzvah and how it may or may not apply for us today, it is worth
exploring these p'sukim as well
as learning how our great Torah
luminaries understand and explain them.
"You shall drive out all the inhabitants of the Land from
before you; and
you shall destroy all their prostration stones; all their molten images
shall you destroy; and all their high places
shall you demolish. You
shall possess the Land and you shall settle it, for to you have I given
the Land to possess it... But if you do
not drive out the inhabitants of
the Land before you, those of them whom you leave shall be pins in your
eyes and a surrounding barrier
of thorns in your sides, and they will
harass you upon the Land in which you dwell." (BAMIDBAR 33:52-55)
On 33:52-53, Rashi
explains:
"'Vehorashtem': Drive them out. 'Vehorashtem et ha'aretz': If you first
'clear out the Land of its inhabitants,'
then - 'viyeshavtem bah' - you
will be able to survive in it. Otherwise, you will be unable to survive
in it."
On p'suk 55,
Rashi further teaches that pins in your eyes means "liteidot
ham'nakrot eineichem" - that nails will be driven into your yes (it
is
unpleasant but important to note that after the Moment Cafe suicide
attack, nails were found in the eyes of some victims). This Rashi
quote
has also been understood by some to mean that the wisdom and
understanding of our leadership will be neutralized, such that they
will
be unable to see and understand what a child can see and understand.
There will be a situation in which we protect ourselves behind
fences and
walls which "enclose and imprison us such that none can come in or
leave."
S'forno has a more extreme explanation
than Rashi:
"'Vehorashtem': When you annihilate the Land's inhabitants, you will
merit to give your children the Land as an
inheritance. If you do not
annihilate them, then even if you conquer the Land, you will not merit to
give it to your children as an
inheritance."
The Or HaChaim HaKadosh teaches:
"'You must drive out': Although the verse (DEVARIM 20:16) says of the
seven
nations 'You shall not allow any person to live', here (BAMIDBAR
33:52), the Torah is talking about other nations found there besides
the
seven. It was therefore careful to say 'all the inhabitants of the Land',
meaning even those not of the seven."
He
continues on p'suk 55:
"'They shall cause you troubles in the Land': Not only will they hold on
to the part of the Land that you
have not taken, but the part which you
have taken and settled as well. 'They shall cause you trouble' regarding
the part that you live
in, saying 'Get up and leave it.'"
Although we can see that this mitzvah is obviously referring to other
nations beyond the
seven from Canaan and that there are strikingly
obvious parallels to what we see going on today, how are we to be sure
that this course
of action, as a Divine Commandment, applies today or
anytime beyond the original entering into Eretz Yisrael with Yehoshua
Bin
Nun?
The Ramban, in his supplement to the Rambam's Sefer HaMitzvot (Positive
Commandment #4), teaches:
"This (a war
over the mitzvah of living in and conquering Eretz Yisrael)
is what our Sages call milchemet mitzvah. In the Talmud (Sotah 44b)
Rava
said, 'Yehoshua's war of conquest was an obligatory duty according to all
opinions.' One should not make the mistake of saying
that this mitzvah
only applies to the seven nations we were commanded to destroy... That is
not so. We were commanded to destroy those
nations when they fought
against us, and had they wished to make peace we could have done so under
specific conditions. Yet, we cannot
leave the Land in their control or in
the control of any other nations in any generation... Behold, we are
commanded with conquest in
every generation... If so, this is a positive
mitzvah which applies in every time."
It is important to see how much the Ramban
stresses that this was not a
one time mitzvah and that we are just as obligated today as we were upon
the first conquest under
Yehoshua's leadership.
In Siman 75 of the Even HaEzer (segment of the Shulchan Aruch), the
Pitchei Tshuva (6) states quite clearly that
all of the Rishonim and
Achronim rule like the Ramban on this mitzvah and the halachah is such.
So is this how we are supposed to behave
towards our "Palestinian"
enemies?
The Gaon of Vilna explains in his commentary to the Book of CHABAKUK that
the function of
Peleshet in this world is very unique. He teaches that
the p'suk in BEREISHI T 10:13, where the Philistines enter the stage of
history,
does not describe their birth as the Torah describes the birth
of other peoples.
"And Mitzraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim,
Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, and
Casluhim, whence the Philistines came forth, and Caphtorim." (BEREISHIT
10:13)
The Gra teaches that
even the birth of the Philistines was completely
unnatural and that they are completely absent from the stage of history
except for when
it is time for them to serve their sole purpose in
Creation. When the Nation of Israel enters our Land in order to build our
holy State -
the Kingdom that will bless and uplift all of humankind to
unimaginable levels of Divine goodness - the Philistines appear on the
scene
to try and prevent this Kingdom from being established. This was
true when Avraham Avinu first entered the Land (there was
a
"land-for-peace" deal proposed by Avimemech), it occurred when his son
Yitzchak was continuously faced with hostile
Philistine
terror intimidating him to move away, and it was true throughout the
period of the Judges up until the secure establishment of
the Davidic
Dynasty, when we achieved true Malkhut (Kingship).
The Philistines then mysteriously disappear from history until our
day
where they once again try to hold up the Nation from constructing G-D's
Kingdom. The Gaon of Vilna explains that without the force
of Peleshet we
would be unable to rise up to our essential mission and realize the true
significance of our statehood.
And we
see today that the Vilna Gaon's words are correct. Because of our
difficult struggle with the "Palestinians", a non-existent nation
that
materialized upon our return Home, we have failed to turn the State of
Israel into a westernized country full of nightclubs and
shopping malls.
We have not been able to simply exist as another "normal" nation in the
world. Instead, we have been locked in a brutal
conflict forcing us to
realize wh o and what we are as well as why we came back to establish
Hebrew sovereignty in our Land. Our troubles
with the "Palestinians"
force us to question the general value of Jewish Statehood. By forcing
out the bigger answers to these questions,
the Philistines cause us to
understand what it is we are truly doing here. And by the time we are
mentally ready to deal with them
appropriately, please G-D, we will have
arrived at the true understanding of who and what we are, as well as the
purpose of establishing
our Kingdom.
So, in truth, while we are certainly commanded to, at the very least,
expel foreigners (especially if they are hostile)
from our Land, the
reason we still have not done so is because we have not yet arrived at
the understanding of our reality. With G-D's
help, the Nation should
swiftly find answers to these burning questions so that we may put an end
to our anguish, win this war and rise
up to our national historical
destiny of erecting G-D's Kingdom and blessing the world with His
Divine Light. Shabbat
Shalom.
With Love of Israel,
Yehuda HaKohen
Am Segula
