yehoshua: the choice is ours
sholem aleichem,
Hope you are all having a good end to the Gregorian Calendar Year :)
This week: Yehoshua 13-15
Summary: Time jump! Yehoshua is now old, but it turns out he still hasn't conquered all of the land. We receive a list of territories that have not yet been conquered, and haShem informs Yehoshua that haShem himself will disposess them, but Yehoshua will still need to apportion the land among the Israelites. We are given a detailed list of territorial assignments, including a cameo by Eleazar, the high priest who took over from Aharon but hasn't appeared very much this book. Caleb receives some land as repayment for being the only spy (besides Yehoshua) who told the truth about Canaan. Caleb promises his daughter to anyone who can conquer Kiriath-Sepher. We receive a lengthy list of towns/cities/etc. apportioned to the sons of Yehudah.
Chapter 15 ends on a surprising note:
וְאֶת־הַיְבוּסִי יוֹשְׁבֵי יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם לֹא־[יָכְלוּ] (יוכלו) בְנֵי־יְהוּדָה לְהוֹרִישָׁם וַיֵּשֶׁב הַיְבוּסִי אֶת־בְּנֵי יְהוּדָה בִּירוּשָׁלַ͏ִם עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה
The sons of Yehuda did not overcome the Yevusi, dwellers in Yerushalayim, to disposses them. The Yevusi and the sons of Yehudah dwell in Yerushalayim until this very day.
If you've been reading Torah up to this point, this might be a bit confusing. Here are a few places we've heard about the Yevusi before:
"When my [haShem's] angel will go before you and bring you to the Emori, the Hiti, the Perizi, the Canaani, the Hivi, and the Yevusi, and I annihilate them" - Shemos 23:23
"And I [haShem] will drive out the Canaani, the Emori, the Hiti, the Perizi, the Hivi, and the Yevusi" - Shemos 33:2
"I [haShem] will drive out before you the Emori, the Canaani, the Hiti, the Perizi, the Hivi and the Yevusi." - Shemos 34:11
"When haShem your God will bring you to the land....and will clear away many nations before you: the Hiti, the Girgashi, the Emori, the Canaani, the Perizi, the Hivi, and the Yevusi" - Devarim 7:1
And from just a few chapters ago in Yehoshua 3:10:
בְּזֹאת תֵּדְעוּן כִּי אֵל חַי בְּקִרְבְּכֶם וְהוֹרֵשׁ יוֹרִישׁ מִפְּנֵיכֶם אֶת־הַכְּנַעֲנִי וְאֶת־הַחִתִּי וְאֶת־הַחִוִּי וְאֶת־הַפְּרִזִּי וְאֶת־הַגִּרְגָּשִׁי וְהָאֱמֹרִי וְהַיְבוּסִי
With this you will know that the living god is in your midst, and he will utterly disposess before you the Canaani, the Hiti, the Hivi, the Perizi, the Girgashi, the Emori, the Yevusi
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcho proposes one explanation (quoted in Rashi): the sons of Yehudah ~totally~ could have disposessed these Yevusi, but they weren't really Yevusi: they were only called that, but were actually Philistim who were descendants of Avimelech. They were allowed to stay to honor Avraham's pact with Avimelech.
Personally, I think this verse is here to teach us something else: that the Israelites absolutely could co-exist with the people who were currently dwelling on the land. There's nothing mystically special, in my opinion, about being Yevusi or not being Yevusi (if we discard as obviously false the idea that an entire people deserve to be destroyed due to some unspecified sin.)
In other words, even if Rabbi ben Korcho is correct (and there's not really any evidence he is), this verse demonstrates that there was no need to disposess everyone dwelling in the land.
Let's take a closer look at Yehoshua 3:10 quoted above:
בְּזֹאת תֵּדְעוּן כִּי אֵל חַי בְּקִרְבְּכֶם
with this you will know that the living god is in your midst
With this? With what? Let's rewind one verse:
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל גֹּשׁוּ הֵנָּה וְשִׁמְעוּ אֶת־דִּבְרֵי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם
Yehoshua said to the children of Yisrael: come close and listen to the words of haShem your god
Rashi comments:
גְּשׁוּ הֵנָּה צִמְצֵם אֶת כּוּלָּם בֵּין שְׁנֵי בַּדֵּי אָרוֹן
Come close. He compressed all of them between two poles of the ark of the covenant.
Moving on to our verse 3:10 ("with this you shall know that haShem is in your midst"), Rashi comments:
בְּזֹאת תֵּדְעוּן בְּמַה שֶּׁאַתֶּם רוֹאִים שֶׁכֻּלְּכֶם מְצוּמְצָמִין כָּאן
With this you will know. With what? That you see that all of you are compressed here.
The way that the Israelites will know that God is in their midst is the fact that they are compressed. The Hebrew word used is צמצם: tzimtzum -- the same word that Lurianic Kabbalah uses to describe the way haShem withdrew some of haShem's self in order to create the universe.
In other words: we know god is among us when we behave like god: withdrawing into ourselves a little to allow space for others.
Okay, but doesn't Yehoshua 3:10 also say "he will utterly disposess"? It's an interesting phrase -- הוֹרֵשׁ יוֹרִישׁ -- that duplicates the root ירש. Traditionally, this duplication is translated as an emphatic: he will utterly disposess.
But I think this duplication means something else. These two words together -- הוֹרֵשׁ יוֹרִישׁ -- have the gematria 1037, the same as Bamidbar 14:20 (Everett Fox's translation):
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהֹוָה סָלַחְתִּי כִּדְבָרֶךָ
[haShem] said: I grant-pardon, according to your words;
It is, as they say, up to us: we can create a world where other peoples must be utterly disposessed, or one where haShem pardons the iniquity of peoples and we tzamtzem ourselves to coexist with others. Either path is possible -- which do we choose?
good shabbos,
ada