From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, December 24, 2004 1:47 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Vayechi, 5765




                                          
                                         Watch Where You're Going !

                 By Rabbi Joshua (directionlessly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


On a recent trip to Israel, I visited an old friend of mine whom I hadn't seen in almost thirty years, although we had been in some contact, of late, through Netvort. At dinner, his wife asked me a question that she had raised in a Chumash shiur on parshas Vayechi and had not received an answer to. The question was, when Ya'akov's sons carried his remains from Egypt to Chevron to be buried in the cave of Machpeilah, why did they take a circuitous route and go to 'Eiver HaYarden,' (see Bereishis 50:10) which we generally understand to mean the eastern side of the Jordan River, before they went to Chevron? Wasn't this completely out of the way? I had to admit that I did not know the answer to this question, but we did find that the Netziv, in his commentary Ha'amek Davar discusses the issue, and offers an explanation, which we will discuss further on. Subsequently, I discovered that medieval commentators already discussed this question, and not all of them agree that 'Eiver HaYarden' here refers to the eastern side of the Jordan. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, in his short but excellent notes to his Torah translation, The Living Torah, mentions the opinion of the Chizkuni, who says that the term refers to the western side of the Yardein, and the opinion of Rabbeinu Meyuchas, who says that it refers to the west side of the Yardein.


Interestingly, more recent writers have taken either side of the issue as a given, without mentioning these earlier opinions. Rabbi Jacob Hertz, in his commentary to the Pentateuch, cites a nineteenth century American Hebraist, W.H. Green, as saying, " This cannot mean east of the Jordan, as it is unthinkable that in going to the cave of Machpeilah at Hebron the company would take the circuitous route round the Dead Sea. All difficulties disappear when we remember that to Moses and the Israelites in the land of Moab, he words 'beyond Jordan' meant west of Jordan. This phrase therefore is another incidental confirmation of the Mosaic authorship of the Torah." This explanation is similar to that of Chizkuni, except that Chizkuni explains the term Eiver HaYardein to be from the perspective of the people of Sichon and Og, who observed the funeral procession.

Rabbi Nosson Dovid Rabinowich, on the other hand, writes, in a recent article entitled "Are We Teaching Chumash Correctly to our Children?" which is published in the journal Hakira, that the Torah is referring to the eastern side of the Yardein, and notes that this was the identical route taken by the Jewish people when they left Egypt and traveled to Eretz Yisroel. This approach accords with that of Rabbeinu Meyuchas, who also says that this route prefigured the route later taken after the exodus from Egypt. Rabbi Menachem Kasher, in his Torah Shleimah to this verse, has a lengthy footnote in which he mentions a discussion among nineteenth century experts on the geography of Eretz Yisroel regarding this entire issue, and expresses his amazement that they did not mention the opinions of the medieval commentators. More recently, Yehudah Kil, in his commentary to Bereishis, which is part of the Da'as Mikra series published by Mossad HoRav Kook, has a lengthy discussion of this issue, to which the interested reader is referred. I would like to focus on the opinion of Rabbeinu Meyuchas that the Torah is referring to the eastern side of the Yardein, and try to understand why this circuitous route was taken.


 Rabbeinu Meyuchas, as we have seen, explains that the circuitous route taken in burying Ya'akov was the same route that would later be taken when the nation left Egypt and traveled to the Holy Land. The Torah tells us, in the beginning of parshas Beshalach, that God did not lead the people by way of the land of the Pelishtim, "because it was near, for God said, 'Perhaps the people will reconsider when they see a war, and they will return to Egypt. And God took the people around toward the way of the Wildrness of the Sea of Reeds (Shemos 13:17-18). One way, then, of explaining the reason for taking a circuitous roué in burying Ya'akov could be to say that the burial party simply wished to avoid war, just as God wished to shield the nation from war when they left Egypt. However, a reading of Rabbeinu Meyuchas does not seem to yield this explanation of his words. More likely, he is saying that the route taken by the burial party was a prefiguration of the later path taken by the nation as a whole. Interestingly, Rashi, in his commentary to a later verse (Bereishis 50:13) cites a midrash which says that Ya'akov's sons carried his coffin in the same arrangement for traveling that would later be used by the tribes when they left Egypt and traveled in the wilderness. Thus, according to the midrash, the manner in which the tribes carried Ya'akov from Egypt to his burial place paralleled the manner in which they were to travel during the redemption process. According to Rabbeinu Meyuchas, the path they took, as well, would follow the pattern that would later be followed by the nation as a whole.

What was the purpose of carrying Ya'akov to Eretz Yiroel in the same way and on the same path that would be taken by the nation in the future? Perhaps it was a way of paving the way for the nation to be able to make the trip, in the sense of the Ramban's principle of 'ma'ase avos siman lebonim.' Rav Aharon Soloveichik zt"l explained this to mean that the deeds of the forefathers paved the way for those of the children, giving them the ability to accomplish what they needed to in order to achieve their goals as a 'kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' Another intriguing possibility emerges from a look at a Mechilta at the beginning of Beshalach that Rabbi Rabinowich refers to in a footnote to his article. The midrash there says that the reason God took the people on a circuitous route is that the Cana'anim had destroyed the crops in Eretz Yisroel when they heard they were coming, and, therefore, God wanted to give them forty years to replant them. This midrash suggests that the nation was destined to travel in the wilderness for forty years even before the sin of the spies. The Ibn Ezra also suggests this, in a different way,  in his commentary to parshas Beshalach (Shemos 14:13). He writes there that the reason the nation was afraid of war was that they had been slaves for so many years that  they did not have the courage to do battle. Therefore, a new generation had to arise, born in freedom and able to meet the challenges that would face them. According to the Ibn Ezra's approach, in conjunction with Rabbeinu Meyuchas' opinion that the funeral procession took the path it did in order to pave the way for the path of the nation from Egypt to Eretz Yisroel, it follows that it was the divine will for the nation to have a slave mentality when they left Egypt, and to develop a more courageous mind-set over a forty year period. Perhaps the reason behind this was to avoid the development of an arrogant attitude once the nation entered their land. Since the new generation, ready to battle, if necessary, with the Cana'nim, emerged only as a result of God's leading them in the wilderness for forty years, it would have a sense of humility and be less likely to attribute its success to its own efforts.

The Netziv offers a different explanation for the circuitous route taken by Ya'akov's funeral procession. He says that the reason Yosef took this route was in order include among the mourners many people from Moav and Cana'an, who dwelled near the Jordan. He then cites a Mishnah in Kelim (1:7), which says that it is the custom for a funeral procession to take a circuitous route. The Netziv explains that the purpose of this practice is to increase the honor of the departed. If we combine this explanation of the Netziv with the explanation of Rabbeinu Meyuchas, that the circuitous path taken was a prefiguration of the path that would be taken by the nation when they left Egypt and traveled to Eretz Yisroel, we emerge with the opposite conclusion than we reached in our previous expansion of Rabbeinu Meyuchas' explanation. Instead of preparing the nation for future wars and giving them the ability to wage them without developing a sense of arrogance, it would seem that, following the Netziv in conjunction with Rabbeinu Meyuchas,  the reason the nation stopped on the eastern side of the Yardein was for the other  nations to give honor to Ya'akov, and pave the way for these nations to honor the Jewish nation, as God's chosen people, when it would leave Egypt after their redemption. Following this approach, Ya'akov's funeral procession was directed in a way that would avoid war with other nations not simply because the Jewish nation avoided approaching sensitive areas, but because the other nations of the world recognized the greatness of the Jews and their God, just as they recognized the greatness of Ya'akov and his God when they honored him after his death.


Although the two ways of viewing the explanation of Rabbeinu Meyuchas that we have suggested, the first in conjunction with the commentary of Ibn Ezra, and the second in conjunction with the Netziv, appear to be conflicting, perhaps they are not. When the Jews first left Egypt, the nations did respect them, and were not planning to attack. In parshas Beshalach, Rashi writes that before Amalek attacked, the nations were too much in awe of the Jewish nation to attack, but once Amalek waged war against them, due to their complaints against God, the door was open for the other nations to attack, as well. However, apparently, after the events at Mt. Sinai, the respect of the other nations was restored. The Torah, in parshas Beha'aloscha, describes the pattern in which the different tribes were to be arranged - following the pattern that Ya'akov prescribed for his funeral procession - as they began their journey to Eretz Yisroel. Moshe then spoke to his father-in-law, Yisro, and said "We are traveling" (Bamidbar 10:29). Rashi there explains that, at that point, the nation was scheduled to enter the land in three days, but the sin of the murmurers against God prevented that from happening. Apparently, the respect that nations had for the Jewish people diminished as a result of their spiritual failings, and the possibility of attack was now a reality. The nation therefore needed to resort to arms, and the scenario described by Ibn Ezra took hold. By taking a circuitous route and stopping on the eastern side of the Yardein in their  funeral procession for Ya'akov, his children were paving the way for both contingencies in the nation's future.    



Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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