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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