PARSHAT PINCHAS - THE LAND OF ISRAEL - WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

[TorahZionist]

BS"D

YESHIVAT HARA'AYON HAYEHUDI
Jerusalem, Israel
HaRav Yehuda Kreuser SHLIT"A, Rosh Yeshiva

PARSHAT PINCHAS
16 Tammuz 5768/18-19 July 2008


THE LAND OF ISRAEL - WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Hashem said to Moshe and to Elazar, son of Aharon the Kohen, saying:
Take a census of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel from twenty
years of age and up, according to their fathers' house, all who go out to
the army in Israel.

The time had come, after being in the desert for the past 40 years, to
once again count the Children of Israel. This census takes place right when
the Jewish people were poised to enter the Land of Israel in order to
determine who was entitled to a portion in the Land. The portions were to be
distributed only to those who had reached the age of twenty at the time of
the census.

The division of the Land was done miraculously through the Divine
Spirit; each tribe would draw a lot, and then the lot itself would actually
call out which portion in the Land the tribe receives. When all was said and
done, the Land was divided between the tribes. All seemed in order.

But then the daughters of Zelophehad - Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah and
Tirzah from the tribe of Manasseh, son of Joseph - approached Moshe with the
request that they also receive a portion in the Land for themselves, as
their father had died and left no sons. Baffled, Moshe receives the Divine
word that they be given an inheritance in the Land.

From where did this great love of the Land come? The Torah traces the
daughters of Zelophehad to the tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph. It was
Joseph's great love for the Land that made him command his descendents to
carry his bones out of Egypt, the land of "tuma"/spiritual uncleanness, and
bring them into the Land when the Children of Israel would enter it.

It was Joseph who, as a young lad when first taken to Egypt, was asked
where he was from, and time and time again he did not hesitate in replying:
From the land of Cana'an. It was this great love for the Land that the
daughters of Zelophehad inherited.

On the other side of the coin, we find by Moshe, who was told in our
parsha to anoint Joshua for he, Moshe, would not be entering the Land. And
at this point, some commentaries are quick to point out the stark difference
between Moshe and Joseph. While Joseph did not miss an opportunity to point
out that he was a Ivri - from the other side of the river (the Land of
Israel) - by Moshe it states: An Egyptian man saved me. For this reason,
these commentators point out that because Moshe did not connect himself to
the Land, he did not merit to enter it.

There was no greater commitment to the Land of Israel than that of the
women of the Jewish people. For we find that none of them rejected the Land,
as the men did when the spies returned with their false report. In fact, the
decree to wipe out that generation during the forty years in the desert did
not take effect on the Jewish women. They held fast in their belief in the
redemption and love of the Land.

On the other side of the coin, even after that generation was wiped out
and a new generation of Jews blossomed in the desert and were ready to enter
the Land, we find that when Aharon the Kohen died, the clouds of glory,
which protected the Jews in the desert, departed from them. At that point
the king of Cana'an planned to attack the Children of Israel, and many of
them, out of great fear, decided to return to Egypt. The tribe of Levites
ran after them to prevent this Chilul Hashem from happening, and ended up
having to kill off seven whole families from Israel because they refused to
return. We see that many people of even the next generation of Jews
continued in the ways of the spies and disconnected themselves from the
Land.

It is for this reason that our parsha lists the holidays and the
sacrifices which one must bring to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. For a
generation which is disconnected, must be reconnected to the Land. How is
this done? Through the holy work in the Temple. The Torah goes on to list
the holidays during which every Jew is obligated to come up to Jerusalem and
be seen before Hashem. It is through G-d's great love for His people that
they should rejoice in Jerusalem before Him and connect to the Land.

Each one of us must decide where he is holding, on which side of the
coin is he or she. Does he follow in the path of Joseph and his
granddaughters and cherish the Land - or does he go in the way of the spies,
which time and time again can only mean certain death?

With love of Israel,
Levi Chazen

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