Why not invade from the Golan like sensible people?
In the parsha this Shabbat we heard tell of the first conquests of Bnei Yisrael as preparation toward conquering Canaan. After crushing Sichon at Yahtzah, the armies of Yisrael storm Og's land and from there the Tribe of Menashe storm the northeastern portion of the Golan and Bashan. Which raises a question: From p'shat, it seems that Am Yisrael was in the Golan, then headed back south to Arvot Moav, which is where Balak and Pinchas take place. They hang around that area until past Moshe's death, and then they head west, cross the Jordan River in Yehoshua and conquer Yericho (opposite where they were in Arvot Moav). Now, some people may not be aware of this, but it seems that this was hundreds of kilometers back and forth, just to get the people back to Arvot Moav! Why? I mean, why not simply conquer Canaan from the Golan?
Rabbi Dr. Yoel Bin Nun explains in this excellent class that Bnei Yisrael actually split into two groups: The advancing army which conquered the Land of the Amorites and then the soldiers of Menashe continued on into the Golan, and the rest of the people - women, children and older men - traveled at a more leisurely pace until they arrived in Arvot Moav. After finishing the battles in the Golan and Bashan, the army joined the rest of the people in Arvot Moav. Thus we find our heroes in Balak camping in Arvot Moav.
That map doesn't seem to be particularly accurate, since the Torah tells us that Menashe's Transjordanian territory went all the way up to Mt. Hermon.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if there was a possibility of entering Eretz Canaan from the north, then from the end of Tishrei (which is when they defeated Og, per Bamidbar Rabbah 19:32) until Moshe's passing in Adar should have been plenty of time to move everyone, including the women and children, from Arvos Moav to the Golan, no? They covered a greater distance from Aharon's passing on 1 Av at Hor Hahar until they reached Sichon's territory in Elul.
So I'd suggest that more likely there was no thought of entering Eretz Canaan from that direction at all. Maybe because the northern kingdoms were more powerful (כי חצור לפנים היא ראש כל הממלכות האלה)?
I think we're in agreement on this point. Perhaps my post wasn't clear enough. To me it was originally not clear why the travelled all the way up and then back down. Turns out they didn't. The only ones who went all the way up were Menashe. The rest slowly made their way to Arvot Moav and settled there, because the plan was to invade through Yericho.
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