Tanach Thoughts

Nearly a year ago I posted about a topic that I had been thinking about, which is the boundaries of the northern territory of Dan, the one they conquered after leaving their original coastal territory. Last Shabbat (yesterday), I started thinking about how mapping out something like this would work, given that the Tanach doesn't give us any explicit information regarding their new territory, save for their central city, Laish/Leshem/Dan. It occurred to me that the next best thing would be to mark the boundaries of all countries and tribal territories around them- and the middle space will be that of Dan. I don't know if it's entirely possible, though. But we could probably mark up well the boundaries of Naftali and the Transjordanian half of Menashe. That would give us Dan's western and southern borders. In the east we have the Aramean petty kingdoms (new term I heard...): Geshur, Tov, Ma'achah, Aram Tzovah, Aram Damascus (I hope I didn't forget anyone). Archeol...

May this post be a merit for the success of our soldiers and the safe return of all of the hostages that are still alive, and the bodies of the deceased, and a refuah shlemah for Dror Yisrael ben Rut Miriam (דרור ישראל בן רות מרים). As a friend of mine pointed out earlier today, it's somewhat ironic that on the week where we read of Yaakov and Lavan's treaty, Israel is signing a treaty with Hamas (ימ"ש). An interesting midrash notes that the treaty was still valid many centuries later: Midrash Tanchuma Devarim 3:1 "...מכתם זה דוד, שעשה עצמו מך, ותם על שהלך בתמימות עם קונו, אימתי בהצותו את ארם נהרים, מהון כשהלך יואב להלחם עם ארם נהרים, יצאו לקראתו, אמרו לו אתה מבני בניו של יעקב, ואנו מבני בניו של לבן, והרי תנאי שלהם [קיים], דכתיב עד הגל הזה (בראשית לא נב) , כששמע יואב חזר אצל דוד, א"ל מה אתה אומר הרי תנאו שבועת יעקב אבינו, מיד הושיבו סנהדרין שושן עדות, [ללמד] למדוהו ואמרו באמת כך היה, אלא הם עברוהו תחילה, בלעם הרשע מפני מה עבר, לא כך אמר מן ארם ינחני בלק מלך מוא...

A short explanation on the blog's hiatus: I have been extremely busy lately and that's why I haven't updated in a long time. I actually started making this post over a month ago. Then I had to work on other things, and this post was put on the backburner. I'll try to make a few more posts in coming weeks. I don't want this blog to die down. Some time ago, it suddenly occurred to me that we know very little about the territory of the Tribe of Dan after they moved north. We know they built the City of Dan, and...that's it... But one city can't support an entire tribe. Even the Levites, despite being a small tribe, received 48 cities. So where are all of Dan's other cities and towns? What were the borders of "New Dan"? I'm hoping to make this mapping out of their territory an on-going side-project. From what I know, we have next to no knowledge of their territory, so this will be very speculative. But I thought it would be a fun thing to try o...