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Yehoshua 13-18 and today’s generation

Written by Anonymous

Chapter 13:
As Yehoshua grows older, H tells him how much land there is left to conquer, and commands him to divide it out to the 9½ tribes. The perek gives an account of the territories of Reuven, Gad and Menashe, according to Moshe’s divisions.

Chapter 14:
Here the perek carries on with the divisions of Canaan, before bringing the story of Calev, one of the spies that Moshe sent to take stock in Shelach Lecha. 45 years on, Calev asks Yehoshua for Chevron as a nachalo, where he will drive out the inhabitants. Yehoshua agrees.

Chapter 15:
After outlining Yehuda’s terriroty, we return to Calev, who promises his daughter to anyone that can conquer Kiryat Sefer, Othniel manages to win over the land and takes the reward. The perek goes on to list all the families of Yehuda by their regions, and highlights the Yevusim who could not be driven out, and who still live among Yehuda in Yerushalayim.

Chapter 16:
The perek carries on to talk about the geographical boundaries of Yosef’s inheritance.
Chapter 17:
Carrying on to outline the borders of Efrayim and Menashe (Yosef’s chelek), the perek brings the tribe of Yosef’s complaint to Yehoshua about their portions, since they have been blessed so much, but have received only a single division. They reject Yehoshua’s solution of conquering another mountain, but Yehoshua re-iterates his plan.
Chapter 18:
Dealing with the rest of the tribal portions, Yehoshua motivates the Bnei Yisroel to appoint 3 people from each tribe to write about their territory, upon which he will divide it into 7 portions and draw lots to decide who gets what. The perek continues with the nachalo of Binyomin according to the lots.
A little dvar torah that I said a couple of Shabboses ago:
There is a medrash on “eyfo hayisi b’yosdey oretz” (Iyov) – when Iyov complains to H, and H answers “where were you when I created the world?”. The medrash says that every generation and single neshomo has an attachment to a limb of Odom haRishon – some to his head, hands, body, legs – and everyone functions the way he was originally attached.
So… the 1st generation (dor of Yetzias Mitzvayim/Mattan Torah) were the head – the function of a head is intellect and they were the ba’alei torah. So when M describes the dor hamidbor he calls them b’hisasef roshei am.
Then we come to the chest and the heart, in the later generation, when the beis hamikdosh was build – mokom avodoh – v’avadetem es H elokeichem, the gemara learns a Gezeira Shava with avdecha bechol levovecha – this is the tefila – sifchi homayim etc. he has his bechira to steer his emotions in other areas, composer, poet etc.
This also works on an individual level, so people who make money for tzedoko and chesed are connected to the hands, or chazonim to the heart etc.
Who are we? We are the ekev of odom horishon – the ikvesa d’meshicha (R’Elchonon Wasserman)– these neshomos are very low, no comparison to the big tzadikim, and like the ekev, we lack any real sensitivity, there are hardly any nerves here, not much blood gets here – its always dark there on the bottom of the sole. This is us. We easily get tickled (like the heal) by the shallow material pleasures of a feather, but can’t feel the ruchniyus of a pin in the heal. There is so much blindness and am ho’ratzus, so many Jews that are falling, and we are so far away from mattan torah, just like the ekev is far from the rosh. Not only this, but as the darkest part of the body – we can’t see what’s in front of us, or feel the consequences of our actions for Klal Yisroel – the heel holds the body straight and all the other limbs rely on it to stand up properly – just like all the previous generations rely on us to do our hishtadlus in their zechus, otherwise all their work would be pointless. We are the only ones with this opportunity, but at the same time, its not easy because the nisyon of this dor is emunah. We have so many things that can get in the way of this and so many distractions that its very easy to lose focus and fall back. The only way we can live up to our roles as the ikvesa de’meshicha and make the tear that will overflow the barrel, is to strengthen our emunah in H at every opportunity, and overcome this nisoyon to complete the function of Klal Yisroel.Good Shabbos. Tim Dempsey (Based on a shiur in Emes V’emuna)

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