Parashat Chukat - Seventh Aliyah

After wanderings, struggles, deaths and miracles, Israel arrives at an open confrontation with the kingdoms east of the Jordan. These are no longer inner trials or wars of survival, but a first standing before peoples and kings in the name of a calling, a path, and a mission.

Moshe sends messengers to Sichon king of the Amorites with a direct request: “E’eb’rah be’artzecha lo niteh besadeh uvecherem” (Let me pass through your land; we will not turn into field or vineyard, Numbers 21:22). A peaceful proposal of passage, without touching field or vineyard, without drinking well water. But Sichon chooses war, and goes out to Yahtzah to stand against Israel. The result is written briefly: “Vayakehu Yisrael lefi charev vayirash et artzo” (And Israel struck him with the sword and inherited his land, verse 24).

The victory leads to an extraordinary poetic sequence, an ancient piyut embedded inside the narrative: “Al ken yomru hamoshlim bo’u Cheshbon tibaneh vetikonen ir Sichon. Ki esh yatz’ah meCheshbon lehavah mikiryat Sichon” (Therefore the bards say: Come to Cheshbon, let the city of Sichon be built and established. For fire went out from Cheshbon, a flame from the city of Sichon, verses 27, 28). Rashi here explains that the “bards” are Bilam and Beor, and that the song tells the dark history of Cheshbon: Sichon could not capture Cheshbon by his own strength, so he went and hired Bilam to curse Moav, and only then it fell into his hands. That same power of curse and song that brought down Moav now returns to stand against Israel in the next parasha.

Then Og king of the Bashan goes out: “Vayetze Og melech haBashan likratam hu vechol amo lamilchamah Edre’i” (And Og king of Bashan went out to meet them, he and all his people, for battle at Edre’i, verse 33). Og is the last survivor of the ancient tribes of giants, and the book of Devarim will later describe him: “Ki rak Og melech haBashan nish’ar miyeter haRefa’im” (For only Og king of Bashan remained from the remnant of the Refaim, Deuteronomy 3:11). Right here, facing the greatest fear, God says to Moshe: “Al tira oto ki veyadcha natati oto ve’et kol amo ve’et artzo” (Do not fear him, for into your hand I have given him and all his people and his land, Numbers 21:34). The inner promise precedes the outer victory, and this is the first time Israel receives an explicit instruction not to fear an enemy.

The aliyah closes with a sentence that holds the entire transition inside it: “Vayis’u bnei Yisrael vayachanu be’arvot Moav me’ever leYarden Yerecho” (And the children of Israel journeyed, and camped in the plains of Moav, across the Jordan from Yericho, Numbers 22:1). They are no longer in the wilderness. They are facing the Jordan, facing Yericho, facing the Land.

A sharp message: the Torah does not present Israel as an aggressive people. They open with an offer of passage, refrain from touching foreign fields, and agree to bypass kingdoms that do not threaten them. But the moment a king like Sichon goes out to fight, or a giant like Og stands in the way, they do not retreat. They enter into life from a double posture, one that offers peace and also knows how to fight, and precisely in this combination the transition begins from wandering to standing on the soil of the Land.