Hamaayan / The Torah Spring Edited by Shlomo Katz Masei: Studying the Geography of Eretz Yisrael Volume XVII, No. 43 1 Av 5765 August 6, 2005 Sponsored by The Katz family on the yahrzeit of Frida bat Yosef Leib Halevi a"h Today's Learning: Orlah 2:17-3:1 O.C. 386:9-388:1 Daf Yomi (Bavli): Shabbat 96 Daf Yomi (Yerushalmi): Avodah Zarah 13 Our parashah opens with a list of the 42 places where Bnei Yisrael camped during their forty years in the desert. Why does the Torah list all of these places? R' Yehoshua ibn Shuiv z"l (Spain; 14th century) offers several reasons: (1) Rashi writes that this list shows Hashem's kindness. Without this list, we might have thought that Bnei Yisrael were traveling constantly. However, now we know that they averaged almost one year in each place. (2) The 42 places allude to the Divine Name having 42 letters, with which Hashem created grasses, trees, and springs at every stop. (3) Rambam writes that the places are listed to highlight the miracles that Hashem did in the desert. Without this list, we might have thought that Bnei Yisrael's travels kept them in inhabited areas so that they had easy access to food, water and other supplies. However, now we know that they traveled in wilderness areas. [Ed. note: Rambam's answer, as well as the next answer, assumes that we can identify these places. In Chazal's time, many of these places were in fact known. On that subject, see this week's biography and the inside pages.] (4) The Midrash says that we need to know where Bnei Yisrael camped so that, if we happen to visit those places, we can recite the blessing, "Who performed a miracle for my ancestors at this place." R' Ibn Shuiv notes that the above explanations help to tie our haftarah to the parashah. In the haftarah, Yirmiyah rebukes the nation for forgetting Hashem's many acts of kindness. (Derashot Ibn Shuiv) ******** "Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: `Command Bnei Yisrael and say to them--Since you come to the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance, the land of Canaan according to its borders." (34:1) R' Ishtori Ha'Parchi z"l (see below) writes: Here and in the verses that follow, the Torah identifies the borders of the entire Land of Israel just as a field that is being sold has its borders listed in the deed. This is the primary place in the Torah where the borders of Eretz Yisrael are mentioned, just as the parashah of tzitzit (Bemidbar 15) is the primary place for that mitzvah and the parashah of Pesach (Shmot 12) is the primary place for that mitzvah. [In other words, even though each of these is mentioned in passing or to a small degree elsewhere in the Torah, each one has a primary place where it is mentioned. The significance of this is that here the borders are mentioned in the form of a commandment.] R' Ishtori continues: Any other place in the Torah where the borders of Eretz Yisrael are mentioned is for a specific reason related to the context of that passage. In some of those case, commentaries say that those verses are prophecies for the future. One of these is the verse (Devarim 11:24), "Every place where the sole of your foot will tread shall be yours--from the Wilderness and the Lebanon, from the river, the Euphrates River, until the western sea shall be your boundary." [Midrash Lekach Tov explains that this verse refers to the time of mashiach.] Another prophecy is the verse (Devarim 34:1), "Moshe ascended from the plains of Moav, to Mount Nebo, to the summit of the cliff that faces Jericho, and Hashem showed him the entire Land - the Gilad . . ." [The Gilad is in present-day Jordan.] . . . Following this introduction, R' Ishtori begins to define the borders of the land. Our parashah states (34:5), "The border shall go around from Atzmon to the stream of Egypt, and its outskirts shall be toward the Sea." R' Ishtori explains: The "stream of Egypt" is the southwestern boundary of Eretz Yisrael. This is the river called "Shichor," which is not the Nile. [Rashi to Yehoshua (13:3) writes that it is the Nile.] R' Saadiah Gaon z"l (9th century), writes R' Ishtori, says that the "stream of Egypt" is Wadi El Arish, a name that is still in use today. It is well known even today, R' Ishtori adds, that the boundary between Eretz Canaan and Egypt is Wadi El Arish. Our parashah continues (34:7), "This shall be for you the northern border-- from the Great Sea you shall turn to Hor Hahar / Mount Hor." R' Ishtori writes this is the mountain referred to in the Gemara as "Turei Samnos." [In our versions of the Gemara (Gittin 8a) it is called "Turei Amnon. Below, R' Ishtori apparently identifies this mountain as a peak 25 miles south of the range in present-day Turkey called "Toros Amanus."] This is not the same Hor Hahar that is associated with the death of Aharon; that Hor Hahar is outside of Eretz Yisrael to the east, while this one is on the northwestern corner. Neither is this Hor Hahar the same as Mount Chermon, even though Chermon has many names. Regarding the identification of this Hor Hahar, I (i.e., R' Ishtori) struggled and searched for a long time, and thank G-d I found the answer. Know that from Mount Carmel northward past Akko (Acre), there are many places where the land juts into the sea. All of these are part of Eretz Yisrael, including Tyre, Sidon and Beirut. North of there, near R'as al Basit, there is a very tall mountain which is called in Arabic, "Jabal Al- Akra," which means "Bald Mountain." This is a lone mountain and its base juts into the sea. It has on it very tall Erez trees and also nut trees. It also has springs of water and small villages that live off the blessing of the springs. About half a day's journey south of there is the town mentioned in Tractates Shabbat (119a), Menachot (85b), and elsewhere, called Ludkiyah (i.e., Al Ladhiqiyah on Syria's Mediterranean coast). I say, R' Ishtori continues, that this is Hor Hahar that we are seeking because all of the other peninsulas south of it are not mountains. Furthermore, all the towns mentioned as being within the Twelve Tribes' territories are south of there. Finally, Hamah, which is mentioned as being on the border, is three days journey east [actually south east, as R' Ishtori mentions below] of there. [However, some say that Hamah of the Torah is Antioch / Antakya, Turkey]. Two days south of there is Halba (Lebanon) in the territory of Asher. When one stands at the top of this mountain facing eastward, then in front of him, a little to the south will be Hamah. About two days south of there, on the coast, is the city that the Torah calls "Sin" and the Arabs call Tarabulus (Tripoli). Near it is Arka, and about those two places the Torah says (Bereishit 10:17), "the Arki and the Sini." Two days further south, also on the coast, is Beirut, which is mentioned in Yechezkel (47:15). (Kaftor Va'ferach Ch.11) [Note: Comments in square brackets are from the editors of the Machon Le'limudei Mitzvot Ha'aretz edition of Kaftor Va'ferach (Yerushalayim 5757). Also note that nearly all of the places mentioned in the above description have eponymous counterparts on modern day maps, presumably at or near their original locations.] ******** R' Ishtori Ha'Parchi z"l R' Ishtori Ha'parchi was born in Provence, a province in southern France, in about 1280. His teachers included his father, R' Moshe; his relative, R' Yaakov ben Machir ibn Tibbon; and the important posek / halachic authority, Rabbeinu Asher ("Rosh"). In 1306, R' Ishtori was expelled from France together with the rest of that country's Jews, and he began the wanderings for which he is best known. After a stay in Spain, R' Ishtori set out for Eretz Yisrael. For seven years, he toured the land studying its geography and history. (He writes that he spent two years studying the Galilee and five years in the rest of the Land.) He then settled in Bet Shean, where in compiled his magnum opus, Kaftor Va'ferach, a thorough study of the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael and the identity of cities mentioned in Tanach, Talmud and Midrashim. Kaftor Va'ferach was well received by later scholars and is crucial for identifying which areas are or are not subject to the agricultural laws that apply exclusively in Eretz Yisrael, for example terumah and shemittah. The work has been reprinted several times, most recently in Yerushalayim in the 1990s (with an extensive commentary). [A lengthy excerpt from Kaftor Va'ferach with the new commentary appears above.] Besides Kaftor Va'ferach, R' Ishtori wrote several other works: Batei Ha'nefesh on ethics, Shoshanat Ha'melech on the sciences mentioned in the Talmud, and a Talmud commentary called Sha'ar Ha'shamayim. He also translated some medical treatises from Latin into Hebrew. R' Ishtori passed away in about 1345.