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October 22, 2004/Cheshvan 7 5765, Vol. 57, No. 8
Real success comes in alliance with God
Torah study
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Parshat Lekh Lekha/Genesis 12:1-17:27
The first altar to God that Abram built when he entered the Promised Land is in Shekhem (Genesis 12:6,7), the city the Israelites were destined to enter when they crossed the River Jordan under Joshua.
Abram built his third altar to God in the oaks of Mamre, in Hebron (Genesis 13:18), where biblical history really began. Abraham built his fourth altar to God on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:14).
But the altar that seems the least significant is the second one, which is described in our Torah reading (Genesis 12:8). Yet it is to this place that Abraham returned after his Egyptian sojourn to build yet another altar (Genesis 13:3,4).
What is the significance of this place in the desert, between Bethel and Ai? Rav Mordechai Allon, the great Torah teacher of Jerusalem, gives an insightful explanation, to which I add an important theological reflection. Bethel is where Jacob had his Israel-defining dream of "a stairway ... set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it" (Genesis 28:12). Jacob had this vision immediately before he went into exile, in a place to which he later returned with the name of Israel and built an altar to God. The message is one of uniting heaven and earth.
Then there's Ai. The first great conquest of Joshua and the Israelites was the city of Jericho. Its walls came tumbling down after the Israelites circled it once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh day. Jericho fell, its inhabitants perished and all its wealth was declared forbidden for human use and holy to God.
Unfortunately, many people, under the influence of Akhan, betrayed Joshua's pronouncement and looted the wealth of Jericho for themselves. At God's behest, Joshua routed out those who looted the sacred booty and had Akhan and his family put to death.
The Israelites then attempted the capture of the City of Ai. Joshua sent out spies, who returned to report that 2,000-3,000 Israelite soldiers could take the city. When 3,000 were dispatched, the soldiers of Ai killed 36 of them and chased the rest away. Joshua tore his garments and prayed all day before God's ark. The nation then went to war against Ai. Joshua sent 30,000 of his men for an ambush, "and they lay in wait between Bethel and Ai to the west of Ai" (Joshua 8:9). The Israelite army demolished Ai.
In modern terms, there initially was a gross failure of Israeli intelligence, similar to the intelligence failure at the time of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Despite the massive deployment of enemy troops from Egypt and Syria, Prime Minister Golda Meir declined to call up the reserves and strengthen the Bar Lev line. What caused such a gross error? Apparently, after the lightning victory of the Six Day War, the powers that were thought that no Arab army would dare go to war against Israel.
Such was the brazen arrogance of Akhan and his cohorts, who refused to recognize that the spoils of Jericho belonged to God. After the Yom Kippur War, much of Israel learned its lesson.
But the real truth is the message of Jacob's dream: There is a ladder connecting heaven and earth, and humans must work together with God in effectuating the divine will. Only if we understand the message of that partnership will we avoid the pitfall of complacency, and the arrogance of believing that we did it alone.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the leader of Efrat, Israel.
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