Matos: 5786 - Why did Moshe Rabbeinu consider the other side of the Jordan to be part of the Land of Israel, and what is the connection to Rashbi, Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira, and the sons of Ephraim? Also: a wondrous story of Jerusalem about…

00:00 Speaker 1 Brothers.

00:02 Speaker 2 Please.

00:03 Speaker 1 We learned.

00:05 Speaker 2 Let us dedicate today’s Torah thought to the elevation of the souls of my sister and brother-in-law, Rivka and Reuven Danoni. Tomorrow is the anniversary of their murder. Parshas Va’eschanan: “And I pleaded with Hashem.” Moshe Rabbeinu pleads with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “Please let me cross over.” He wants to enter Eretz Yisroel, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells him, “You shall not cross this Jordan.” What prompted Moshe Rabbeinu to plead now to enter Eretz Yisroel? Hadn’t Hakadosh Boruch Hu already decreed that he would not enter? What changed? The sefarim explain that Moshe Rabbeinu had conquered the lands of Sichon and Og. The Chida explains that there is a dispute over whether the land of Sichon and Og, east of the Jordan, is part of Eretz Yisroel. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says it is, while Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira says it is not. Since Moshe Rabbeinu had conquered those lands, he reasoned according to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s view that he had already entered Eretz Yisroel. And with a vow, if part of it is annulled, all of it is annulled. So perhaps, having entered Eretz Yisroel according to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the entire decree could be annulled and he could now enter the rest of Eretz Yisroel. That is why he pleads with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “Please let me cross over,” asking to enter Eretz Yisroel. Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells him: No. I hold like Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira, who says that the land east of the Jordan is not Eretz Yisroel. But why did Moshe Rabbeinu hold like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai that the land east of the Jordan is part of Eretz Yisroel? After all, there is also Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira’s view.

02:21 Speaker 2 And everything that an experienced student will one day innovate was already told to Moshe at Sinai. So Moshe Rabbeinu knew Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira’s view too. Why, then, did he follow Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai specifically? Hakadosh Boruch Hu said: No, the halachah follows Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira, that the land east of the Jordan is not Eretz Yisroel. But why did Moshe Rabbeinu think that it was? The sefarim explain Moshe Rabbeinu’s reasoning. Tzaddikim like Moshe Rabbeinu can look at a person and see what will become of his descendants and their descendants until the end of all generations. As Rashi explains, when Moshe Rabbeinu killed the Egyptian, it says, “He saw that there was no man.” What does that mean? Rashi says that he saw no worthy person who would descend from him. He saw everything that would come from that Egyptian until the end of all generations, and saw that not one worthy person would descend from him. So he struck the Egyptian and killed him. Accordingly, the explanation is that when all the Jewish people stood at the giving of the Torah, Moshe Rabbeinu saw in each person their descendants and their descendants’ descendants. He therefore saw Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s view, because Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s ancestors stood at the giving of the Torah, and tzaddikim can see what will become of each person’s descendants until the end of all generations. But Moshe Rabbeinu did not see Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira’s view. Why not? The Gemara in Sanhedrin relates that some of the descendants of Ephraim left Egypt before the rest of the Jewish people. Why?

04:23 Speaker 2 Because they miscalculated. At the covenant between the parts, it says, “Your descendants will be strangers for four hundred years.” When do we begin counting? After all, the Jewish people were in Egypt for only 210 years. We begin counting the four hundred years from Yitzchak’s birth. But they mistakenly thought the count began at the covenant between the parts. That made a difference of thirty years. They thought the time had already come, so they fought and left Egypt. It says that the men of Gath, the Philistines, killed them when they left Egypt. Those descendants of Ephraim, who left Egypt by force before the proper time, were therefore not at the giving of the Torah. They had all died. The Gemara discusses Yechezkel’s prophecy, in which he revived the bones. There is a dispute in the Gemara over whether this was an actual resurrection of the dead. One opinion, Rabbi Eliezer’s, says it was only a vision he saw, not that he actually brought the dead back to life. But Rabbi Eliezer, son of Rabbi Yosi HaGlili, says no: he revived them, and they lived, later went up to Eretz Yisroel, married and had children. The Gemara in Sanhedrin relates that Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira stood up and said, “I am a descendant of those descendants of Ephraim, and these are the tefillin my grandfather left me.” He showed the tefillin that had come from them. Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira thus holds that it actually happened. It follows that Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira’s ancestors were not at the giving of the Torah: those descendants of Ephraim had left before the proper time. Only afterward did the prophet Yechezkel revive them when he saw the dry bones. They rose, and later they

06:48 Speaker 2 went up to Eretz Yisroel, but they had not been at the giving of the Torah. This, the sefarim explain, is why Moshe Rabbeinu did not know Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira’s view, only Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s. Why didn’t he know Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira’s view? Because his ancestors had not been at the giving of the Torah. He descended from those descendants of Ephraim who had not been there. Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira himself said, “I am one of their descendants.” So Moshe Rabbeinu did not know his view. There is a dispute between Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira over whether the land east of the Jordan is part of Eretz Yisroel, but Moshe Rabbeinu had not heard Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira’s view, because his ancestors had not been at the giving of the Torah. He therefore held like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and thought that he had already entered Eretz Yisroel. Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him: No, the halachah follows Rabbi Yehudah ben Beseira. The decree therefore remains in force; no part of it has been annulled. So Moshe Rabbeinu pleaded with Hakadosh Boruch Hu: If the vow is annulled, then our people will not enter. Let us end with a story, since yesterday was Tisha B’Av. I heard it from my mother, a”h, who told it about my grandfather, the rabbi of Jerusalem. She said that in those days there was an Arab in Jerusalem who regularly worked in the chareidi neighborhoods. He spoke Yiddish like one of the locals—he spoke it well. One day he came to my grandfather, the rabbi of Jerusalem, and asked him, “Tell me, when is Tisha B’Av?” The rabbi asked, “Why does it matter to you when Tisha B’Av is?” He answered, “Listen, you

08:35 Speaker 2 cry and lament that you are in exile and that the Beis Hamikdash has been destroyed. We bring you all good things. We bring you vegetables, we arrange your Shabbos goy for you—we do everything for you. We serve you, and yet you say you are in exile and cry about it. I’m waiting for you to have your Geulah and for us to be in exile. Then you’ll serve us.” That was how this Arab understood destruction, exile and Geulah: it was a question of who serves whom. But the truth is that the true Geulah is when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea.” May we merit that true Geulah very soon indeed.

09:15 Speaker 3 Amen, may it be so.