Conquest of Canaan

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1. Chapter 12: The War Against the Canaanites, Part 1

   Rabbi Michael Hattin

   This lesson will begin to consider the moral dimension of the war of conquest against the Canaanites. In order to gain a broader perspective, we will turn to the relevant passages in the Torah that make reference to the Promised Land and to its inhabitants. While the first section, from the early chapters of the Book of Shemot, made only an oblique and general mention of the tribes associated with the land, the second section began to spell out more specifically the true nature of the threat that they represented.

2. Haazinu: Who Takes the Blame?

   Rabbi Menachem Leibtag | 32 minutes

   This shiur focuses on the song in Parashat Haazinu; beginning by looking at the prelude to Haazinu. Understanding Haazinu - a response to the question of why bad things happen communally - helps us to appreciate the purpose of Neviim Rishonim, especially Sefer Yehoshua and its message of how we must take initiative and follow God's laws in order to benefit from God's conditional covenantal promises.

3. Opening Themes in Sefer Shoftim

   Rabbi Michael Hattin

   This article adresses some of the major themes of Sefer Shoftim: 

   1) The limitations of the great conquest of Yehoshua and the need for ongoing inhabitation of the Land 

   2) The unified national model of leadership versus the local tribal leadership model 

   3) The less direct means of communication with God during the period of the Judges.

4. Israel's Tragic Lethargy

   Rabbi Michael Hattin

   Sefer Shoftim, while it tends to revolve textually around a series of inspired regional leaders, really traces the story of Israel's tragic lethargy.  The minority of tribes are involved in the continued conquest of Canaan but the vast majority of tribes are not. The Torah commanded the nation to uproot the Canaanite Nation from their midst and sure enough, it was not possible for the people to suffer an unrepentant Canaanite population in their midst while remaining aloof from their cultural and moral values.

5. Tanakh and Archaeology

   Part 6 - Yehoshua and the Conquest of the Land of Israel

   Rabbi Amnon Bazak

   The conquest of the land of Israel is described at length in Sefer Yehoshua, and the conventional view, based on a superficial reading of the text, is that the process was completed in a short time, as was the subsequent process of the settlement of the tribes of Israel. This view was accepted among archaeologists of the previous generation. However, more recent developments have made clear that the approach that treats the conquest and settlement of the land as a uniform, quick phenomenon, contradicts the archaeological findings in several respects.

   These more recent findings offer support for the picture created by a more comprehensive and careful reading of the biblical account of the settlement of the land in which while there is a literary aim to describe a short process attributed entirely to Yehoshua, but in fact other descriptions in the Bible show that it was a lengthy process.

   The archeological theories surrounding Jericho and Ai are examined.

6. Ramban on Vayechi: BeCharvi u-veKashti - With My Sword and Bow

   Rabbi Ezra Bick | 33 minutes

   We will examine Ramban’s comments to the verse about the special grant from Yaakov to Yosef. Is this grant referring to the city of Shechem, or to an extra portion in general? And why does Yaakov describe himself as having taken it with his sword and bow, especially when Yaakov had been very angry at his sons for using the sword against Shechem?  Is the sword and bow literal, metaphorical or both?

   Ramban assumes that Yaakov refers to a double portion for Yosef - and that the reference to the sword is a hint to the future of Bnei Yisrael for when they conquer the Land. The Land of Israel must be conquered naturally, but with the help God, Who remembers the merit of the forefathers.