Environment where Jewish ethics can flourish

At times like these, my thoughts often go back to Dani Moshitz, one of my closest friends, who was killed in a terrorist ambush in 1984 at the Kasmieh bridge in Lebanon. Thirty years later, his intense love of Torah and of the land of Israel remain an inspiration.

Again, the Jewish people’s love for this land we call home has been put to the test; thousands mourn and our friends, sons, fathers and lovers are laid to rest, killed in defense of the Jewish people and the land of Israel. How many people can say they are willing to die for a land?

This week’s portion, Vaetchanan, always read on the Shabbat after Tisha B’av, contains an allusion to this deep relationship we have with the land of Israel. “Az yavdil Moshe shalosh arim be’ever ha’Yarden mizracha shamesh.” (“Then did Moshe set aside three cities east of the Jordan [river].”) (Devarim 4:41)

With no obvious connection to the events being discussed, Moshe sets aside three cities on the Eastern side of the river, in the lands of the tribes of Reuven and Gad (and eventually half of the tribe of Menashe).

These cities, known as Arei Miklat (or cities of refuge), were in fact parallel to three additional cities of refuge that would eventually be set on the Western side of the river (in Israel proper) after the conquest of the land in the time of Joshua.

The purpose of these cities as delineated by the subsequent verses was to afford a place of shelter to men guilty of manslaughter (accidental murder) fleeing from their victims’ blood relatives.

What purpose does the fulfillment of this mitzvah, commanded by G-d as part of the settling of the land and the creation of a just society, have here in the midst of Moshe’s narrative to the Jewish people on the banks of the Jordan as they are about to enter the land of Israel?

Perhaps Moshe’s dialogue with the tribes of Reuven and Gad hold the key to understanding these events. In the middle of his long speech, Moshe mentions the agreement he came to with the tribes of Reuven and Gad, whose desire to make their homes on the Eastern side of the Jordan River presented somewhat of a quandary for Moshe.