16. Did Moshe Enter Eretz Yisrael?: The Eastern Border Debate

Good morning everyone, בוקר טוב, יישר כוח. The learning this morning should be the לעילוי נשמת David’s sister, חסיא בת רב פנחס צבי עליה השלום, who had the זכות of knowing and growing up in your בית, who she should be a מליצה ישרה on all of us בעזרת השם יתברך. So I want to stay with the borders for a second, but let's get rid of the south and not and the north also and stick to the עבר הירדן, because something fascinating, fascinating. This is crazy. משה רבנו, did he get into ארץ ישראל or not? It's a very interesting שאלה. Almost. Well, it depends. Never start a הלכה שיעור with asking a question. That's what I also realized. So what is this? What is this whole ענין? We saw yesterday that the way that you're supposed to conquer ארץ ישראל, the way that it was given over to us in פרשת מסעי is the way that we לכתחילה we're going to attempt to conquer ארץ ישראל. We have this פסוק that makes it a little bit hard for us. כל מקום אשר תדרוך כף רגלכם, which means that any place that you כאילו conquer, כביכול, also becomes part of ארץ ישראל. There was a whole part of ארץ ישראל that became part of ארץ ישראל before we actually got to ארץ ישראל. And what's that? It was בלי ברירה, סיחון ועוג. פרשת חוקת. It's 38 years of journeying in פרשת חוקת. And there were two nations, סיחון ועוג, that we conquered on our way, but that was עבר הירדן, that was the eastern side of the Jordan. And we had to conquer it. Why? We started בדרך שלום. אעברה נא בארצך לא נטה בשדה ובכרם לא נשתה מי באר, דרך המלך נלך עד אשר נעבור גבולך. We're not going to touch anything, we're not going to do anything until we pass we pass your borders. We're not going to do anything, but what? ולא אבה סיחון מלך ישראל עבור בגבולו. He said, \"No, no, no.\" They waged war, they lost, we won, we ate, and it was ours. Now that has הלכת ramifications. Which ones? Very interesting. There's a, כמעט all the מצוות that you'd have to do in ארץ ישראל fall under that category that would also be שייך on the other side of the עבר הירדן, the eastern side of the Jordan. Remember we were learning a few weeks ago that a person can לקוף את אשתו or a woman can לקוף את בעלה, that they could force the spouse to move to ארץ ישראל? So it doesn't work though if one's on the eastern side of the Jordan and says, \"I, we have to move to the western side of the Jordan,\" as ארץ ישראל, it doesn't work like that over there, because staying on the eastern side of the Jordan לענין living in Israel is the same thing. So what is the difference? It's two, well, two differences. One very big one. Says like this in the Gemara in, in מסכת כתובות, sorry, in יבמות. No, sorry, this is the, the מדרש רבה. ארץ כנען מקודשת יותר מעבר הירדן. ארץ כנען כשרה לבית שכינה ואין עבר הירדן כשר לבית שכינה. What's obviously what you can't do up there, you can't do on the side of the Jordan, the eastern side of the Jordan, you can't set up shop. You can't put a משכן there, and you can't build a בית המקדש. That's pretty clear. I משה רבנו, as much as he was had this שטיקל ארץ ישראל feeling of being on the other side of the Jordan, said, \"But that's not why we came to ארץ ישראל." We came to ארץ ישראל to build a מקום שכינה. We came to ארץ ישראל to build a מקום תורה. That's why the whole argument of we came to ארץ ישראל so we could have a national statehood is like saying you could do that on עבר הירדן המזרחי as well. Right? Not on עבר הירדן המערבי, not on the western side of the Jordan. Even when it comes to ביכורים, there's a מחלוקת in, in, in the משניות. תנא קמא, רבי שמעון, רבי יוסי. תנא קמא says you could bring ביכורים from עבר הירדן המזרחי. And then the others say no, it's not that, you have to be from ארץ כנען, ארץ זבת חלב ודבש is referring to ארץ כנען. We pasken like תנא קמא. You can even bring ביכורים from there. So you could be a very holy and frum Jew on the עבר הירדן המזרחי. Very holy, but you can't be in the מקום of a place where the שכינה is supposed to dwell. And that's what משה רבנו was longing, that was the whole ענין of משה רבנו. אעברא נא ואראה. I want to go, I want to fly. The מדרש says I want to fly like a bird. I want to experience it on any level that I can. Why? Because a יד’s whole direction in to, to come here, it's all about קדושה. It's all about קדושה. So another day that we get, we have this awesome מתנת חינם that's just beyond our wildest dreams, that we get to experience something משה רבנו could only dream for, it should be an oomph to our day. Elevate the קדושה, the שמחה of being here to the highest level. And that's regarding the eastern border and what's going on over there. When it gets to north and south, it gets even funkier. We'll, we'll have fun with that as well, בעזרת השם יתברך. Have a wonderful day.