Adapted from an essay by Rav Yosef Carmel, translated by Hillel Fendel
The connection between this week's Haftarah reading (from the Books of the Prophets) and the Torah portion of Hukat is very clear. In both of them we read how the Emorite king, Sichon, refused to allow Israel to pass through his land on our way to the Promised Land – paving the way for Israel to defeat him in battle. However, in the Torah the story is told in real-time, while in the Haftarah, from the Book of Judges, Yiftach simply recounts the story to the king of the Amonites. He does so in response to the latter's bellicose accusation that Israel took Amonite land. With great national confidence, Yiftach says [partially paraphrased]:
"Israel did not take the land of Moav or the land of Ammon. When Israel came up from Egypt, through the wilderness up to the Red Sea, they sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Let me pass through your land.' But the king of Edom did not listen, and neither did the king of Moav listen, though Israel sent him messengers as well. And so Israel went through the desert, around the land of Edom and the land of Moav, and did not enter the land of Moav.
"Israel then sent messengers to Sichon, king of the Emorites, asking, 'Please let us pass through your land up on our way to our home.' But Sichon did not allow Israel to pass through his border, and instead, he gathered his army and fought with Israel. But the God of Israel delivered Sichon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and Israel took over the entire land of the Emorites.
"And now [continued Yiftach in his speech to King Sichon], the God of Israel has driven out the Amorites from before His people Israel, and you want to possess it? All that given us by our God – we shall possess. I have not sinned against you, while you unjustly fight against me; may the Lord Judge decide this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon." (Judges 11)
Let us try to illuminate this story from another angle. We'll begin with a question: Why did Yiftach have to bring up the story of Edom in his speech? What does the lack of war with Edom have to do with the war with Sichon?
And another point: There were several battles around this time, as well as the need to avoid Edom and take a circuitous route into the Land of Israel. The Torah uses an interesting phrase to describe the difficult mental/psychological state in which Israel found itself – or, which Israel allowed itself to deteriorate into: "… and the soul of the nation was shortened along the way" (Numbers 21,4) – they became discouraged.
Just before Yiftach begins his speech, a similar phrase is used - but this time it refers to G-d! Israel was crying out to G-d for deliverance, and had shelved their idol-worship, and "His soul was grieved because of Israel's toil" (Judges 10,16). In both cases the same verb is used: vatiktzar.
What was the background? The Book of Judges, in the second part of Chapter 10, tells us: After the 22-year term of Yair the Giladite as Judge over Israel, the Israelites "again did evil in the eyes of G-d, worshiping the Be'alim and Ashtarot… G-d was angered at Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites, and they oppressed them for 18 years… And Israel cried out to G-d and said, 'We have sinned unto You' … and they removed their false gods and worshiped G-d."
It would seem that this is a happy ending, and yet still we see that G-d was aggrieved over them: Vatiktzar nafsho. Why?
The next thing that happens that is that the Ammonites gathered for war against Israel – who had no leader! "The nation - the leaders of Gil'ad – took counsel and said, 'Who will lead us and make war against the Ammonites?'"
And so Yiftach the Giladite, the son of a harlot, was chosen – a seemingly simple man whom our Sages described as nothing more than a branch broken off from a sycamore tree. Why could no one better be found? After all, the nation had already repented!
Let us answer these questions with one principle: When individuals do teshuva (repentance), they leave their evil ways and return to G-d and love of Torah and mitzvot. But when the nation does teshuva, it means also the return to the Land of Israel!
HaRav Kook, in his famous work Orot HaTeshuva, makes it clear that these two parts of teshuva cannot be separated. Along the way to the completely ideal state, apparently even G-d-fearing people require a reminder, given by those who are further than they are from Torah, of the importance of cleaving to the Land of Israel. The soul of the nation in the desert is "short" (from the same root as vatiktzar), because the route to the Land had become too long for them, and they felt that the price they had to pay to enter the Land was too high.
A similar thing occurred during the period of the Judges. Part of the nation despaired of the Land – even though they were already living there! – because the ongoing struggle for it appeared to be too long and too costly. And the one who was chosen to teach them that we must not give up just because the journey seems too hard, and that "the Land of Israel is acquired via suffering" (Talmud, Tr. B'rachot), and that the war can and must be waged, was none other than Yiftach and his band of vagabonds.
There are several parallels to our generations, of course – not least of which is that 120 years ago, our G-d-fearing leaders needed an assimilated journalist named Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl to remind them that teshuva is not complete without a return to the Land of Israel.
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