The Weekly Shtikle - Devarim

    Before the war with Sichon, HaShem tells Moshe (2:25) "Today I will begin to instill fear and awe of you upon the nations under the heavens." There was a little point that bothered me slightly about this pasuk. It seems that this war with Sichon, specifically the convincing victory on the part of B'nei Yisroel, sparked a world-wide fear of B'nei Yisroel. This also implies, however, that this fear did not exist beforehand.

 

    This seems slightly incongruous with a pasuk in Yehoshua. When the two spies end up at Rachav's house, she tells them (Yehoshua 2:10-11) "For we have heard how HaShem dried up the waters of Yam Suf before you when you came out of Mitzrayim, and what you did to the two kings of the Emori, that were on the far side of the Yardein, Sichon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted..." It seems that the world- wide fear began from the splitting of Yam Suf. (Even if one were to suggest that all three things contributed to the heart-melting but the splitting of the sea itself did not do it, the pesukim still do not match up for the pasuk in our parsha implies that the victory over Sichon accomplished it while the pasuk in Yehoshua implies that the victory over Og was essential as well.) How are we to reconcile these two pesukim?

 

Have a good Shabbos and an easy and meaningful fast and may we merit to see the geulah bimheira bekarov!

Eliezer Bulka
EzBulka@hotmail.com
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