Parasha Thoughts
By Rabbi Yosef Shemtov
Moshe Rabbenu continues his talk to Bnei Israel in this week’s Torah portion. He tells Bnei Israel that they should not be afraid of their enemies and they should remember what Hashem did to Egypt and Pharaoh, and how Bnei Israel were saved by all those miracles. Moshe assured them that Hashem will send special bees that will attack the enemies and Bnei Israel will win the war.
However, Moshe told Bnei Israel they would not be able to defeat the enemies in one war, rather they needed to conquer the land little by little, lest the wild animals be increased within them. This is very hard to understand. If Hashem can do any miracle, surely he can make sure wild animals don’t enter the cities while Bnei Israel are busy conquering land after land.
One of the commentaries suggests that the Torah is not talking about wild animals entering the cities, rather it means lest the animal’s wild nature increases within each of the soldiers. When Bnei Israel keeps on fighting and killing, they will become like animals. Therefore, after they conquered each part of the land, they needed to recharge their batteries with Torah before overtaking additional land.
The Torah is teaching us that life without Torah learning takes a person away from spirituality and brings out a person’s animalistic instinct. Therefore we always should charge our batteries with Torah.