Arvei Nachal Each part of Torah maintains a particular piece of land in Eretz Yisroel

We find throughout the Book of Yehoshua that B'nai Yisroel captured Eretz Yisroel with relative ease. Their first conquest was that of Yericho, and because of the miraculous way in which the city fell to them, it was understood that they would not take of the spoils. They, the people, were not the real victors, but rather Hashem was. It is thus perplexing that we find (Yehoshua 15:16) Kalev making the following declaration, "Whoever will conquer D'vir, which was formerly known as Qiryat Sefer, I will give my daughter Achsha as a wife". We are then told that Osneal ben Knaz conquers it and is given Achsha as a wife. Why was this particular section of the land more difficult to conquer? The Book of Yehoshua does not inform us, but the Gemara (Temurah 16a) gives us a significant clue.

The above cited Gemara teaches that when Moshe died, 300 halachos were forgotten by the people. Osneal restored them using his understanding and erudition of the oral law. The text that the Gemara uses to prove that he restored these laws is the verse from Yehoshua that teaches that us that he conquered Qiryat Sefer. What might be the connection between these two subjects?

Harav Dovid Shlomo Eibshitz z"l, the author of the L'vush on Yoreh Deah and Orach Chaim, writes a most fascinating idea in his sefer Arvei Nachal ( Parshas Shelach, Drush 2). The reason that the Jewish nation conquered Eretz Yisroel with relative ease is because the Torah is the blueprint of the world.

Each part of Torah maintains a particular piece of land in Eretz Yisroel. Thus it is understandable that their primary preparation for the conquest of the land was not a military academy. Rather their training at Har Sinai, where their acceptance of Torah and their commitment to its perpetuation enabled them to conquer the land. When Moshe died and they forgot 300 Torah laws, they were lacking the spiritual munitions to conquer D'vir. Osneal conquered not only with the sword, but more importantly with the restoration of the sefer, by his Torah, as alluded to in the name Qiryat Sefer.

From Rabbi Benjamin Yudin
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