Commento su Giosuè 8:36

Take for yourselves as booty. You shall no longer consecrate the spoils.

Until we have drawn them. הַתִּיקֵנוּ is an expression of תִּיק, a pocket, i.e., until we have drawn them from the pocket of the city.¹The city provided them with protection, as a pocket protects its contents. Defaurer in old french. We may also explain it as an expression of נְתִּיקָה, drawing out similar to ‘Draw them out like sheep to the slaughter.’²Yirmiahu 12:3.

To the west of Ai. Ai was east of Beis-eil and Beis-eil was west of Ai.

And Yehoshua rested—in the midst of the people. To be ready early in the morning.

And he went up. He fulfilled that which God had said to him, “If he goes at their head, they will cross, and if not, they will not cross.”

He took about five thousand men. One ambush contingent following the other each approaching nearer to the city than its fellow.⁴The question is, what was the purpose of this second ambush party? Some suggest that these five thousand men were not to enter the city. Their task was to attack the army of Ai from behind, as they were pursuing the main army of Bnei Yisroel. When Yehoshua and his army would turn and attack, the army of Ai would be caught between them.

The people positioned. This positioning expresses readiness to wage war near the [city] wall. This is similar to what is said regarding Ben-Hadad, in I Melachim 20:12, (who said to his servants:) “Position yourselves against the city and they positioned themselves.”

And their ambush party their ambushers this word עַקֵבוֹ is similar to וַיעֲקְבֵנִי.⁵Bereishis 27:36. Eisov said regarding Yaakov, וַיַעְקְבֵנִי זֶה פַּעֲמַיִם “He has deceived me twice.” An ambush implies cunning and trickery.

That night, Yehoshua walked through the valley Our Sages have said that he lodged in the depth of the law.⁶Our Sages interpreted the word עֵמֶק as an expression of depth, and they say he spent the night studying Torah. After all the preparations were made and orders given, Yehoshua had time to return to the study of Torah, which is the real protection in time of crisis. He remembered the rebuke of the angel on the night before the fall of Yericho.

At the appointed time. At the time of day they had astrologically predicted previously, saying “at that time we will go out,” for they were sorcerers and diviners.

Pretended to be stricken. This is an expression of נֶגַע, plague, or beating. They gave the appearance of being beaten before them.

Stretch out the spear. This was the signal to the ambush party.⁷This signal was for the second, smaller ambush party of 5000 men. The 30,000 men were too far away to see Yehoshua give the signal to attack. The second troop was in a closer position and would be able to see his signal. They were to leave the ambush when they saw the spear stretched out toward the city. כִּידוֹן is espida, a sword.

יָדַיִם hands, here refers to strength.

The people who fled to the desert. The Bnei Yisroel who had fled to the desert, as stated above (v.15) turned back to battle the pursuers.

And the others came out of the city. The “others” refers to the ambush party that had set fire to the city.

Then [Yehoshua] built. This parasha is not in chronoligical order, [for Yehoshua built the altar] on the day they crossed the Jordan river.⁸Since the following verse states that he built the altar as Moshe had commanded them, we must conclude that this verse describes events that occured before the conquest of Yericho.

And there he wrote on the stones.⁹There are different opinions as to what Yehoshua wrote on the stones. Some say that he wrote only Seifer Devorim which is itself the repetition of the Torah, as Moshe taught the Bnei Yisroel in the last year of the forty years in the wilderness—Seifer Devorim is referred to as מִשְׁנֵה תּוֹרָה, which means the repetition or copy of the Torah, which are the exact words used in this verse. Others say that he only wrote the Ten Commandments as they are recorded in Seifer Devorim (5:6-18). Most commentators maintain that Yehoshua wrote the entire Torah from beginning to end, and that it was a literal copy of the Torah. There are the same stones mentioned above.(4:20) After the altar was built, they scraped off the whitewash¹⁰There are different opinions concerning how it was written. According to Rabbi Yehudah it written directly on the stones, and later whitewashed as the verse states, “you are to write on them—and coat them with whitewash.” (Devorim 27:3,4.) Rabbi Shimon said that if they were whitewashed on top of the writing no one would be able to read it, which would defeat the purpose of the commandment. According to him the whitewash was put on first, to make the stones easier to write on and easier to read. (See Maseches Sotah 35). and brought them to Gilgal.¹¹See Devorim 27:2 and Rashi’s comments there.

To bless the people of Yisroel first. To pronounce the blessings before the curses,¹²When all the tribes were assembled (as described in Devorim 27:12,13,) the Levi’im began to recite the blessings and the curses. Although the Torah mentions only the curses, each curse was actually preceded by a corresponding blessing. (See Rashi to Devorim 27:12). “Blessed is the man who will not make a statue or a molten image.”