Hot answers tagged joshua--book-of
10
Rashi understands it to be referring specifically to the Book of Deuteronomy.
Metzodot David understands that it refers to the Law mentioned in the previous verse which the Malbim explicitly states refers to the entire Pentateuch. The Targum also implies that and I think it is the most straightforward read of the verses.
8
Even if as the others noted the actual book referred to is Deuteronomy or even all five books of the Pentateuch, the Talmud (Menachot 99B) understands the reference to refer at least symbolically to everything which is considered Torah.
7
Evidence for an oral torah:
In addition to what Hacham Gabriel said, the written torah itself provides evidence that it is incomplete, e.g. in D'varim 12:21 God tells Moshe to slaughter animals "as I have shown you", but nowhere in the written torah is that discussed. Thus, there must have been some supplementary instruction that Moshe received from God on ...
7
Joshua tought the oral law as well. Just because it doesn't specify the MILLIONS of Halachot it doesn't mean he didn't teach them.
The Torah is the basic outline for the commandments, but without the Oral Torah we are clueless. Like it says "don Tefilin." What are Tefilin? What shape? What color? How does it stay on my head?
He didn't just say "put ...
7
The Gemara at Megillah 14b says that she converted, married Joshua, and that eight prophets who were also kohanim descended from her: Neriyah, Baruch, Serayah, Machsiyah, Yirmeyahu, Chilkiyah, Chanma'el and Shalom. According to the Gemara, Rachav and Joshua had no sons, but they did have daughters.
Given that history alone, the stain of her ...
6
There is a difference between Moshe's intention in sending spies and Yehoshua's intention.
Moshe's intention was to persuade the people and "boost their confidence" so that they should be willing and ready to enter the land without complaint. He wanted spies that would scope the land and its inhabitants and return to tell the people, who would listen to and ...
6
It looks like a lot of them are common nouns that became names of cities. For example, העי literally means "the ruins"; הגדרה, "the fence"; החרמה, "the destruction"; and so forth. Probably each of them was named for some prominent local feature or historical event.
So perhaps indeed any such place became known with the prefixed ה (so as to distinguish, for ...
6
The statement "all the words of the Law" is modified by the next phrase "the blessing and the curse". The simple meaning of the verses is that Joshua explained benefits of keeping the law and vice versa. Not necessarily all commandments.
There are interpretations of the verse that all commandments were taught, but your question is based on a literal ...
6
The division of the land included, among other steps:
sending out commissioners to survey it (Josh. 18:4ff)
...and to evaluate the worth of the individual regions and plots of land, to make sure that the division would be equitable (Rashi to Num. 26:54)
designating which roads would be private vs. public, depending on their grade (Eruvin 22b)
assigning a ...
4
The Gemora (Sanhedrin 41a) writes (cited partially by Rashi to Yehoshua 6:10) :
ויאמר ה' אל יהושע קום לך . . אתה גרמת להם והיינו דקאמר ליה בעי ועשית לעי ולמלכה כאשר עשית ליריחו ולמלכה וגו'
And Hashem said to Yehoshua, "Get up." . . Hashem said to him, You have brought [guilt] upon them. For that reason He said to him with reference to Ai: "And you ...
4
It is not inconsistent to say that Joshua read only the written Torah yet read every word that was commanded (in the written Torah). It's like a student who gets a C on a test for not including in the answers very basic information that was expected, and then complains to his professor, "But I memorized the textbook that you yourself wrote, and I wrote down ...
4
Perhaps indeed for this reason, Rashbam (13:2) understands the phrase כל נשיא בהם to mean simply "from among those who volunteer (נשא אותם לבם) for this mission." Such people would, of course, have been strong and fearless types, but it is quite possible that they were unknowns up to this point.
Following the usual explanation, that they were indeed ...
3
To judge by Tevuos Haaretz's identifications of these cities (Hebrew text here, English translation here), it looks like the division is between the eastern and western areas of the territory. This also seems to be borne out by the map on this page at Wikiyeshiva, and at the bottom of the page they say so explicitly.
3
Perhaps he holds she was both: Abarbanel does, suggesting that female foodmongers were prostitutes or vice versa (he makes both suggestions). A reason to explain 2:1 as meaning "foodmonger" is, perhaps, that it's best to assume the pasuk is speaking of something clean. But this is all pure conjecture.
3
According to Talmud (Yevamot 71-72) the reason circumcision was not practiced in the desert is:
Because of the hardships of the way - a 40 year journey is no joke. Since is would have been dangerous for someone right after circumcision to get on the road, and they had no choice but to be on the road, they waited until the trek was over.
Because there was ...
2
As far as conquest, see Exodus 23:29–30 (JPS translation):
I will not drive them [=the inhabitants] out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
I guess conquest took ...
2
Exodus 6:25 seems to speak of the birth of Pinchas before the Exodus.
In terms of entering the land of Israel, the Ohr haChaim writes that the decree of death extended from people who were age 20-60, not the ones younger and not the ones older. So Pinchas may have been a young lad at the time of the spies, and the decree would not have extended to him.
2
Presumably, Rachav repented before she converted. Perhaps this is supported by the Sifrei (on Parshas D'varim 1:24, § 22), which states that Rachav possessed ruach hakodesh at the time of the spies' visit to her home. Sincere repentance can effect major improvements in one's spiritual state in a very short period of time (Rambam, Hil. Teshuvah 7:7).
...
2
There is a famous mahlokes in Shelah by the Maafilim who tried to defy the decree on the generation of the Midbar to go in to Eretz Canaan. It says that the Canaani crushed them "ad HaHarmah". Most say Harma was the name of the place and others say it means "until the state of destruction." It is clear that either opinion holds that the heh is a prefix and ...
2
The Maskil LeDavid on Bereshit 8:22 says that even though the sun did not rise or set Noach had signs to recognize and distinguish between day and night, since he needed to know this for many reasons. Also, not all the animals ate at the same time, and Noach needed to know when to feed the animals.
According to this we can say that the dates were marked by ...
2
Ralbag explains that the reason for the silence was so the inhabitants not hear them. Thus, presumably, they could speak quietly, and the "וְלֹא יֵצֵא מִפִּיכֶם דָּבָר" was overly emphatic in order to make sure they didn't speak loudly. (Note that that command to be quiet was not noted as having been fulfilled, and I have no reason to think that the entire ...
2
This can seem like a pretty significant proof-text but there are several issues that need to be pointed out.
No one would suggest that the Torah transcribed every word of Moshe spoke. People, as we know from the explicit text, consulted Moshe on a variety of issues for specific guidance. This responsibility was diffused to the Sanhedrin. Neither are ...
1
I am not sure there is a connection... In my bible the verse from Samuel is not written that way while the verse from Joshua still is:
Since this is not the Torah, less restrictions apply and you may see several forms of alignments and justifications of the same text.
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
