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The Book of Numbers- ‫ספר במדבר‬

Torah portion Mas'ey

Torah portion Mas'ey tells about the journeys of the Children of Israel in the
desert.

Before the entrance into the land of Israel Moshe says:

"You shall possess the land and dwell therein, for to you I have given
the land to possess it." (33:53)

Rashi explains: "You shall possess the land" – this is the command of
God, "and you shall dwell therein" – this is the promised result.

The question is: why is it necessary to possess the land and to drive out the
inhabitants that lived there before the Children of Israel entered?

The next verse explains this:

"But if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before
you, then those that you let remain of them shall be as thorns in your
eyes and as pricks in your sides, and they shall harass you upon the land
where you dwell." (33:55)

In this verse there are two special words: thorns and pricks.
Our Sages says that these are two different types of thornbushes that hint to two
types of enemies of Israel.

1. Enemies that do not conceal their hatred toward the nation of Israel – they
are like thorns that stab openly.

2. But there are more dangerous enemies. These are enemies that pretend that
they love the nation of Israel, but secretly they aspire to destroy the nation
of Israel. They are like pricks that grow in the sides of the road and which
you do not see on the way…

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