Shabbat Parashat Chukat 5783

Parashat Hashavua: The First Ambassadress

Yiftach, the hero of our haftara, was a Giladi, in two ways. His father’s name was Gilad (Shoftim 11:1), and the p’sukim indicate that he was born in the Gilad region.

Yiftach felt a strong connection to Eretz Yisrael, as we see from the speech about Israel’s right to the Land, which he sent to the king of Ammon (ibid. 12-28). In that way, he was a partner of the daughters of Tzlofchad, who had special affection for the Land (see Bamidbar 27). These important women were also descendants of Gilad (ibid. 27:1).

The ones who received, as their tribal land, the region of the Gilad, east of the Jordan, were mainly part of the Tribe of Menashe, specifically the families of Menashe’s son Machir (ibid. 32:40). However, we can prove that prominent families from Yehuda also had their estate there. In Divrei Hayamim (I, 2:21-23), the p’sukim recall that Chetzron married Machir’s daughter. Among their grandchildren was Yair, who had twenty-three cities in the Land of Gilad.

Chetzron has a prominent place in King David’s genealogy. Chetzron who was the son of Yehuda’s son Peretz (the second mentioned in Ruth, ch. 4). Chetzron and Machir had the status of princes in Bnei Yisrael’s early days in Egypt. The marriage between their children greatly strengthened the social connections between the two families/tribes. In turn, the Jewish inhabitants of the Gilad region had political connections to the Aramian tribes and kingdoms of the general region (the southern Golan Heights), as the pasuk says about Yair’s land, that it was up to the boundary of the land of Geshur and Maacha (Devarim 3:14).

This explains another wonder. David’s son Avshalom was born when David ruled over only the Tribe of Yehuda in Chevron. His mother was Maacha, daughter of the King of Geshur (Shmuel II, 3:3).  How did David, as only a local leader in distant Judea, take an Aramite princess as a wife? The gemara (Sanhedrin 21a) has a difficult explanation that we may discuss at some other time, but we suggest the following.

During his seven years in Chevron, David built diplomatic connections for the long term, which were then possible only with small tribe-nations like Geshur, which was near the Kinneret. Usually a king can marry the daughter of a king only if the former is stronger than the latter (see Tzofnat Yeshayahu p. 13). Therefore, it is not surprising that when Yoav fought on behalf of David against Ammon (Shmuel II, 10:8), while the tribe/kingdom of Maacha joined up with the Aramites against David, Geshur was loyal to David. So, we posit, with the help of his Judean cousins in Gilad, the first embassy of a Jewish state was opened in the Gilad-Geshur region. The first ambassadress was David’s wife, Maacha daughter of Talmai, King of Geshur.

Upon becoming king of all of Israel, in Yerushalayim, David continued building alliances with neighboring nations, which helped strengthen his kingdom and in the building the Beit Hamikdash (see story of Chiram of Tzor, Shmuel II, 5). Alliances are a part of the necessity of every independent nation. On the other hand, from a spiritual perspective, this is very dangerous, as we learn from Avshalom himself, son of the ambassadress, who was a ben sorer u’moreh who rebelled against his father.

We pray that the love of Eretz Yisrael will find proper expression with the help of men and women who follow the lead of the daughters of Tzlofchad more than that of Yiftach Hagiladi.

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