Israel?s war against the King of Arad differed from other wars in its causes, in the method of warfare employed, in its results and in the lessons learned.



Regarding its causes, we find, ?When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that the Israelites were traveling along the Atharim Highway, he attacked them.? (Numbers 21:1) What did he hear? He heard that Aaron had died and the clouds of glory had dispersed, and that permission had been granted to fight Israel. (Rosh Hashanah 3a) The thought that Israel might be weak due to the death of Aaron the Priest, the spiritual leader who both loved and was beloved, led them to attack us in the way a predatory beast might attack a wounded animal, only because it had been weakened.



As far as their methods, it is said that these Canaanites were really Amalekites; only they had switched their language to Canaanite. (Rashi) As we know, the Amalekites hate the Jews wherever they may be, in or outside the Land, just like Haman and the German oppressor - may his name be blotted out - who murdered six million just for being Jews. By contrast, the Canaanites fought Israel due to their fear that the Jews would conquer Eretz Yisrael - they viewed the Jews as ?conquerors.?



The war?s results were negligible. It says, ?The Canaanite king of Arad took some captives [of Israel].? (Numbers 21:1) As Rashi explains, this refers to a single Canaanite slave girl captured by the King of Arad.



What followed was this: ?The Israelites made a vow to G-d, saying, ?If You give this nation into our hand, we will render their cities taboo?? G-d allowed them to defeat the Canaanites. The Israelites declared them and their cities taboo.? (verses 22-3)



Today as well, our enemies occasionally attack us, thinking that our resolve has weakened. They do their utmost to create divisiveness within Israel between the Right and the Left, thinking that they will thereby succeed in their plot to weaken us and to banish us from the land of our life?s blood - it will never be.



Moreover, those who would rob us of our land claim that we have conquered it from them and they use this ?Canaanite? argument as their excuse to fight us. Truth be told, however, they really have Amalekite mentalities. Their hatred of Jews is the real reason for their war against the Jewish State. Due to the brainwashing of our enemies and our media, the falsehood that we are ?occupiers? has unfortunately seeped down into the minds of some of our nation and our leaders. If we but remove the Arabs? ?Canaanite? masks, we will see their Amalekite persona lying beneath.



In the war against Arad, the Jewish People proved to themselves the commitment they felt for one another. Even if only one Canaanite slave girl was taken captive by Arad, all of Israel still joined together as one man with one heart and fought devotedly to save her. They understood that when a Jew is harmed or taken captive, that is not the private affair of that Jew or of his family. Rather, it represents a blow to the whole nation. If a slave girl is taken captive, it is as though all of us together have been taken captive. Therefore, they fought Arad to the death.



Today, just as then, we have to inform the dictators of Lebanon and Syria who are holding our captives: ?Be aware that you are harming the whole Jewish People and we shall not remain silent nor desist from working to free them by all means available.? We likewise have to inform American President Bush: ?Be aware of this: Pollard is a Jew in captivity, and as long as America keeps him imprisoned, you are harming the State of Israel and the whole Jewish People. We know that you are working to help the State of Israel and you want it to endure, and we are grateful to you for that, yet as long as Pollard remains in prison, that is a stain on the whole American nation and it smacks of anti-Semitism. We shall not desist from working towards his freedom, just as Israel acted to free the slave girl from the hands of Arad.?

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Rabbi Dov Begon is founder and head of Machon Meir institutions.



Machon Meir is an Israeli educational institution and Hesder yeshiva dedicated to Jewish learning BeAhava UveEmunah (with Love and in Faith), in the spirit of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, the late Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel. Students at Machon Meir, Israelis and new immigrants, come from religious and non-religious backgrounds, and learn in Hebrew, English or Russian. The Machon can be contacted through its website, http://www.machonmeir.org.il.