The Book of Deuteronomy comprises the instruction manual for living in Israel. It is full of the blessings that G-d will shower upon us when we live according to His Torah in His Land, and moving descriptions of the physical beauty of the Land of Israel.
The entire theme of this Book is: Build up the Land of Israel! So precious is all life therein that we are forbidden even to chop down a fruit-bearing tree, even when besieging an enemy city (Deuteronomy 20:19).
And among all this is, Parashat Re’eh contains the mitzvah of the עִיר הַנִּדַּחַת, the city seduced into idolatry, which seems jarringly inappropriate:
“If, in one of your cities that Hashem your G-d gives you to dwell therein, you hear it said: ‘Base men have emerged from your midst, and they have seduced the denizens of their city saying: Let us go and worship other gods whom you have not known,’ then you will examine and investigate, and enquire thoroughly. And if…this abomination really has been perpetrated in your midst, then you will assuredly smite the denizens of that city by the sword; desolate it…by the sword. Gather all its loot together into its open square, then burn the city and all its loot in its entirety to Hashem your G-d; it will remain an unbuilt heap eternally - it must never be rebuilt. No part of the prohibited property may adhere to your hand, so that Hashemwill relent of His burning anger; and He will grant you mercy, and be merciful to you and multiply you, as He swore to your fathers” (Deuteronomy 13:13-19).
The command to destroy an entire Jewish city in Israel is so unexpected that it demands our special attention.
The exacting conditions that must be met before this can apply are scattered through Tractate Sanhedrin in the Talmud, and codified as halacha by the Rambam (Laws of Idol Worship, Chapter 4):
The seducers must be from the same city and the same tribe as the denizens of the city; they must be adult males; there must be two or more seducers; the denizens who are seduced must be at least 100, because fewer than 100 would be judged as individuals, not as a collective city.
This judgement can never be executed against any of the Cities of Refuge nor against Jerusalem, because the Cities of Refuge and Jerusalem were not populated by any one specific tribe, so the seducers could not be from the same tribe as the city. Neither could it ever be executed against border cities, to prevent hostile nations bordering on to Israel from taking over parts of the country.
If there is even a single Mezuzah in the city, it is not a “seduced city”.
The judgement can only be carried out at the command of the Great Sanhedrin of 71 judges.
The Sanhedrin has to investigate the charge thoroughly and verify it with conclusive proof. They then send two talmidei chachamim (Torah-scholars) to the city to warn them to repent.
If they repent, the threat is annulled.
If not, the Sanhedrin orders all Israel to come out and lay siege to this city, and when the city is conquered, many courts are set up and the denizens are all judged individually. If only a minority were seduced into idolatry, then they are executed as individuals; if the majority (or all) are found guilty, then and only then is the judgement of a seduced city executed.
Indeed, there are so many stringencies, that the Talmud (Sanhedrin 71a) says that “the ‘seduced city’ never happened and never will happen. Why, then, is it written? - So that you can study and receive a reward for studying” (although the Talmud continues by quoting Rabbi Yonatan as saying that “I once saw a ‘seduced city’ and sat on its ruins”).
So let us indeed “study and receive a reward for studying”.
Almost the whole of Deuteronomy, as noted above, instructs us to build up the Land of Israel - which is why destroying an entire city appears to be so incongruous.
But in fact, this is perfectly consistent with the general theme of building up the Land of Israel.
The purpose of the Nation of Israel living independently in the Land of Israel is not simply to be just one more independent nation-state with just one more flag and government.
Neither is Israel’s purpose to be the only democracy in the Middle East, or to be a global technological leader, or to synthesis water out of air. These are achievements to be justifiably proud of, but they are not Israel’s fundamental purpose in this world.
Its purpose, rather, is to create a unique Torah society, living a national life of holiness, dedicated to the one true G-d. This is the sole purpose for the Jewish nation to exist, this is the purpose of Jewish sovereignty in the Land. In simple terms - Kiddush Hashem, sanctification of the Name of G-d! Without this, the entire Jewish national enterprise is meaningless.
And so, if an entire Jewish city in the Land of Israel is seduced into idolatry, then it loses all reason to exist and is condemned to destruction.
Hence the exception noted above: if it is a border city it is spared - “lest the Gentiles hear of it, and destroy the Land of Israel” (Sanhedrin 16b, cited by the Rambam as halakha in practice in Laws of Idol Worship 4:4).
For the government of Israel to destroy a Jewish city in Israel on the border, displaying this destruction to the surrounding nations, is such a terrible chillul Hashem, desecration of the Name of G-d, that it can never achieve any positive results.
Jewish history shows with devastating clarity that for non-Jews, and even more for non-Jewish enemies, we are all the same. Right-wing or left-wing, religious or secular, loyal to G-d or out-and-out idolaters - our enemies are determined to exterminate us all.
The differences which to us loom so important, to them are non-existent.
This is why destroying any city on the border of Israel, even though it be thoroughly infested with idolatry, will inevitably be disastrous. Though we will see Jews eradicating idolatry, that’s not what our surrounding enemies will see; they’ll see a Jewish city in Israel being destroyed.
And the second reason: destroying cities on or near the border of Israel inevitably makes the entire country more vulnerable.
20 years ago, the Government saw fit to eradicate all Jewish presence in Gaza. And a little under two years ago, we all saw the horrific and inevitable consequences.
Our genocidal enemies didn’t (and don’t) distinguish between the “settlers” of Gaza and the Kibbutzniks of Be’eri, K’far Azza, and Nir Oz, who they called "settlers" as well. They massacred and tortured all without distinction.
Our Parashah opens with the command to “utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations whom you are inheriting worshipped their gods… Smash their altars, break their pillars, burn their Asherah-idol trees with fire, and cut down their graven images, and obliterate their names from that place” (Deuteronomy 12:2-3).
And then, the next verse gives a peculiar admonition: “You shall not do this to Hashemyour G-d”.
Why does the Torah need to command this? Would any Jew ever destroy the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, burn synagogues, or obliterate the name of Israel and G-d from any city in Israel?
The commentators grapple with this puzzling admonition, and give various explanations of what exactly this verse means: that it is forbidden to erase the written name of Hashem (Ramban and Targum Yonatan ad loc.; Talmud, Makkot 22a); that it is forbidden to offer sacrifices to Hashem in any place other than the Holy Temple (Rashi, Rashbam, Ibn Ezra, Ramban); that it is forbidden to commit any sins which would cause the Holy Temple to be destroyed (Sifrei 61, Rashi).
Only in our generation have we come to see how necessary the simple, literal meaning is: Don’t destroy synagogues in Israel, don’t raze Jewish cities in Israel, don’t bulldoze Jewish houses into the sand - particularly in border cities, “lest the Gentiles hear of it, and destroy the Land of Israel”.
Ever since the yearly cycle of Torah readings was standardized towards the end of the Second Temple era, and the fixed calendar as calculated by Hillel II (Hillel ben Yehudah, Nasi or head of the Sanhedrin) was adopted in 4119 (359 C.E.), Parashat Re’eh always falls on the last Shabbat of Av, the Shabbat immediately preceding Ellul.
The month of Av begins as a time of mourning for lost Holy Temple and lost independence in the Land of Israel; it concludes by taking us into the month of Ellul, the beginning of the period of repentance.
Two major events in Jewish history, intimately connected with repentance and the Holy Temple, occurred around this time, on the 29th of Av and the 1st of Ellul:
On the 29th of Av 2448 (1312 B.C.E.), four and a half months after the Exodus, 42 days after the sin of the golden calf, Moshe ascended Mount Sinai to receive the second set of the Tablets of Stone which replaced those he had smashed on the 17th of Tammuz. The Talmud (Ta’anit 29a) and the Midrash (Seder Olam chapters 5-6) derive this date directly from the Torah:
The Children of Israel reached the Sinai Desert on the first of Sivan (Exodus 19:1); for either one or two days they were sanctified (v. 10), then followed a three-day period (vs. 11-16) after which G-d gave them the Ten Commandments on either the 6th or 7th of Sivan.
That day Moshe ascended Mount Sinai, and remained there forty days (Exodus 24:18), returning to the Israelite camp on the 17th of Tammuz, the day of the sin of the golden calf, and smashed the two Tablets of Stone that day (Chapter 32).
The next day, 18th Tammuz, he re-ascended Mount Sinai, and stayed there for another 40-day period (Deuteronomy 9:25) pleading for mercy for Israel, and returned to the Israelite camp on the 28th of Av.
The next day, 29th of Av, he ascended Mount Sinai for the third time (Exodus 34:4), remained up there for another 40 days (Deuteronomy 10:10), and finally returned to the Israelite camp with G-d’s message of forgiveness on the 10th of Tishrei.
So the 29th of Av 2448 was the day on which Moshe ascended Mount Sinai to expiate the sin of the golden calf.
960 years and two days later, on the 1st of Ellul 3408 (352 B.C.E.), King Daryavesh (Darius) II of Persia granted the Jews of Israel permission to continue rebuilding the Holy Temple in Jerusalem (Haggai 1:1-2).
Construction had begun some eighteen years previously, when Koresh (Cyrus), king of Persia, had proclaimed the Jews’ right to return to Israel and begin rebuilding their Holy Temple (Ezra 1:1-3, 2 Chronicles 36:23); in the month of Tishrei the partially-constructed Holy Temple began functioning with sacrifices being offered on the Altar (Ezra 3:1-6).
However, two years later Achashverosh (Ahasuerus) became king of Persia, and ordered a building freeze on the Temple Mount, which remained in force until he died and Daryavesh succeeded him (ibid. 4:6-24).
And on 1st Ellul 3408, G-d inspired King Daryavesh II to allow the Jews to continue rebuilding the Holy Temple.
Ellul is the month when we, as a nation, begin to draw ever closer to G-d.
We now live in a period of history in which we are beginning - just beginning - to atone nationally for the heinous sin of the “Disengagement” of 20 years ago. And as Shabbat Parashat Re’eh ends, Rosh Chodesh Ellul will begin - the time of year when we turn our thoughts to atonement.
And when we return to all parts of the good Land that G-d has promised us, when we build a Torah-nation dedicated to Him - then, as the Prophet guaranteed us in the final words of this week’s Haftarah, “You will call even to a nation that you did not previously know, and a nation that did not previously know you will run towards you, for the sake of Hashem you G-d, the Holy One of Israel - because He will have glorified you!” (Isaiah 55:5).