Israel and Humanity - The borders of Israel

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II.

The borders of Israel

We should mention here a fact in itself rather obscure, but appears to be related to the subject we are now, is that the entire law should be written on stones exposed to the sight of everyone. We see that in Deuteronomy, the order is given to the Hebrews to draw large stones across the Jordan, to coat them with lime and to burn "all the words of the Act." These stones should be erected on Mount Ebal and beside them, he was ordered Israel to raise an altar and to offer the Lord burnt offerings and sacrifices of thanksgiving. The sacred text says that the words of the Act should be written clearly .

It is in this passage that a single prescription, but the Talmudic tradition in the Talmud. According to R. Jehouda, Hebrews, after writing the Act on the stones, they would plaster of lime. And as R. Simon himself rightly observes that in this case, the Gentiles of that time would have been unable to learn the law, he replied: "God gave them extra intelligence and sent the scribes ( notarim ) to detach the layer of lime and copied the Act and therefore the sentence of condemnation was pronounced against them, because they should have learned, being able to do, and they have not learned. " R. Simon argues instead that the writing was drawn on the coating itself and that all entries below this verse was: "That you will not be induced to follow the abominations of the Gentiles" of which the Talmud derives the conclusion that if the heathen were converted, they would be accepted in the society of Israel.

The Talmudic doctors tell us again that, like the sound of the voice of God on Mount Sinai reverberated into seventy different languages, referring to the total number of nations of the earth according to the Rabbis, the Law was written on stone in many foreign languages.

We wondered too, and this issue is clearly more important, what was written on these stones for the opinion of all, to bring to the attention of all peoples, the Jewish law. The text tells the truth: "all the words of this law," but what does that Moses meant by that? By the time he made this requirement, the entire book of the law was there already? Was only one then in the presence of one of those rolls that in the opinion of some doctors , served as materials for writing the Pentateuch, or, if it is really the entire statute, was it in its complete form or simply abbreviated as has been suggested , it should be written? It also said that the ordinance in question related only to Deuteronomy, or because the book form, independently, a complete whole in the collection of writings mosaics, either because it is in this book that the precept is mentioned , or because a portion of Joshua seems to refer in particular: "And here it is said, stones twice the Law that Moses had written in the presence of ". Do not forget that in any case the text mosaic care to order that the stones are large and the Talmud relates the story eyewitness saying they were each weighing forty sea

Ibn Ezra mentions the opinion of R. Saadia reducing the registration for a list of formulas each of which summarizes a precept of the Law. What do we think, for us, not improbable, that the order of Moses for the blessings and curses contained in <super> XXVII th </super> chapter of Deuteronomy. We are inclined to think so given that the curse on Mount Ebal seemed to speak not only to Israel but to the Gentiles and this is indeed the only way to explain why, for a singular exception of all the precepts of the Act are those listed in this curse have only been selected to be a public proclamation. The circumstances under which this proclamation was held also come to support this conjecture. At the beginning of the conquest of Palestine, at the very entrance of this country, because Gerizim and Ebal are located near the eastern border. There, between two towering mountains, this sounds Amen solemnly pronounced by all Israel and content all moral and rational while the publication does little to doubt that it was especially the heathen people and residents of Palestine in particular. It is obvious that the threat of hidden transgressions, as might naturally expect to meet with the defeated and cursed fornications are precisely those said to have been so common among the ancient possessors of the land that God had ordained for this reason their final expulsion. It should be pointed out certain provisions which tend, it seems, to reassure the losers on the fairness with which the new rulers deem the peaceful inhabitants and subject to Noachism, either as regards life and property Individual or in the trial that the gher or proselytizing would have to argue before the court Around Israelite . The imprecation against those who wander blindly into the path is found mainly, if, as seems reasonable to suppose, the name of blind applies to anyone seeking information on way to go in a country unknown to him.

Assuming the hypothesis that we propose, we explained why the use of the Act write on stones exposed to the sight of all Israel did not continue. This was achieved among the Canaanite tribes a specific purpose and for it to comply with their customs. It is known that they had used to burn their laws on stone columns. It was the same in Egypt where we find the Rosetta Stone contains three inscriptions in three languages and as many records. Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, wanting to impart wisdom into the countryside, was also built on all roads where the headstones read the precepts of this kind: "Walking the path of justice, do not deceive your friend" . In the oral laws ( hooked ) which, says Ricoeur, were taught in the mysteries, were condemned, according to Cicero, who did not specify the path to the wanderer, and, most singular, this was a crime that punished a public curse. Now we find in the text that we believe have been engraved on stone at the time of Joshua, all these convictions made in the same way.

We also understand why it is question of blessing for those who would break much these precepts, which left no surprise to some writers, because any failure of such enormities Basic does not seem indeed deserve special promises reward. The people in question were, however, fallen so low that these perpetrators were in their general practices, so that the incentives had not exaggerated in this circumstance. But although the sacred text speaks of blessing as well as a curse, it is only this that is explicitly mentioned, the first being a temporary expedient required by the particular state of the people for whom it was addressed and disproportionate to the merit of a virtue so vulgar.

The precept mosaic on the transcription of some fragments of the Act which would be attached either to the front and in the arm or the posts of houses and towns, lots of confirmation to our explanation, because the transition to writing in the copies in question is precisely that which contains the order to make as well as the command to burn the stones Act is contained in the text where the curses hearsay in question. This rapprochement between the precept of domestic mezuzah and the requirement for raising stelae at the entrance to the Holy Land has been interviewed by Abrabanel. He further justified if one remembers that the order of the mezuzah is, by tradition, applicable to the gates of cities and provinces as well as those homes. The mezuzah of all Palestine would therefore be represented in turn by the twelve stones erected on its borders.

We also see why the Tradition ascribes to Moses the first erection of headstones similar, although the Scripture is silent in this respect: that the Hebrew legislator who himself began the conquest by the submission of Sihon king of the Amorites , and Og king of Bashan, was consistent with himself by performing in the provinces beyond the Jordan Joshua that his successor would do so later on the agenda for the country he was called in to win Across the River.