Israeli Elections are on The 17th of Elul. This is the Date When Yehoshua and Calev benefitted from the death of 10 Religious Anti-Zionists

Israeli Elections are on The 17th of Elul. This is the Date When Yehoshua and Calev benefitted from the death of 10 Religious Anti-Zionists

In an amazing coincidence in history, there is a linkage between World War I and World War II and the fate of the Biblical spies (meraglim) that Moshe (Moses) sent on a spy mission to spy out the land of Israel for the sake of fulfilling the Biblical commandment to conquer the land of Israel. This commandment according to Ramban’s addition to Sefer Hamitzvot still exists to this very day (although the Vilna Gaon told his followers that different tactics such as land purchases, Jewish agricultural development and establishing new settlements in Israel would be the emphasis for successful conquest in contrast to the military tactics used by Yehoshua. More details about these new tactics are explained at https://vilnagaon.org/israeli-settlements/ ).

Some commentaries add that besides getting valuable military information a second goal of Moshe when he sent out the spies on their mission was to provide a positive report about the land of Israel to encourage the nation to desire to enter the country, despite the risks.

What is the linkage between World War I and World War II and the fate of the Biblical spies?

Germany declared war in World War I on the Hebrew date 9th of Av, 5674 = Sat, 1 August 1914

Germany started World War II on the Hebrew date  17th of Elul, 5699 = Fri, 1 September 1939

In Biblical history on the 9th of Av, the children of Israel accepted the evil report about the land of Israel from

the 10 Anti-Zionist Spies that Moshe (Moses) sent and rejected the positive report about the Land of Israel from the 2 remaining spies that were sent on the spy mission, namely,  Yehoshua and Calev (Joshua and Caleb).

According to Jewish tradition on the 17th of Elul (Shulchan Aruch, O.C.581:2), the 10 Religious Anti-Zionist spies who spread an evil report about the land of Israel died in a plague. The symptoms of that plague were measure for measure for their evil report (see Bamidbar {Numbers} 14:37 with Rashi’s commentary).

Yehoshua and Calev that brought back a positive report about the land of Israel actually benefitted from that plague.

In Bamidbar (Numbers) 14:38 the verse states: “But Yehoshua the son of Nun and Calev the son of Yephunneh remained alive of the men who went to tour the Land”. Rashi comments. What does Scripture mean by saying, “remained alive of the men”? It teaches that they took the spies’ portion in the Land, and stood in their place for life” (see also Talmud Baba Batra 118b which affirms this idea).

In the previous elections the parties of the right wing bloc squandered 6 to 8 seats in the Knesset due to poor judgement of some of the political leaders. My belief is that in the upcoming elections on the 17th of Elul some of these mistakes will be rectified and the economic position of the religious right-wing settlers in the land of Israel will improve as a result of the elections.

I could have made my case a bit stronger but in the end felt it was better, just to provide the link that will strengthen my claims without stating my claims outright. The link is http://www.israel613.com/books/ERETZ_EM_HA_BANIM-ENG.CV.pdf

We learn from Tamar (Bereshit/Genesis chapter 38) that in some situations making the weaker case, while avoiding putting people who are at the core good people to shame, is sometimes more effective in bringing about positive change.

This post is being posted at the end of the Hebrew month of Iyar 5779 (beginning of June 2019). The latest Israeli election is scheduled for 17th of Elul, 5779 = Tue, 17 September 2019 .  https://www.hebcal.com/converter/ provides relatively easy conversion of dates, although one should be aware that a Hebrew day starts at the beginning of the night while the Dating system used by countries in the western world, has their days starting at midnight.

One friend brings another. The permanent address of this blog post is at https://vilnagaon.org/17elul/