THE CAPITAL CITY AND THE ACCOUNT

“For Cheshbon was the city of Sichon, king of the Emorites; he fought against the king of Moab, and took all his land from his possession, until Arnon. Therefore, the allegorists will say: Come to Cheshbon. The city of Sichon will be built and established.” (Bamidbar 21:26-27)

Sichon, king of the Emorites, a nation east of the land of Canaan, was one of the most formidable enemies of the Children of Israel. The Israelites harboured no enmity toward Sichon. On the contrary, they sent messengers to him requesting safe passage through his land. Not only did Sichon refuse their request, he came out with his full army against the Israelites (Ibid 21-23). Sichon and his neighbouring monarch, Og, king of the Bashan, were the gatekeepers to Canaan. No one could enter the land from the east. Moreover, they levied a special protection tax from the Canaanite chiefs to keep out foreign garrisons (Rashi 21:23). The capital city of Sichon was Cheshbon. It was heavily fortified and impenetrable. It was an important city located on the borders of the portions of Gad and Reuven (Joshua 13:17). It is generally identified with Tell Hesban which sits on the ancient King’s Highway, on the mountain range above the Madaba Plains, about 20 km south west of Rabat Amon (Rabbi Steinsaltz, Weisfeld Edition of the Humash).

Sichon and his troops left Cheshbon to wage war against the Children of Israel. They were so confident in their military ability and so sure that they would win the war, that they left their families behind in the city. This actually proved to be a boon for the Israelites who utterly decimated them, as Rashi explains (verse 23): “Even if Cheshbon had been full of people as puny as gnats, no human being could have captured it, and if Sichon had been in a weak village, no human being could have overcome him. How much the more was he invincible whilst he dwelt in Cheshbon. Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, said: Why should I trouble My children to all this extent, to besiege each city? He therefore put it into the hearts of all the men of war to go forth from the cities, and they assembled all of them in one spot, and there they fell in battle; from there Israel proceeded to the cities and there were none to resist them, for there were only women and children there” (Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat # 23). This was such a decisive battle that it become the stuff of legend and is mentioned several times in Scripture, many hundreds of years after it happened. One example is King David’s triumphant song in Tehillim 136 (17-20), “It is He who smote great kings, for His kindness is forever. And he slew mighty kings, for His kindness is forever. Sichon king of the Emorites, for His kindness is forever, and Og king of Bashan, for His kindness is forever.”

The Torah relates, almost parenthetically, that Cheshbon had not always been the capital city of Sichon. It had previously belonged to the Moabites, distant cousins of the Israelites through Avraham’s nephew, Lot. Sometime before the events described in our parsha, Sichon fought against Moab and captured Cheshbon. This is important information because it actually answers a question. God forbade the Israelites to harass the Moabites (see Devarim 2:9). Had Sichon still been a Moabite city, Moshe and his army could not have taken it. However, Sichon had captured it from Moab, thereby “purifying” it for the Israelites (Rashi, Bamidbar 21:26). It is about the earlier war that Sichon waged with Moab that the Torah (verses 26-7) states, rather cryptically, “For Cheshbon was the city of Sichon, king of the Emorites; he fought against the king of Moab, and took all his land from his possession, until Arnon. Therefore, the allegorists will say: Come to Cheshbon. The city of Sichon will be built and established.”

The allegorists (moshlim) are the sorcerer Bilaam and his father Beor who assisted Sichon in his war with Moab (Rashi 21:27). Whenever Bilaam attempted to curse the Israelites, his speech begins with the words, “He began his allegory and said…” Bilaam did not speak in prose but rather in a poetic style, similar to the book of Proverbs, called Mishlei in Hebrew, meaning allegories. The Talmud (Bava Batra 78b) has a clever play-on-words on the verse, “Therefore, the allegorists will say: Come to Cheshbon”: “Therefore those who rule (moshlim) over their evil inclination say: Come, let us make an accounting (cheshbon) of this world, weighing a mitzvah’s loss against its profit and a sin’s profit against its loss.” This is actually a Mishna from Pirkei Avot (2:1), “Rabbi [Yehudah HaNasi] said… Calculate the cost of a mitzvah against its reward, and the reward of a sin against its costs…”

Every mitzvah has a cost, be it in time, resources or effort. A pair of tefillin is pricey, as is a set of lulav and etrog. Observing Shabbos requires one to take off one day from work every week and observing the chaggim can add up to taking leave for 13 working days a year. Building a sukkah, visiting the sick and paying a Shiva call all require effort, be it physical or emotional. Those who “rule over themselves” offer sage advice: do not focus on the cost but rather on the reward. The reward for a mitzvah is eternal bliss in the World to Come. Moreover, God rewards certain mitzvoth even in the physical world (Shabbat 127a). You cannot compare the inconvenience caused by the performance of a mitzvah to its ultimate reward. Conversely, every sin has a “reward”, usually the pleasure that one experiences when engaged in the sin. But that pleasure is fleeting and temporary. After the sin, one may be overcome with feelings of guilt, shame and worthlessness. There is often also a financial cost to sin and those funds could have been used more wisely. Once again, those who “rule over themselves” urge us not to focus on the pleasure associated with the sin but on its cost, which can often be enormously detrimental. This concept should be read with another from Avot (4:2): “mitzvah goreret mitzvah, one mitzvah inevitably leads to another.” Rabbeinu Yonah explains:  When one fulfils even a simple mitzvah he comes one step closer to Hashem and begins to train and habituate himself in the service of the Almighty. Thus, when a second, slightly more difficult mitzvah presents itself, it will be easier for him to do than if he had not done the first. For example, when one gives a few rand to a poor person, he will find it easier to give a larger sum when asked for a donation at shul. When he is later approached to make a pledge to a local welfare group, he will find it easier to part with the money than had he not given the first two gifts. Habit, explains Rabbeinu Yonah, is the most powerful force that holds sway over a person.  Therefore, one should foster good habits in his youth so that he will be able to build upon them when he matures. The success of one’s Jewish commitment is directly connected to this concept. The more mitzvoth we involve ourselves in, the more we will find opportunities to increase our involvement and the easier we will find it to take on those tasks. 

I am reminded of a beautiful Chasidic story that is relevant to this point. A father took his son before his bar mitzvah to immerse in the frigid waters of a mikveh. The son entered the water and screamed, “Ay! This is cold.“ He quickly immersed and jumped out, straight into the warm towel his father was holding in his extended hands. “Aaaah!” said the boy, “This feels good!” Said the father to his about-to-become-a-man son: “May this be a lesson for the rest of your life. Whenever you do something, and the ‘ay’ comes before the ‘ah,’ you know that it is a good thing that you’ve done. When the ‘ah,’ however, comes before the ‘ay,’ then you know that you have done something wrong.” There is a lot of “ay” when performing a mitzvah but it is always followed by “aaaah”, a feeling of deep contentment and joy. And there is a lot of “aaaah” when doing a sin. But it is always followed by an “ay”. Let us follow the advice of those who rule themselves and constantly make an account of our deeds.

Lee, Chani Merryl & Naomi join me in wishing you Shabbat Shalom.  

Rabbi Liebenberg.

Rabbi’s YouTube message: https://youtu.be/U8lGBD0FLbc?si=vrm_ryiZ8mWaYAvy