Aliya Summary: Moshe fast-forwards 38 years. The generation which
left Egypt had perished. Now their children were ready to enter Canaan.
But first G‑d instructs the Israelites regarding three nations whose
land was off-limits for them: Seir (Edom), Moab and Amon. These lands
were the rightful inheritance of the descendants of Esav and Lot.
Instead, the Israelites circled these lands and approached the land of
Sichon, king of the Emorites, and requested passageway through his land.
Sichon refused the Israelites' request.
While
recapping the events of the generation that died in the desert, the
Passuk refers to them as "men of war", which Rashi explains to mean that
they were eligible to fight because they were between the ages of 20
and 60. But just because they were eligible to fight didn't necessarily
entitle them "men of war", unless it's a vague hint at the personalities
of those people, choosing to be confrontational, argumentative, and
generally controversial, qualities that often gets people into trouble,
and elicits labels people don't always deserve.
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