Are you with us or against us?
ויאמר אליו, אם אין פניך הולכים אל תעלנו מזה.
And he [Moshe] said to him [G-d] If your presence does not go [with us], do not take us up from here.[i]
Question
The Angelic Paradox and the Spiritual Descent
The Rejection and the Acceptance
When G-d suggests sending an angel to lead the Jewish people into the Land of Israel, Moshe explicitly rejects the offer. Moshe says
אם אין פניך הולכים אל תעלנו מזה – If your presence does not go [with us], do not take us up from here.
Moshe insists that either G-d’s presence goes openly with them, or they do not go at all. Yet, a generation later, as Yehoshua stands at the precipice of conquering Jericho, he encounters an angel – Miĉa’el, the general of G-d’s army – and ultimately accepts his leadership.[ii]
This raises a question:
- Why did Yehoshua accept leadership from an angel when Moshe rejected it so fiercely?
- Furthermore, why did the angel appear at all, given G-d’s explicit promise to remain directly amongst the Jewish people?
The Consequence of Neglect
The Gemara[iii] addresses this paradox directly[1]. The angel arrived because the Jewish people had failed in specific areas of their Divine service—namely, the neglect of Torah study and the dereliction of the afternoon offering.
Because the nation had dropped from the spiritual heights of observance they maintained under Moshe, their relationship with the Divine shifted. They no longer merited G-d’s unmediated, direct leadership at the forefront of their camp; instead, they “only” merited angelic leadership.
To rectify this, the Rabbi Nosson explains the later verse[iv] about Yehoshua:
וילן יהושע בלילה ההוא בתוך העמק – and Yehoshua lodged that night in the valley – the word עמק – valley means, the depth of Halaĉa (עומק ההלכה).
To rectify the sin of failing to learn Torah, Yehoshua stayed up all night studying Halaĉa.
Contextual Background
The Puzzling Challenge and the Precedent of Yaakov
The Angelic Confrontation
When the angel appears, the verse[v] states that the entity is standing opposite / against Yehoshua וחרבו שלופה בידו – with his sword drawn in his hand. Yet, Yehoshua does not cower, nor does he immediately assume this armed celestial being is a Divine ally sent to help him. Instead, he steps forward bare-handed and challenges the angel: הלנו אתה אם לצרנו – Are you for us or for our adversaries?
The Gemara notes that Miĉa’el only revealed his identity and the fact that the Jewish people had sinned after Yehoshua challenged him. Yehoshua’s behavior is therefore puzzling. Wouldn’t it make sense for Yehoshua to naturally assume that a heavenly being appearing at the dawn of the conquest of the Land of Israel was sent by G-d to lead the battle for the Land of Israel?
- Why the immediate hostility?
The Paradigm of the Patriarchs
The answer to Yehoshua’s behavior lies in a powerful historical precedent. We already have an example of a Jewish leader having to fight an angel prior to a physical conflict:
When Yaakov was preparing to meet his brother, he first had to struggle with and defeat Esav’s angelic root (the שר של עשו)[vi] during the night.[vii] Only after securing that victory in the spiritual realm could Yaakov safely face and overcome Esav in the physical world.
The Misidentification
Yehoshua was operating under this exact paradigm. Because Moshe had so vehemently rejected angelic intermediaries, G-d Himself had led the Jewish people directly throughout their forty (40) years in the wilderness. As a result, Yehoshua was presumably completely unfamiliar with Miĉa’el, who is the corresponding angel and defender of the Jewish people.
Seeing an armed, supernatural entity עמד כנגדו – blocking his path to Jericho, Yehoshua reasonably assumed this might be the angelic prince of the Cana’anites. Without hesitation, he was fully prepared to face the angel in battle and defeat the spiritual root of Cana’an right then and there bare-handed, before the physical war and conquest even began.
Contextual Background
The Incongruous Command
If we assume Miĉa’el’s arrival was solely the result of a concealment in the Divine Presence due to the people’s sins, then the very next verse is inconsistent.
When Yehoshua asks Miĉa’el[viii], מה אדני מדבר אל עבדו – What does my master say to his servant? – Miĉa’el’s response is not a battle plan. Instead, he commands: של נעלך מעל רגלך כי המקום אשר אתה עמד עליו קדש הוא – Remove your shoes from your feet, for the place upon which you stand is holy.[ix]
This is the exact, verbatim phrase G-d Himself used during his unmediated revelation to Moshe at the Burning Bush![x] If the Divine Presence had been concealed, how could the ground Yehoshua stood on be so saturated with holiness that it triggered the same protocol as the Burning Bush?
- Furthermore, was taking off Yehoshua’s shoes the entire purpose of Miĉa’el’s appearance?
Foundational Principles
The Halacha of the Unseparated Servant
The concept of removing shoes on holy ground is a foundational Halaĉa included in the Laws of Service in the Base Hamikdash. A Kohen is strictly forbidden to serve while wearing shoes. Shoes represent a physical and conceptual barrier between a person and the earth. When a Kohen is functioning as the direct servant of G-d, there can be absolutely no separation between himself and the holy ground of the Mikdash.[xi]
To understand why the ground at Jericho suddenly demanded this level of unseparated connection, we have to understand how holiness alters the physics of reality.
The Dimensionless Ark and the Burning Bush
One of the most fundamental aspects of the Base Hamikdash was the presence of the Aron. The Gemara[xii] reveals a mind-bending paradox: The Aron had specific, Halaĉically required measurements (two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide[xiii]). If it lacked these dimensions, it would be invalid. Yet, if you measured the distance from the walls of the קודש קדשים to one side of the Aron, and then from the other side of the Aron to the opposite walls, the result would be the same as the dimensions of the room itself – in other words, the Aron took up zero physical space in the room![xiv]
In Ĉassidus, this manifestation of G-d’s power is called נמנע הנמנעות – the inability of inabilities[2].[xv] When the Divine Presence openly rests on a physical object, the physical laws of reality do not disappear; rather, the transcendent laws that supersede reality are also revealed simultaneously. The object exists within nature and beyond nature at the exact same moment.
This is exactly what happened to Moshe at the Burning Bush. G-d manifested his presence within the bush to partake in the Jewish people’s suffering. Because the Divine was openly resting there, the phenomenon of נמנע הנמנעות was in effect – as Moshe said, אסרה נא ואראה את המראה הגדל הזה – Let me turn aside and see this great sight: the bush was on physical fire, but the wood remained unconsumed[xvi]. Because the space was a place where G-d’s presence was openly manifested, therefore, the ground became holy (temporarily).
And, as a result of this miracle, Moshe was endowed with the mandate and purpose to become G-d’s servant[xvii]. Accordingly, Moshe, as the newly empowered Servant of G-d, had to remove his shoes to ensure there was no separation.
The Miracle in Jericho
Yehoshua was now being endowed with a parallel mission: the conversion of the mundane land of Cana’an into the Holy Land of Israel. G-d’s presence was there not to experience the suffering of slavery (as with Moshe), but to experience the war—to challenge an unassailable foe alongside Yehoshua.
Accordingly, the Divine Presence fully descended into the very ground Yehoshua stood on, triggering the exact same נמנע הנמנעות. The verses state this paradox explicitly: ויהי בהיות יהושע ביריחו – And it was when Yehoshua was inside Jericho,[xviii] followed immediately by, ויריחו סגרת ומסגרת מפני בני ישראל אין נכנס ואין בא – And Jericho was completely sealed from before the Jewish people, no one left and no one entered[xix].[3]
How could Yehoshua be inside the city if it was sealed for the siege? Because the Divine Presence was so openly manifested that Yehoshua was simultaneously operating within the physical constraints of nature, by being outside the city due to the siege and entirely superseding them, by being within the city. Because the ground was hosting this Divine reality, Yehoshua – like Moshe and the Kohanim – had to remove his shoes.
Answer
The Ultimate Enlistment
We have established that the נמנע הנמנעות occurred at Jericho because the Divine Presence was openly manifest on the ground. But this brings us back to our ultimate, reiterating question:
- If G-d’s presence was so completely saturated in the reality of the conquest, why was the angel Miĉa’el leading the heavenly host, and not G-d Himself?[4]
The answer is breathtakingly simple. G-d was not acting as the General of the army because, for the conquest of the Land of Israel, G-d Himself had enlisted as a soldier. As the verse later states explicitly:
לשמע ה’ בקול איש, כי ה’ נלחם לישראל – … that G-d should listen to the voice of a human, for G-d fought for Yisroel.
G-d literally obeyed the command of Yehoshua as a soldier obeys. Instead of commanding the war from above, G-d placed the command of the physical conquest squarely into the hands of a human being, Yehoshua. This was a once-in-all-of-history event that had never occurred before and will never occur again. Because the Almighty had, “mustered” into Yehoshua’s army to fight for the Jewish people, the role of commanding the heavenly host was left to the angel Miĉa’el.
Deepening the Inquiry: Exploring the Kabbalah of footwear
With this understanding, we must look to the future. If Yehoshua had to remove his shoes, what is required of us in the ultimate redemption?
Yeshayahu’s prophecy foretells that in the times of Moshiaĉ, G-d’s presence will be revealed in a much greater way than during the Exodus, even as compared to the splitting of the sea. As per the commentaries on the verse[xx] which states:
והחרים ה’ את לשון ים מצרים והניף ידו על הנהר בעים רוחו, והכהו לשבעה נחלים והדריך הנעלים – and G-d will devastate the tributary of the Egyptian sea[5] and he shall waive his hand on the river with the strength of his wind (spirit) and he shall smite it to seven streams, and he will lead them with shoes on.
However, why is the prophecy specifically promising us that we will keep our shoes on?
In Kabbalah, the Splitting of the Sea was a revelation channeled through the Sefira of Malĉus (Kingship). Malĉus represents the lowest level of Divine emanation, resting directly upon the earth. Prior to the arrival of Moshiaĉ, the world receives its Divine energy through this level of Malĉus, as the lowest Sefira which descends to this world. Accordingly, when the Divine Presence fully rests in Malĉus – as it did at the Burning Bush and at Jericho, and as it does in the קדש קדשים – we cannot have any physical separation between ourselves and the holy earth. We must remove our shoes.
However, in the times of Moshiaĉ, the world will elevate. Then Malĉus will ascend to the level of Bina (Understanding). Just as Bina provides divine energy from the top down[6], so too Malĉus will be that which provides energy from itself back up the entire chain of creation. And just as Bina provides the divine energy to the seven (7) Sefiros below it, so too Malĉus will split into ‘seven (7) streams.’
The Hebrew word for shoe is נעל, which shares the exact same root as the word for “closed” or “locked” נעול.[xxi] Currently a separation of shoes – a “closed off” reality – is simply not possible with the open revelation of G-d’s presence.
However, in the immediate future, the world will be so elevated, from the bottom up (which will become top down), that the physical shoe will no longer act as a barrier to the Divine.
Cana’an vs. Edom: The Modern Application
This brings us to the difference between Yehoshua’s war and the war we find ourselves fighting today.
The conquest of Cana’an was a localized, territorial conflict. As the Sefer Mitzvos Gedolos (SMG) notes, we were only commanded to kill the members of the seven (7) Cana’anite nations who resided within the borders of the Land of Israel. Those who chose to flee the land were not hunted down.[xxii]
The war against Edom – and its descendant, Amalek – is entirely different. We are commanded to eradicate them and their memory wherever they are. Why? Because Amalek does not fight for territory. Amalek only exists in opposition to goodness and G-dliness. As we learned previously, Amalek cannot attack חכמה directly; instead, it attacks the application of that wisdom as it attempts to flow down into Bina and into Malĉus via Ĉesed (Kindness). Once there is no allowance for such opposition, Amalek will simply cease to exist.
AND THEREFORE…
Today, as this current generation of Jewish people face down this opposition to goodness, we are fighting the war of Edom, not the territorial war of Cana’an. The war which will conclude with ועלו מושעים בהר ציון לשפט את הר עשו, והיתה לה’ המלוכה.
Therefore, keep your shoes on. We can leave the strategic, high-level command to the “angels” – those who fight in the IDF [or even CENTCOM]. Instead, we need to do our part, perhaps like Yehoshua, and lodge ourselves within the study of Halaĉa.
[1] As a fascinating Halaĉic aside, the Gemara [Eiruvin 63b] also discusses Yehoshua’s encounter and incidentally adds a note that marital relations are prohibited so long as the Aron is not in its proper place. Because this prohibition is not in effect today, nor has it been in many millennia, it must mean that currently—and for the past 2,500 plus years—the Aron is indeed in its proper place, hidden deep within the subterranean subsection designated for it by King Shlomo.
[2] In other words, even things which are impossible are impossible to be limits to G-d’s power.
[3] The Gemara that discusses Yehoshua’s encounter uses the contradiction of where Yehoshua was to prove that the outskirts of the city are a part of the city. However, this concept can be derived from the verse [Bamidbar 35:5] ומדתם מחוץ לעיר – see Gem. Eiruvin 56b-57a where this verse is used to derive the Halaĉic concept of עיבור העיר.
[4] And we can’t say that G-d is like a backseat driver, because, when Moshe asks for a successor [Bamidbar 27:17], he specifically notes that a proper leader leads at the front of the army אשר יצא לפניהם. Certainly, G-d would not command something to the leader of the Jewish people that he himself does not do.
[5] In reference to current events: the Strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf of Oman are tributaries of the Egyptian sea.
[6] This refers to the idea of אור חוזר and the future measurement of light through the קנה המדה vs. קו המדה – see the Frierdiker Rebbe’s inaugural Ma’amar on this – based on his father’s, the Rebbe Rashab’s, concluding Ma’amar.
[i] Shemos 33:15
[ii] Yehoshua 5:13 – 6:1
[iii] Gem. Megilla 3a.
[iv] Yehoshua 8:9 combined with 8:13
[v] Yehoshua 5:13
[vi] See Gem. Ĉulin 91a
[vii] Beraishis 32:25
[viii] Yehoshua 5:14
[ix] Yehoshua 5:15
[x] Shemos 3:5
[xi] See Gem. Zevaĉim 24a & Sota 40a
[xii] Gem. Megillah 10b and Yoma 21a
[xiii] Shemos 25:10
[xiv] See דרך מצותיך by the Tzemach Tzedek on the Mitzva of building the Mikdash. See also Likutei Siĉos v.21 Parshas Teruma.
[xv] See תשובת הרשב”א 1:418
[xvi] Shemos 3:2
[xvii] See Mal’aĉi 3:22
[xviii] Yehoshua 5:13
[xix] Yehoshua 6:1
[xx] Yeshayahu 11:15
[xxi] See commentary on Shir HaShirim גן נעול – especially Torah Or פרשת בשלח 62d-64a. Where previously the ‘garden’ was sealed.
[xxii] See Yer. Shevi’is 6:1, Rambam Laws of Kings 6:5. See contrast between SMG positive Mitzva 116 and positive Mitzva 118.