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brose to enormous heights and the Children of Israel rapidly bcrossed to the other side, as they were in the middle of the now- bdry riverbed, suddenly Joshua paused and spoke to them. What bwas so vital that could not wait until they had crossed safely to bthe other side? What had to be said now, in the middle of the bJordan, as the waters piled higher and higher? b“While still in the Jordan, Joshua said to them: Know why byou are crossing the Jordan! In order that you drive out the binhabitants of the Land from before you as it is written (Num- bbers 33:52): ‘And you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the bland from before you.’ If you do this—it shall be good. If not b—the waters shall come and inundate me and you” (Talmud, bSota 34a). bNothing was more urgent than this message, for allowing bthe nations of the Land of Israel to remain there freely was to binvite physical and spiritual threats, military or political efforts bon the part of bitter, angry revanchist people to regain the land, bspiritual and cultural assimilation, and disintegration of the buniqueness of the special society that the Jew was commanded bto build. bAnd as the Torah clearly commanded: “And you shall bdrive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you. . . . But bif you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before byou, then it shall come to pass that those which you let remain bof them, shall be thorns in your eyes and thistles in your sides band shall torment you in the land wherein you dwell. And it bshall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them” (Num- bbers 33:52-56). bThe biblical commentators are explicit: “And you shall bdrive out the inhabitants and then you shall inherit it, you will bbe able to exist in it. And if you do not, you will not be able to bexist in it” (Rashi—Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki). b“When you shall eliminate the inhabitants of the land, then byou shall be privileged to inherit the land and pass it down to byour children. But if you do not eliminate them, even though byou will conquer the land you will not be privileged to hand it bdown to your children” (Sforno—Rabbi Ovadiah ben Yaakov). b“. . . The verse speaks of others aside from the seven Ca- bnaanite nations. . . . Not only will they hold that part of the land bthat you did not possess, but even concerning that part which b
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