Conquering the Canaanite Within
Part of Moshe’s parting words to his children, the Jewish people, was to provide them with a winning strategy for conquering Eretz Israel and maintaining a hold on their conquest. The Jewish people were informed twice – first by Hashem when they left Egypt, and second by Moshe when they were about to enter Eretz Israel – that Hashem had a deliberate strategy for their conquest of the Land:
I will not chase out [the indigenous clans of Canaan] in one year, lest the Land become desolate and the beasts of the field outnumber you. Rather, I will chase them out slowly, until you become more numerous and are able to inherit the Land (Ex. 23:29-20).
Hashem your Lord will move these clans away from you slowly; you will not be able to eradicate them quickly, lest the beasts of the field outnumber you. (Deut. 7:22)
Spreading monotheism to the world
Some people have looked back on this biblical text as proof that Israel should be devoid of all foreign entities and should not allow non-Jews to be part of Israeli society. But this is a mistaken interpretation. When Israel was a nascent nation, they were a novelty to the world, being the only monotheistic people in a regional sea of idolaters. Both their immaturity as a people and their stark contrast with the rest of the world made them an easy target for an overpowering assimilative force.
It was only due to the Jewish people’s vulnerability that they were called upon to eradicate all Canaanite idolatrous clans from the Land. Today, Bnei Israel are a mature nation. We have been around for millennia, and withstood the test of time. Furthermore, we introduced ethical monotheism to our Christian and Muslim cousins.
Allowing people of other faiths – especially those who have adopted ethical monotheism – is not only allowable, but is a reasonable and beneficial policy for Israeli society, no different from the biblical “ger toshav” – the righteous gentile – who is welcomed by the Torah to live among us (such as in 14:21, in next week’s parsha).
But there is a concerning theological question that bothers a number of commentaries. Hashem has a strategy, says Moshe. If He eradicates the Canaanites too quickly, you’ll be outnumbered by the animals of the wild, and you will be in danger. But isn’t God the one who is performing miracles to eradicate the Canaanites? Cannot the same God who miraculously sends wasps against the Canaanites (in 7:20) and helps the Jewish army defeat their enemies, be the same God who prevents the wildlife of Eretz Israel from attacking the small Jewish population?!
Different kinds of miracles
Perhaps the Torah is giving us an insight into the type of miracles Hashem perpetrates to help Am Israel. In a sense, it is “easier” for God to influence a psychological phenomenon within a society than it is for Him to manipulate animal behavior. Animals work exclusively on instinct; when a lion is hungry, it will attack its prey. When it’s sated, it will leave the antelope alone. Human attitudes are different; people are easily manipulated to all types of irrational behaviors by PR, the media, public opinion, and so forth.
For Hashem to strategically sway the Canaanites to become intimidated by Bnei Israel is much more of a covert miracle than repressing a natural hunger that the lions and bears of the forest may have. Hashem was instructing Bnei Israel that while they could expect a covert miracle like military victory in the conquest of Eretz Israel, they would still be susceptible to natural disasters, against which all human beings must protect themselves.
It’s as if Hashem was commanding: I’ll help you win the big battles, but make sure to wear a coat when it’s cold, and protect yourselves from wild beasts.
Despite this answer, the question still led a number of commentaries to interpret the verse homiletically. Shortly after World War II, the grand rabbi of Modzitz, Rav Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub (1886-1947), read the verse as follows: “You will not be able to eradicate them quickly, lest you be overpowered to become the beasts of the field.” That is, if the Jewish army is fully and constantly immersed in warfare, they will eventually become bloodthirsty animals and will lose their humanity.
By waging war sparingly and intermittently, soldiers will be able to have breaks, go home, reintegrate with a peaceful society, and reclaim their humanity. Rabbi Taub concluded that he was personally witness to this phenomenon. Because they were immersed in violent and bloody warfare over a period of years, the Germans of his time eventually became dehumanized, like wild animals, and lived with complete abandon.
The quick fix
This verse might also refer to the person who wishes to fix everything too quickly. We know the type: a person may be a new ba’al teshuvah, someone who newly finds religion and enthusiastically makes quantum leaps in their Yiddishkeit and piety.
But there are real dangers of recidivism among those who take on too much too quickly. In your zeal to conquer the Canaanite within you, you may also lose sight of yourself, who you truly are, and will become overcome with dysphoria, depression, anxiety, and other mental or emotional misalignments that result from lifestyle changes too drastic in too short of a time.
We note that the first creature identified in the Torah as a “chayat hasadeh,” beast of the field, is the Serpent in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1): “וְהַנָּחָשׁ הָיָה עָרוּם מִכֹּל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה” – “The Serpent was the wiliest of all the beasts of the field…” The danger is that in your zeal to eradicate the evil “Canaanite” you might get overcome by an even worse evil, a debilitating form of regression that will cause you to nihilistically throw your hands up in despair and give up everything.
This is the work of the Serpent of the Garden, an even more toxic guise of the evil inclination than the Canaanite. At least the Canaanite, despite his idolatry and misplaced priorities, is human. But the Serpent represents a complete surrender and abandon. It would be tragic for the person who is aspiring to great spiritual heights to fall and end up lower than they were when they started.
Finding the right pace for each of us
This phenomenon happens to FFB’s (“frum from birth”) too, as they age and they become less passionate about their Yiddishkeit. When we are young, we have a fire in our belly, a passion for spirituality and becoming close with Hashem. As we age, these passions start to wane and we search for something to fill that void. But that effort to reclaim our inspiration must also be done deliberately and methodically so that it doesn’t backfire on us.
As we come to the realization that we’ve filled our lives with too much “narishkeit” (folly), we must also not get too far ahead of ourselves and quit “cold turkey” all of the frivolous behaviors that make up our current lives. Move slowly, rectify your foibles one by one, so that you don’t end up crashing and burning, succumbing to the “chayat hasadeh.”
As it pertains to each of us, let’s remember that is just around the corner. There may be things that we would want to consider changing, whether it be waking up earlier in order to pray with a minyan, or just taking more time from our recreational activities and using that time more effectively to do an extra mitzvah.
The important thing is to transition slowly. In our verse, Hashem tells us that He’ll get rid of the Canaanites slowly, for if not, the beasts of the wild may take over. These are words to live by: As we slowly approach the month of Elul, try to slowly regain your footing in the world of productivity and goodness. Don’t move too quickly, lest you become disoriented and fed up. Slowly reassume all the good that you weren’t able to do in the past, and reclaim your life in a methodical, measured way.
May we all succeed in conquering the Canaanite within us so that we, too, take possession of the Promised Land, bb”a.