Neviim & Ktuvim

As we saw in the last shiur, even thought Yehoshua was supposed to wipe out all the 7 nations in the land, he didn’t, and as you can see in the map from Shiur #1, there is quite a lot of eretz hanisheret, of left over land that has not been conquered, left full of non Jews. In perek 2 here, the malach comes to bochim and rebukes Am Israel for this sin.

The goal of this shiur is to discuss with the chanichim the original command to wipe out the 7 nations originally. Is this ideal? Or is it genocide? Why would Hashem want us to wipe them out, why can’t we live with them?

Goals:

The chanichim should analyze the leadership skills of Devorah and Yael versus Barak. Devorah and Yael  step up to the challenge and provide leadership from the side, when no leadership is coming from the men.

The chanichim should start to see the instability of the Shoftim cycle – there is no one clear leader (Devorah, Barak or Yael?) and the disunity of the Shevatim (only the ones in danger come to fight).

Goals: Teach the story of Gidon

Goal: The chanichim should see the irony in the Am Israel going to war against Shevet Binyamin, and how in this civil war, they accomplish everything that they were not able to accomplish when attempting to conquer the land in the 1st perek. This ends the Sefer on an extremely depressing note, stressing again that Am Israel need strong moral leaders in order that anarchy and events like this civil war, do not happen again.

Goals: The chanichim should see Ehud Ben Gera’s strengths as a leader, in how he used creative measures to save Am Israel, and how he used his own weaknesses to his advantage in battle.