First Moshe sent messengers to ask the king of Edom if B’nai Yisrael could peacefully pass through their land. Edom’s response was (Bamidbar 20:18) “You shall not pass through my land, lest I go against you with a sword.” When B’nai Yisrael asked if they could pass through Edom responded (20:20) “Do not pass through!” And then Edom came to confront B’nai Yisrael with a massive number of people and a strong hand. In 20:21 “Israel turned aside from him (Edom)”.

Yisrael also sent messengers to Sichon, the king of the Emori asking if they could pass through. In 21:23-25 “Sichon did not allow Yisrael to pass through his territory; Sichon gathered all his people and went out against Yisrael in the wilderness… Yisrael defeated him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land…Yisrael took all of these cities; Yisrael settled in all of the cities of the Emorite”.

In both accounts Moshe Rabbeinu is making an effort to make peace while the other nations are looking for a confrontation.

Since Edom is family (Esav’s descendents), B’nai Yisrael walked away. B’nai Yisrael were not looking for a fight and the land of Edom was not part of the land of the seven nations that was promised B’nai Yisrael. As it says in Devarim 2:5 “Do not incite them (Edom) for I will not give you of their land as much as a footstep, because for Esav’s inheritance have I designated Mt. Seir”.

The Emori on the other hand was one of the seven nations whose land the Jewish people would eventually inherit. As it says in Devarim 7:1 “When HaShem your God brings you into the Land that you are going to inherit, He will cast out many nations before you- the Chiti, Girgashi, Emori, C’naani, Prizi, Chivi and Yevusi- seven nations more numerous and more powerful than you. God will defeat them before you and will smite them. You must surely annihilate them. Do not make a treaty with them and do not favor them.” We see from here that it was actually a mitzvah for B’nai Yisrael to defend them selves, fight back and inherit their land.

In thousands of years not much has changed. Israel is still trying to make peace with our neighbors despite the fact that most of the time our neighbors would rather wage war upon innocent civilians. We unfortunately saw this today during the terrorist attack in Jerusalem where a bulldozer killed three people and wounded sixty six others.

Thanks to Moshe Plesser, the religious Zionist yeshiva student/ off-duty soldier who killed the bulldozer-driver terrorist, more damage was avoided.

We must follow in the footsteps of Moshe Rabeinu and Moshe Plesser and know when to stand up for ourselves and for our Land.