The Jordan River and the Leader Who Must Cross First

"Arise, cross the Jordan" (Joshua 1:2). Rabbi Chiyya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: Why is its name called Jordan [Yarden]? Because it descends [yored] from Dan. Rabbi Abba said to Rav Ashi: You teach it from there, but we teach it from here, for Rabbi Yitzchak said: Leshem is Pamias, and it is written, "and they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father" (Judges 18:29). It was taught: The Jordan issues from the cave of Pamias and flows through the Sea of Sivkhi and the Sea of Tiberias and the Sea of Sodom, and continues and falls into the Great Sea; and the Jordan proper is only from Beth-jericho and below. "You and all this people, to the land" (Joshua 1:2). And thus it says, "for he shall cross over before this people, and he shall give them the land as an inheritance" (Deuteronomy 3:28) -- if he crosses before them they inherit, and if not they do not inherit. And so you find that when they went to make war at Ai, about thirty-six men fell of them. "And the LORD said to Joshua, 'Arise!'" (Joshua 7:10) -- did not Moses your teacher say this: if you cross before them they cross, and if not they do not cross; if you give them the inheritance they inherit, and if not they do not inherit.