What did they face? According to Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal midrashim on the book of Deuteronomy, it was…intense.
"And we journeyed from Chorev, and we went through all that great and fearful desert." A simple enough verse from Deuteronomy. (Deuteronomy 1:19). But the Rabbis didn't just read the words, they dove deep into their meaning. What exactly made the desert so "great and fearful"?
The Sages paint a vivid picture. We're talking snakes "as large as the beams of an olive press" and scorpions "as large as bows stretched out before them!" Can you even picture that? These weren't your garden-variety creepy crawlies. These were monstrous, unnatural threats.
Now, why tell us this? It's not just to give us the heebie-jeebies. The Sifrei Devarim uses this description to make a powerful argument: if God could subdue such unnatural, terrifying creatures for the Israelites, then surely He could help them overcome the "natural" obstacles that lay ahead – like, say, the seven nations inhabiting Canaan. If you can bench press a car, lifting a bag of groceries is nothing. It’s that kind of logic.
This is what's called an a fortiori argument. Basically, if something is true in one case, it's even more true in a stronger, related case. If God could conquer the super-sized snakes and scorpions, conquering the Canaanites would be a piece of cake, relatively speaking.
But there's more. The next verse, Deuteronomy 1:20, states, "And I said to you… as the L-rd… has spoken." Here, Moses is reminding the people that he isn't just speaking his own mind. He's conveying a message, a divine directive. It's not Moses saying "you got this;" it's God speaking through Moses, reassuring them that victory is assured.
Sifrei Devarim emphasizes that Moses isn't acting on his own authority. He's a messenger, a conduit for the Divine will. This reinforces the idea that the upcoming battles aren't just about military might, but about faith and obedience.
So, what can we take away from this little glimpse into Sifrei Devarim? It’s a reminder that even when faced with overwhelming odds, there’s a deeper power at play. The challenges we face, no matter how daunting, may be less significant than the power that sustains us. And sometimes, the messenger is just as important as the message itself, reminding us to listen closely to the voices that guide us.