myself to adduce a historical example from Biblical times. When Joshua bin
Nun, the second Jewish redeemer, led the Jews to the Land of Israel, he waged
war against the peoples of Canaan and achieved one victory after another.
Among other things, he had to fight a battle at the fortified city of Ai, and it
was during that battle that the great miracle shemesh begiv’on dom veyare’ah
be’emek ayalon¹⁴⁹⁶ occurred. [16] The sun continued to shine at dusk, when it
was already time for sunset. Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer¹⁴⁹⁷ raises a logical question:
As we know, a miracle occurs only when the people [of Israel] are in such
great need that their very existence depends on it, as for example in the case
of the miracle of the manna, when the people had nothing to eat on their
way through the wilderness and the miracle of the manna was necessary in
order for them to survive. The same applies to the miracle of kriyat yam suf.¹⁴⁹⁸
As the people had no way of escaping from the enemy (the Egyptians), it was
necessary to part the sea in order to save them from destruction. The situation
regarding Joshua’s battle with the Canaanites at the city of Ai is quite different.
There, night was falling before the battle was finished. From the strategic
point of view, there was absolutely no need for the miracle of the sun
continuing to shine so that the battle could be finished in daylight, since all
decisive battles are fought only in the darkness of night when the enemy
cannot see what is going on. So Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer raises the question
as to why it was necessary to perform a miracle for no apparent purpose.
And the answer it gives is the following: the battle for the fortified city of
Ai took place on a Friday, on the eve of the Sabbath, and night was about to
fall before the fighting had ended. Joshua bin Nun realised that the fighting
would continue into the night and thereby [17] bring about a desecration of
the Sabbath. That was what he wanted to avoid, even though it was a milhemet
mitzvah,¹⁴⁹⁹ and that was what induced him to pray to Heaven for a miracle.
‘Master of the Universe,’ said Joshua bin Nun, ‘we are unwilling to desecrate
the Sabbath even in time of war. Send us a miracle so that the sun does not
set, the Sabbath does not yet begin, and Friday is prolonged.’ It was then, for
1496 (Hebrew) Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon (Joshua 10:12).
1497 (Aramaic) The Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer; an aggadic-midrashic work on the Torah containing exegesis and retellings of Biblical stories.
1498 (Hebrew) the parting of the Red Sea.
1499 (Hebrew) commanded war; a religiously sanctioned and mandated war.
