"See, I have placed the Land before you, come and inherit the Land which G-d swore He would give to your ancestors..."

In the very first passages of this weeks Torah portion Moshe teaches his people a vital lesson with contemporary significance.

In his commentary on this passage Rashi explains that Moshe had told the people he had led out of Egypt that they would inherit Eretz Yisrael without even waging war. It was their lack of faith in G-d, expressed in sending spies to scout the Land to see if it was worth inheriting, which caused them to forfeit this Divine promise of unopposed conquest.

The agony suffered by the victims of disengagement and their supporters is undoubtedly a result of the governments inability to stand up to international pressure and the wishful thinking of some of our leaders that removing Jewish settlers will achieve greater security against Palestinian terrorists. The message of Moshes words is that when Jews put all of their faith in force alone they are compelled to resort to force for their survival. The particular tragedy of our time is that force is directed not only at our enemies but at our brothers as well.