In this week’s parsha the Torah relates the death of Aharon haKohen. The verse states that the Cannanite King had been afraid to start up with Israel until this point. But now he heard something (Vayishma haCannani…) that caused him to wage war with Israel. The Talmud, in the tractate Rosh Hashannah, explains that he heard that Aharon haKohen had died. Aharon’s death caused the Clouds of Glory to depart. The Canaanite King took this as a signal that permission was given to wage war against Israel. What was it about the loss of Aharon that now made the Jewish people vulnerable to attack from their enemies?
The Ateres Mordechai quotes the teaching of the Sages: Aharon haKohen was a Rodef Shalom, who preserved peace in Klal Yisroel. Once Aharon was gone, machlokes broke out; people fought among themselves, and Bnai Yisroel became vulnerable to external attack.
The Ateres Mordechai further connects this idea with the verse in parshas Lech-Lecha: “There was a quarrel between the shepherds of Avram and the shepherds of Lot. And the Cannani was then in the land.” What is the significance of the “Cannani was then in the land?” This, notes the Ateres Mordechai, is the same idea that we find here in our parsha: As long as there was peace between the shepherds of Avram and Lot, their unity was a guarantee of protection from external enemies; but as soon as quarrels broke out, then there was a cause for worry about the Cannani being in the land. When there are quarrels among the Jewish people, they become vulnerable to attack from external enemies.
