Stage One - Conquest (the first seven years in Eretz Yisrael)
Yehoshua must attain overall military control of the country. This is accomplished by defeating the standing armies of the existing nations to the point that they no longer pose a threat to Bnei Yisrael's survival, including control of the main highways, high hills and strategic intersections etc. Yehoshua reaches this stage of conquest at the conclusion of the first seven years.
Stage Two - Apportionment including the Lottery
Begins at the beginning of the eighth year and continues for the second set of seven years where it becomes the responsibility of each and every tribe to complete that conquest, i.e. to go from hill to hill, set up cities and industries etc. This is not a job for the joint army of all twelve tribes rather this must be accomplished at the tribal level and considered part of the apportionment.
The apportionment of the land might have also taken seven years since included, among other steps:
- sending out commissioners to survey it (Yehoshua 18,4ff);
- evaluating the worth of the individual regions and plots of land, to make sure that the division would be equitable (Rashi to Bemidbar 26,54);
- designating which roads would be private vs. public, depending on their grade (Eruvin 22b);
- assigning a plot to each adult male Jew living at that time, then dividing again based on the identities of the Jews who had left Egypt (Bava Basra 117a and Rashbam there ד"ה אלא; Rashi to Bemidbar 26,55);
- and (perhaps only then) casting the lots and asking the urim vetumim which tribe would end up in which part of the land.
Sources: The Gemara (Arachim 13a) indicates that there is no explicit verse which states that the first fourteen years the Jews were in Eretz Yisroel comprised seven years of conquest and seven years of dividing the land. The Gemara first discovered that in order for a verse in Yechezkel to be explained, there must have been a fourteen-year delay before the counting of the shemitta and yovel cycles of years could commence.
Seven years of conquest
We determine seven years by analyzing a statement of Kailev, who was presented with the city of Chevron. In the verse (Yehoshua 14:7,10), he mentions that he was forty years old when he was sent by Moshe to spy the land. That was in the second year the Jews were in the desert. When he was given Chevron, he says that he was 85 years old. The Jews were in the desert for a total of 40 years, 38 of them after the episode of the spies and judgment to wander in the desert. Kailev was therefore 78 upon entering Eretz Yisroel, and he received Chevron seven years later, hence the seven years of conquest.
The seven years of dividing the land
The Gemara gives two sources. First of all, since we find that the years of conquest were seven, we can assume that the years of dividing were also seven. Additionally, the calculation of the fourteen years after the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash in the verse in Yechezkel can only be understood if the years of Shemittah did not begin until the Jews were in the land for fourteen years. If seven of those years were conquest, the remaining seven must have been years of dividing the land.
The Achronim (see Chazon Ish, Shvi’is #3) struggle to understand the first answer of the Gemara, that since we know that there were seven years of conquest there must have also been seven years of division. What is the reasoning of this statement?
Sefer Mutzal Me’Eish explains that we need all the reasons in order to arrive at a complete understanding. Kailev’s statement teaches that the conquest was seven years, and the statement of Yechezkel teaches that there were a total of fourteen years until Shemittah was counted, and the Gemara comments that it makes sense that the years of division were also seven, not less than those of conquest.
Entry into Eretz Yisrael 10th of Nissan 2488
7 years conquest, then 7 years apportionment 2489-2502
Shmittah cycle starts 2503
