The beginning of this Sidra has a connexion with the end of the previous one: the people of the Tribes of Gad and Re'uven had been granted their request and, together with some of the Tribe of Menasheh, had been given the land of Transjordan as their portion of the Land. Now, just prior to the rest of the Jewish People likewise taking possession of the Holy Land, the Torah lists the journeys and stations of the People on their travels from Egypt. The actual localities of the named places in this list are mostly unknown to us today with any certainty, but our Chachommim, of blessed memory, point out for us the lessons that we are to derive from the names of these places (especially as many of these places are called by different names elsewhere in the Torah) and they tell us that the specific names are given so that the events that occurred in these places should be remembered — with their lessons. Indeed, as if to underline this point, the Torah gives some places names which recall events that occurred rather than their own known names, for it is not so much the actual places which are important as much as what happened there.
It was in the Plains of Mo'av, on the banks of the River Yardayn, facing opposite the town of Yericho that HaShem commanded Mosheh our Teacher to tell us how we are to re-possess the Holy Land of our Forefathers. Right at the outset, we are warned yet again (for we had been commanded this a number of times previously) that we must get rid of all forms of idol worship in the Holy Land. All kinds of monuments to idol worship that the inhabitants had erected in our absence must be destroyed as soon as we return to our inheritance: the influence of any alien cults must be totally eradicated from the Holy Land of Eretz Yisroel, says HaShem. The Torah warns that if we do not cleanse the Holy Land from its pagans and their influence, then those that remain will eventually impose themselves upon us and will oppress us. Gradually, their abominable ways will corrupt us, too, and, because we did not heed HaShem's warning, we will bring down His anger upon our own heads.
A great number of Mitzvos apply only in Eretz Yisroel and for this reason the Torah describes the limits of the Holy Land and its borders. The Sidra also lists the names of the representative Princes of each Tribe, each one to act as trustee for his people and to apportion to each family its fair parcel of land as and when it became available for repossession and settlement, all as directed by HaShem.
The Tribe of Levi, however, was not given its own portion in the Land like the other Tribes received, just as commanded by HaShem. Instead, forty-eight cities throughout Eretz Yisroel are to be given to the people of the Tribe of Levi from the other Tribes, each Tribe setting aside a number of cities proportional to the size of the territory that it received and also depending on its proximity to other Levite Cities, and with each of the Levites' Cities was a “green belt” all round.
All the forty-eight cities of the Levi'im serve two functions. Firstly, they obviously are the places where the families of the Tribe of Levi live. (This includes also the Kohannim and their families, for the Kohannim are a branch of the Tribe of Levi.) And secondly, all forty-
