“And Jair the son of Manasseh went and took the small towns thereof, and called them Havoth-Jair. And Nobah went and took Kenath, and the villages thereof, and called it Nobah, after his own name.” (Numbers 32:41-42).
At the end of Parashas Mattos [the weekly Torah reading consisting of Numbers 30:2 through 32:42], the Torah discusses two individuals who captured lands in Ever HaYarden—the east side of the Jordan River—from their non-Jewish inhabitants. Jair conquered the villages in Gilead and renamed them Havoth-Jair—the villages of Jair. [The great rabbi] Rashi explains that because Jair had no children, he named the villages after himself as a means of memorializing his name. Additionally, Nobah captured Kenath and its suburbs and renamed them Nobah after himself. Based on a subtle grammatical difference between the two verses, Rashi writes that the name Havoth-Jair was enduring, but the name Nobah was fleeting and only temporary. What is the significance of the fact that the name given by one of them to the area he captured was lasting, while the other was short-lived?
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Author: Ozer Alport
Keywords: yetzer, yetzer hara, yetzer ha ra, yetser, yetser hara, yetser ha ra, evil inclination, evil urge, evil impulse, possessions, owning possessions, riches, materialism, material possessions, Jair, Naboh, cities of Jair, Havoth Jair
Bible reference(s): Numbers 32:41, Psalm 109:4, Ecc 2:7, Luk 12:15, 1Ti 6:7
Source: “How Do You Define Yourself?,” Hamodia, July 20, 2017.
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