The City of Luz in Which No One Died

Hello,

It is brought in the Book of Judges (chapter 1, verse 23) that the House of Joseph wanted to conquer Bethel, which had previously been called Luz. To do so, they first sent spies to scout the place.

There (verse 24) it says: "And the watchmen saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him: Show us, please, the entrance to the city, and we will deal kindly with you."

The reason the spies did not know the way into the city is as Rashi brought there from the Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah, section 69, paragraph 7), that they would enter the city through a cave, and there was a luz tree standing at the mouth of the cave, and they would enter through the luz into the cave. He also wrote there that a luz is a tree on which small nuts grow.

That man agreed to show them the way into the city, and as it says there (verse 25): "And he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but the man and all his family they sent away."

Then it says there (verse 26): "And the man went to the land of the Hittites, built a city, and called its name Luz, which is its name until this day."

And the Gemara says in tractate Sotah (46b): It is taught: This is Luz, where they dye techelet, this is Luz that Sennacherib came and did not confuse, Nebuchadnezzar came and did not destroy. And even the Angel of Death has no permission to pass through it, except for the elders among them; when their minds become weary of them, they go outside the wall and die.

The Gemara continues and says: Is this not an a fortiori argument? If this Canaanite, who did not speak with his mouth and did not walk with his feet, caused salvation for himself and for his descendants until the end of all generations, one who accompanies another on foot, all the more so.

With blessing,

Hillel Meirs