[Avodah] arei sfar

[Zev Sero]

On 31/05/2011 3:33 AM, Eli Turkel wrote:
> <<The law about border towns is *about* safety.>>
>
> Anyone have idea of what the defintion of arei sfar is today in the era of
> Katyusha rockets reaching Haifa and Ashkelon

The same as it ever was.  Territory is still the most important strategic
asset.  And the test is still the same as it ever was: "shelo tehei
ha'aretz nocha likavesh lifneihem".  Should the other side decide to
invade the country, will possessing the town in question make their job
easier?  Then we may not surrender it, and must fight to keep it.

Note that this means we go into a vadai war now, in order to preserve
our strategic position in a hypothetical war later.  We knowingly risk
our soldiers' lives now, to save future soldiers' lives in a war that
the other side assures us they have no intention of ever waging.  The
other side says give us this territory and we will have peace, and you
won't have to worry about a future invasion; and the Torah tells us
we *must* ignore this argument, and we *must* assume that sooner or
later there will be an invasion, and we must take up arms, even on
Shabbos, to prevent these "peace-loving" people from occupying an area
that will help them in that hypothetical future invasion.  This isn't
agadah, it's halacha pesukah without a single dissenter; and it applies
even in Nehardeah, kol shekein in EY.

In practical terms there is almost nowhere that is *not* an "arei sfar"
nowadays.  Perhaps, ironically, kever yosef is an exception; of no
strategic value and too hard to defend, and thus a military liability.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                      - Margaret Thatcher