[Avodah] Where was Dan?

[Akiva Miller]

.
Avram went searching for Lot, and Bereshis 14:14 tells us that he went as
far as "Dan". Where was this place?

Radak writes on this pasuk, <<< It was named based on its future. When
Moshe Rabenu wrote this, it was not yet called such, but it was called
"Leshem". When the Bnei Dan conquered it, they called it "Dan" after their
ancestor. (Shoftim 18:29) And it is possible that it was some other place
that was called as such in those days. >>>

To me, Radak's second thought (that there was a place called Dan even in
Moshe's days) is much more reasonable than the first. Why would Moshe write
down a word that was meaningless to the people of his generation? When they
learned this parsha, what did it mean to them?

There are many words in the Torah which WE do not understand. A great
example is the names of certain species, especially the birds. But I've
always presumed that "Dibrah Torah b'lashon bnei Adam" means (among other
things) that the vocabulary used by the Torah consisted of words
understandable to the people of Moshe's generation. Even if a particular
species was extinct or foreign to the area, the Jews of the time must have
had at least some understanding of the names.

This should have been true of place names as well. If the Torah is meant to
be learned, then it must be learnable, to everyone since the day it was
written. I find it hard to imagine someone telling his chavrusa, "No one
knows where this 'Dan' is, but someday, there will be a place with that
name, and then we'll know far Avram went." Really? Moshe could just as well
have written that Avram went to Kiryat Shmonah!

Can anyone explain Radak's first answer to me? advTHANKSance!

Akiva Miller
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