The Trespass of Akhan

This lesson considers the trespass of Akhan and its terrible consequences for the entire people of Israel. The core lesson of this tale is the indispensable bond of Jewish nationhood that tightly links all the people of Israel together, to the extent that the fortunes of the larger community or even the national grouping are sometimes affected by the acts of an individual. Having begun the process of settling the land, the formerly twelve disparate tribes will need to quickly assimilate the painful lesson of Akhan if they are to survive as a state. All human acts, of omission or commission, of good or evil, of selfish greed or altruistic love, impact upon the larger human and even cosmic reality of which the perpetrator and his innocuous deed represent only small but not insignificant parts.