From: "Yeshivat Har Etzion's
Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
To: yhe-intparsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject: INTPARSHA -37: Parashat Shelach
Yeshivat
Har Etzion
Israel Koschitzky Virtual
Beit Midrash
Introduction
to Parashat HaShavua
Parashat Shelach - The Sending of the
Spies
By
Michael Hattin
Introduction
Parashat Shelach, which describes the abortive mission
of the Spies, constitutes one of the darkest chapters in the
narratives of the Torah. Dispatched by Moshe at
God's
behest, these twelve chosen men enthusiastically commence
their mission. After completing a lengthy and thorough
survey of the land and its inhabitants, the Spies return
forty days later with their findings. The anxious people of
Israel, having just earlier left the protective environment
of Mount Sinai to begin their auspicious march towards the
land of Canaan, are suddenly thrown into a panic by the
negative and ominous report of the Spies. The
forward
advance of the people is suddenly halted;
instead of
confidently and triumphantly entering the Land, they are
instead condemned to aimlessly wander the wilderness until
the generation that had left Egypt dies out.
The details of the narrative
are straightforward
enough: "God spoke to Moshe saying: 'send men on your behalf
(shelach lekha) to search out the Land of Canaan that I am
giving to Bnei Yisrael. Send one man from each tribe, and
each one of them a leader.' Moshe sent them from Midbar
Paran according to God's command. All of
them were
chieftains of the people. These were their
names."
(BeMidbar 13:1-3). It is clear from these verses that the
command to send the Spies was promulgated by God, and that
it was by His will that each
tribe dispatched a
representative.
"Moshe sent them to search out the land of Canaan. He said
to them: 'go up by the south and ascend into the
hill
country. Search out the terrain; ascertain whether the
inhabitants are weak or strong, few or numerous. Determine
if the land in which they dwell is good or not, and if their
cities are unfortified or walled. See if the
land is
fertile or arid, forested or barren; be courageous and take
from the fruits of the land.' During that time, the grapes
were beginning to ripen." (Bemidbar 13:17-20). Careful to
provide precise and detailed guidelines
for the
reconnaissance mission, Moshe sends them off. There can be
no doubt from this account that Moshe, as the people's
singular leader and God's appointed prophet, is
the
instrumental figure in executing the mandate to send the
Spies.
The Account in Sefer Devarim
It is highly surprising that in the parallel account of
the sending of the Spies narrated in the Book of Devarim, it
is the people of Israel who are charged with culpability for
the disaster. It should be understood that the Book of
Devarim is, on the whole, a restatement of the Torah's laws
as well as a retelling of the most significant episodes in
the history of the people since their Exodus. Sefer Devarim
is narrated by Moshe, primarily in the first person, from
the perspective afforded by almost forty years of
the
wanderings.
Recalling the journey from Sinai, Moshe exclaims:
"We
traveled from Chorev and traversed that great and awesome
wilderness that you saw, by way of the mountain of the
Amorites, as God commanded us, and we came to Kadesh Barnea.
I said to you: 'you have arrived at the mountain of the
Amorites that God our Lord is giving to us. Behold God your
Lord has given you the land; go up and possess it, as God
the Lord of your ancestors spoke, be neither frightened nor
afraid'" (Devarim 1: 19-21). As Moshe recalls, the people
journeyed from Mount Sinai and soon thereafter stood at
Kadesh Barnea, at the southern approach to Canaan. Flushed
with anticipation and full of expectation, Moshe exhorted
them to be confident and assured of God's support.
Moshe continues his recollection of those fateful days:
"All of you drew near to me and said: 'let us send
men
before us to search out the land. They will report back to
us concerning the way by which we should attack,
and
concerning the cities that we will encounter.' I viewed the
matter positively and I took from among you twelve men, one
for each tribe. They turned and went up by way of the hill
country and came to the brook of Eshkol, and spied it out.
They took from the fruit of the land and brought it back to
us and reported: 'the land that God our Lord is giving us is
good.' You, however, did not want to go up and you rebelled
against the words of God your Lord." (Devarim 1:22-26).
Two Different Accounts and Two Different Resolutions: (1)
Rashi
It is with respect to this above passage that the most
glaring inconsistencies emerge. According to
Moshe's
account, it is the people who initiate the Spies' mission by
requesting of him to send men. It is the people who set the
agenda of that journey by seeking to establish the route of
their entry. Remarkably, Moshe endorses
their plan
wholeheartedly, and sanctions their selection of the twelve
men. How is it possible to settle the two accounts, the one
of Parashat Shelach and the one of Parashat Devarim? The
facts concerning the launching of the tragic episode seem to
be in irreconcilable dispute. The commentaries adopt a
number of different approaches, and we shall look at the
explanations of two of them, Rashi (11th century, France)
and the Ramban (13th century, Spain).
Rashi explains: 'Shelach lekha' literally means 'send
for you' and implies 'sending for your own sake.' "I (God)
am not commanding you to send spies, but if you so desire
you may send them." This was because the people approached
Moshe and said 'let us send men before us to search out the
land.' Moshe sought the counsel of God. God responded: 'I
have already told them that it is a goodly land,' as the
verse states "I will take you out of the oppression of Egypt
to the place of the Canaanite and the Chittite, the Amorite
and the Perizzite, the Chivite and the Yevusite, to a land
flowing with milk and honey." (Shemot 3:8). By their lives,
(said God), I will allow them to err through the report of
the Spies, in order that they will not possess it!' (Rashi,
13:2).
Rashi, like the rest of the classical
commentaries,
accepts the basic integrity of the received text,
and
therefore understands that the two accounts are
both
correct; in fact it is the very same incident that is being
described. The dual versions are not the
result of
'careless editing' but rather are a deliberate breakdown of
the episode into its constituent parts. As Moshe reports in
the Book of Devarim, the people DID initiate the mission by
approaching him with their request. Moshe, after consulting
God, acquiesced and the twelve men were
sent. But,
according to Rashi, the sending of the Spies betrayed a lack
of trust on the part of the people. Had God not already
informed them quite early on, on the eve of the Exodus, that
the land was a good land and that He would cause them to
enter it? God senses the people's doubts and allows them
the possibility of overcoming those doubts by sending the
Spies if they so desire. At the same time, this allowance
necessarily introduces to the equation the potential of
failure, for if the Spies return with an unsettling report,
the consequences stand to be disastrous.
A Test of Trust
For Rashi, the sending of the Spies thus
becomes an
elaborate test of the people's trust in God, and it is their
equivocation that precipitates the mission. According to
Rashi, "shelach lekha" - literally "send for you" - is not
simply a Biblical idiom but rather an expression
that
captures the essence of their struggle for faith. God's
seeming command to send the Spies is actually to be read as
a response and a reaction, for by approaching Moshe with
their request, the people have laid bare their deep need for
empirical confirmation of His longstanding assurances.
Rashi's interpretation, though it provides a profound
insight into the mechanics of trust and the human need for
failure in order to effect spiritual maturation, seems to
founder on textual grounds. For Rashi, the initiative of
the people is the critical element that
drives the
narrative, by constituting the essential justification for
the mission in the first place. Yet the Parasha in Shelach
Lekmakes not even the slightest allusion to the people's
pivotal role in the decision to dispatch the Spies. Instead
we have a divine imperative that is introduced 'ex nihilo,'
with no implications that God's command is in fact
in
response to this critical introductory episode.
Conversely, in Parashat Devarim where the people's role
is highlighted, Moshe's unqualified endorsement of their
plan is, if we are to
accept Rashi's reading,
incomprehensible. After all, their request was indicative
of a lack of trust in God's promise and yet the
text
indicates that Moshe found their plan to "be good in (his)
eyes." How could Moshe support their plan when he knew that
it betrayed a faltering and failing faith? Rashi
was
himself aware of this difficulty, for he recasts Moshe's
seeming approval as a clever ploy of reverse psychology: "I
(Moshe) favored your request for I had expected that as a
result you would withdraw the plan. By not opposing the
sending of the Spies, I had hoped that you would realize the
redundancy of such a mission, but you did not
retract"
(Rashi, Devarim 1:23). Obviously, this explanation, though
notable in its own right, constitutes a
substantial
departure from the plain meaning and inference of the text.
(2) Ramban
The Ramban's commentary on the episode of the Spies and
the dual accounts of Parashat Shelach and Parashat Devarim
is a lengthy masterpiece. In his remarks he addresses the
major textual and thematic difficulties of the passages and
resolves most of them with aplomb. Ramban in actuality
offers a number of variations on his basic interpretation,
and we shall confine our discussion
to the most
straightforward of these.
Ramban explains: "The solution to the
matter is to
posit that Bnei Yisrael indeed approached Moshe with their
plan to send spies. Such is the practice of any people that
embarks on the conquest of foreign territory to send scouts
ahead, to ascertain the route of attack and to uncover the
weaknesses of the enemy cities. These scouts would then
serve as the guides for the attacking forces.Therefore the
people explained 'let us send men before us to search out
the land. They will report back to us concerning the way by
which we should attack, and concerning the cities that we
will encounter' (Devarim 1:22), for such a plan is eminently
reasonable.Did not Moshe do the same (38 years later as the
people were preparing to enter the territory of the Amorites
- see BeMidbar 21:32)? Didn't Joshua later send spies to
pave the way for the attack on Jericho (see Yehoshua 2:1)?
Moshe found their plan favorable, for the Torah does not
expect us to rely on miraculous Divine intervention. Those
who must wage war are rather expected to prepare and to
develop appropriate strategies to ensure victory."
The Appropriateness of the People's Request
Unlike Rashi, who saw in the people's request a serious
lapse of trust, Ramban argues that their desire to send
spies was in fact the most appropriate of petitions. Moshe,
according to the narrative in Parashat Devarim, endorsed
their plan without reservations because he felt that it was
eminently correct. This is because the Torah does
not
demand of us that we rely on Divine assurances of effortless
success, for that is an otherworldly expression of faith and
trust that denies the reality of this world. Quite the
contrary, the Torah obliges us to utilize all of our human
capabilities and resources in order to triumph, all the
while remaining cognizant that it is God
alone Who
determines the outcome.
Although superficially this form of faith appears more
shallow, for it tends to stress the contribution of the
human element, it is in fact much more profound. This is
because such a trust introduces the
possibility of
recognizing God's intense engagement not only in
the
infrequent extraordinary occurrences, but more importantly
in all of those more numerous aspects of living that we tend
to associate with predictability and the natural course of
events. The God of Israel 'who in His goodness renews the
Act of Creation daily and at every moment' is
deeply
involved in our daily lives, though those lives may appear
to be unfolding according to a routine and conventional
script. A god of miraculous and supernatural interventions,
on the other hand, tends to foster a relationship with the
world that may inspire awe, but that does not
nurture
commitment.
The Divine Imperative
Why then is this critical introduction absent from our
Parasha? Why does the account in Parashat Shelach present
the mission of the Spies as a Divine initiative rather than
as a response to the people's scheme? The Ramban continues:
"The matter was that Bnei Yisrael requested the mission and
Moshe approved. Thereafter, the command from God came to
Moshe after the manner of the other commands of the Torah,
for God said simply: 'send thou men.' God continued: 'let
them search out the land that I give to Bnei Yisrael' for
His command was presented as a new statement that did not
relate to the previous events at all. This was because His
desire was that the mission should succeed, that it should
be undertaken at His command and that it should involve the
chieftains of the people and include all of the tribes, for
this might tilt the outcome towards success."
Ingeniously, the Ramban interprets the omission of the
people's request from our Parasha as a deliberate move on
God's part. Aware of the people's request
but also
omniscient of the tragic outcome, God prefers to feign
indifference to their plan. Instead, His command
is
presented ex cathedra, for He pronounces the desire for the
mission as a Divine imperative. In so doing, God removes
the grave onus for the mission from the people. His decree
will at least ensure that the process for selecting the
Spies will yield the best possible candidates and will
involve all of the tribes. Otherwise, if the men for the
mission are chosen by the people, some of the applicants
will no doubt be appointed not as a function of
their
fitness for the task, but rather as a result of political
maneuvering. Additionally, if the appointments are left
entirely in the people's hands, some tribes
may be
unrepresented; if the mission fails, the unity of the people
will be severely compromised.
Thus, unlike Rashi who sees in God's command a grudging
acquiescence and the presentation of a challenge, Ramban
understands it as an expression of Divine compassion, as a
benevolent attempt to create the most favorable conditions
for the mission to succeed. Both Rashi and Ramban grapple
with the same textual difficulties, but choose to resolve
these difficulties in very different
ways. Both
interpretations, it should be stressed, introduce themes for
discussion that are noteworthy in their own right. The
student, as always, is left to ponder the respective merits
of both approaches, for important lessons emerge either way.
One stands in awe of the Biblical text itself, that even
through its omissions, can communicate penetrating truths
concerning the human condition and our relationship with
God, as consequential now as when the events unfolded over
three thousand years ago.
Shabbat Shalom
YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433
Copyright (c) 1999 Yeshivat Har Etzion
All Rights Reserved
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Weekly Sabbath Torah Reading/Commentary: Parashat Shlach Lecha --
(Numbers 13:1-15:41)
Commentary on the Weekly Sabbath Torah Reading for 28 Sivan, 5760
by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
Chief Rabbi of Efrat;
Ever since the Exodus from Egypt, setbacks have plagued the
nation -- disillusionments, complaints, rebellions -- but the
reconnaissance mission in our portion of SHLACH is the straw that
breaks the camel's back: the egregious sin of the spies.
The tragedy of the evil report of ten out of twelve "Princes" of
Israel on that fateful ninth day of Av -- subsequently the memorial
day of both destroyed Temples -- reverberates throughout Jewish
history, and for good reason!
How can a people whose entire raison d'etre was to enter the land of
Israel to unfold their destiny as a holy nation, suddenly turn around
and subvert this goal because of an intelligence report! How can the
grandchildren of Abraham, whose first command from G-d was "Get thee
forth from thy land, thy birthplace, thy father's house to the land
(of Israel) which I shall show thee", cast aside the greatest goal of
the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, of Joseph, Moses and Aaron, and decide
to choose the desert over the land?
How can the generation which witnessed the stupendous miracles of the
Egyptian plagues and the splitting of the Red Sea throw out the entire
book of Genesis, whose closing verses although framed in Egypt, leave
no doubt in anyone's mind as to the ultimate direction of the Jewish
people.
"And Joseph said unto his brethren: I die, but G-d will surely
remember you, and bring you up out of this land unto the land which He
swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of
the children of Israel saying, G-d will surely remember you, and you
shall carry up my bones from here (to be buried in the land of
Israel)." [Genesis 50:24-25]
How then is it possible for the Israelites to suddenly abandon their
destiny just because conquering the land is not entirely risk-free!
To understand what's going on, we have to consider the figure who
virtually on his own resists the trampling of the defectors, Caleb the
son of Yefuneh.
When the report of the scouts is finally presented to the nation, the
wondrous fruits of a land of milk and honey are drastically
compromised and rendered meaningless in light of the dangerous types
who inhabit the terrain, the giant Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, who
become the focus of the descriptive account (Numbers 13:28). Alone
among the spies, Caleb steps forward and "....stilled the people
toward Moses and said, 'We should go up at once and possess it (the
land) for we are well able to overcome it." [Numbers 13:30]
Take note that Caleb emphasized "it", the land, totally ignoring the
daunting inhabitants previously depicted. From his perspective, "it"
is our only homeland: we are well able to overcome all obstacles -
because we must! The masses respond by switching the subject away
from the land and back to the strength of its inhabitants: "We are
not able to go against THOSE PEOPLE, for they are stronger than we."
[Numbers 13:31]
Why are the people's attention turned towards the inimical local
population, and why do they seem apathetic about the drama and destiny
hidden behind every slab of stone and scintilla of sand in the holy
land of Israel? How could the Princes of the Tribes have so easily
forgotten the goals of Genesis, the vision of our forbears, the
patrimony of our Patriarchs?
I'd like to suggest that in this exchange we have an early
manifestation of a very significant problem in Jewish life - two
radically different ways of carving out an identity, two antithetical
attitudes which are especially manifest in the ideological debate
threatening to tear asunder the very fabric of contemporary Israeli
society.
Apparently, the events in Egypt, the 210 years of slavery culminating
in an unexpected, miraculous escape was so overwhelming, that the vast
majority of the people began to look upon the Exodus as the beginning
of their new-found existence! Indeed, the very first of their newly
received and enthusiastically accepted Divine Commandments was, "This
month shall be unto you the beginning of months" [Exodus 12:2], a new
era is at hand, the first day of the rest of their lives, and the
first of the months of the year shall henceforth be NISSAN, the
anniversary of the exodus.
A new nation has little time for the memories of those remote
grandparents Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At best they remain relics of
an irrelevant past, their staffs and robes, coins and shards, featured
in special exhibits of the Lower East Nile Museum. The Israelites see
themselves as proud Exodus Jews, relegating the Book of Genesis to a
primary source for scholars of Ancient history.
The land so lovingly described and so hauntingly yearned for in the
Book of Genesis has no practical application for most of the survivors
of the Egyptian enslavement, for the majority of the heroes of the
Exodus. Their immediate logistical question is whether or not the
Israelites have a military advantage, the charms and traditions of a
particular land notwithstanding. If there is not a clear military
edge, then there's no point to continue. Besides, we may very well
make do in the desert, or even return to the exile of Egypt!
Not Caleb. It's not that he rejects the report as an exaggeration.
On the contrary, he was there, and can vouch for every word. He
carries another spirit within the essence of his being, the spirit of
the land of his ancestors, the pull of the G-d given destiny of his
nation.
Initially when Moses directs the tribal leaders to embark on their
'spy' mission, every reference is in the plural, as it should be since
the text is dealing with the 12 Scouts. But at one point, in
mid-verse, we find the following switch: "And THEY went up into the
south, but he came [vayavo] unto Hebron." [Numbers 13:22]
Rashi (1040-1105), the greatest and most popularly studied of our
Commentators, explains, "Caleb alone went there, and prostrated
himself on the graves of the ancestors."
Clearly, our Sage interpreters are attempting to explain the source
for the unique position of Caleb, and suggest that he understand that
the Exodus could only have emerged from the matrix which was Genesis,
that the source of the strength of the heroes who jumped into the Red
Sea were the teachings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Caleb's nation
was not born in Egypt, it was born in Hebron, Israel!
Hence, in the very next chapter, when G-d punishes the entire
generation because of the sin of the spies, "Surely they shall not see
the land which I swore unto their fathers..."
He makes one notable exception: "But my servant Caleb, because he had
another spirit...., him will I bring into the land..." [Numbers
14:23-24]
What kind of spirit? I would submit, the spirit of the love of the
land and Patriarchs of Israel!
This love of land and tradition is slowly vanishing in modern Israeli
"post-Zionist" society, a crisis discussed in great detail in a
ground-breaking book by Yoram Hazoni, THE JEWISH STATE. Hazoni
questions today's post Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir leadership who are
strongly urging rapprochement with the Arab world, even if it means
giving up Jewish settlements fraught with historical significance like
Hebron, Bet-El and Shilo. To this new generation the land of Israel
doesn't quite have the same significance as it did to their elders.
Even Shimon Peres, in his book, The New Middle East, urges a vision of
Israel as an economic super-power ala Hong Kong, where land assumes
far less importance when one creates a skyscraper society where the
high-tech geniuses of the Jewish people ply their wares from up high
in the penthouse!
In effect, the ideological struggle today in Israel can be seen as a
great divide between the Jews -- whose, sense of history goes back to
Abraham, and to Hebron, with a deep historical and cultural attachment
to the land of Jerusalem and to our Bible -- and the Israelis, for
whom the year 1948 represents a new beginning and a new culture, whose
epicenter is Tel Aviv and whose national literature is Amos Oz and
Shulamit Har Even.
Hazoni rightfully deplores the post-Zionist newly adopted history text
books of the State Schools of Israel, in which the War of Independence
is falsely depicted as the battle in which we banished the Resident
Arabs ("Palestinians"), and the Six Day War as the confrontation we
initiated in order to occupy Resident Arab ("Palestinian") lands.
If, indeed, our history begins in 1948, the Arabs have far more rights
to their land than we do, and perhaps we might return to Uganda in
order to fulfill our national aspirations. At the very least, a
bi-National State of Israel is in order. Only if we recognize our
4,000 year old roots to this land do we deserve to have finally come
home -- and no nation willingly gives up its homeland, especially
after experiencing the cruel vulnerability of homelessness.
The ten scouts were Exodus Israelis; Caleb and Joshua were also
Genesis Jews. Caleb looked back to Abraham; we need Israeli- Jewish
leadership which will look back to Caleb!
Shabbat Shalom from Efrat,
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
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