Chasidut for Numbers 13:2
שְׁלַח־לְךָ֣ אֲנָשִׁ֗ים וְיָתֻ֙רוּ֙ אֶת־אֶ֣רֶץ כְּנַ֔עַן אֲשֶׁר־אֲנִ֥י נֹתֵ֖ן לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל אִ֣ישׁ אֶחָד֩ אִ֨ישׁ אֶחָ֜ד לְמַטֵּ֤ה אֲבֹתָיו֙ תִּשְׁלָ֔חוּ כֹּ֖ל נָשִׂ֥יא בָהֶֽם׃
’Send thou men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel; of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a prince among them.’
Kedushat Levi
Numbers 13,2. “send out men for your own satisfaction.”
We have a rule that when an Israelite arrives at a place where he serves the Lord, all the ”sparks” (that had fallen to earth from the Shechinah on account of some misdemeanour) that are scattered around him, feel ashamed in the presence of such people.
[The expression ניצוצות, sparks, occurs both as something material, though not tangible, in the writings of Maimonides for instance, examples hilchot Shabbat 28/25 and hilchot tefillin 4,18, whereas in Yalkut Shimoni, i.e. midrashic exegesis, it occurs as more esoteric, though not as applicable to purely spiritual beings as in kabbalah. Up until this point, our author always used the term for spiritual concepts such as “fallen angels.” At this point I am not quite sure how to understand his reference to it. Ed.]
In the Talmud Shabbat 31 we read that G’d created the universe only in order that His creatures be in awe of Him. (opinion of Rabbi Yehudah) The scriptural “proof” for this opinion quoted is Kohelet 3,14 והאלוקים עשה שייראו מלפניו, “and G’d has acted so that [man] should stand in awe of Him.” Accordingly, it appears that the author understands the word ניצוצות here as negative forces that obstruct man in his quest to fulfill the Creator’s commandments. When these negative forces (commonly called Satan) observe how man goes out of his way to fulfill G’d’s commandments, they become ashamed, and while in that state man can easily overcome their feeble efforts to distract him from serving G’d. (and, according to our author elevate these negative forces to a higher spiritual level in the process of his worshipping Gd.) There is, however, a limitation to the statement expressed in the rule expressed at the beginning of our exegesis, and this is that the rule that the person wishing to worship G’d can overcome external obstacles is based on the premise that he himself has freed himself of subjective, sensually influenced considerations when setting out to perform one of G’d’s commandments.
The choice of the words שלח, at the beginning of our portion is reminiscent of Genesis 37:32 where Onkelos translates the word וישלחו, commonly translated as: “they sent,” as ושלחו, “they stripped” [Joseph of his striped coat, the personification of his earthly aspirations. Ed.]
We have a rule that when an Israelite arrives at a place where he serves the Lord, all the ”sparks” (that had fallen to earth from the Shechinah on account of some misdemeanour) that are scattered around him, feel ashamed in the presence of such people.
[The expression ניצוצות, sparks, occurs both as something material, though not tangible, in the writings of Maimonides for instance, examples hilchot Shabbat 28/25 and hilchot tefillin 4,18, whereas in Yalkut Shimoni, i.e. midrashic exegesis, it occurs as more esoteric, though not as applicable to purely spiritual beings as in kabbalah. Up until this point, our author always used the term for spiritual concepts such as “fallen angels.” At this point I am not quite sure how to understand his reference to it. Ed.]
In the Talmud Shabbat 31 we read that G’d created the universe only in order that His creatures be in awe of Him. (opinion of Rabbi Yehudah) The scriptural “proof” for this opinion quoted is Kohelet 3,14 והאלוקים עשה שייראו מלפניו, “and G’d has acted so that [man] should stand in awe of Him.” Accordingly, it appears that the author understands the word ניצוצות here as negative forces that obstruct man in his quest to fulfill the Creator’s commandments. When these negative forces (commonly called Satan) observe how man goes out of his way to fulfill G’d’s commandments, they become ashamed, and while in that state man can easily overcome their feeble efforts to distract him from serving G’d. (and, according to our author elevate these negative forces to a higher spiritual level in the process of his worshipping Gd.) There is, however, a limitation to the statement expressed in the rule expressed at the beginning of our exegesis, and this is that the rule that the person wishing to worship G’d can overcome external obstacles is based on the premise that he himself has freed himself of subjective, sensually influenced considerations when setting out to perform one of G’d’s commandments.
The choice of the words שלח, at the beginning of our portion is reminiscent of Genesis 37:32 where Onkelos translates the word וישלחו, commonly translated as: “they sent,” as ושלחו, “they stripped” [Joseph of his striped coat, the personification of his earthly aspirations. Ed.]
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Toldot Yaakov Yosef
(208) And we will begin by explaining the verses of the portion "Send to you men" (Numbers 13:2-18) ... and they will spy the land I am giving you ... and he said 'go up the Negev and up the mountain and see' ... and the doubts increased. And also why does it say 'go up the hill'?
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