Comentario sobre Deuteronómio 1:22

ותקרבון אלי כלכם AND YE APPROACHED ME ALL OF YOU — all of you: in a crowd. But further on (Deuteronomy 5:20, 21) it states, “Ye approached me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders, and ye said, Behold [the Eternal our God] hath shown us [His glory and His greatness]’’: That approach to me was a fitting one — young people showing respect to their elders, letting these precede them, and the elders showing respect to the heads of the tribes that these should precede them. Here, however, ye approached me, all of you, in a crowd, the young pushing aside their olders, the elders pushing aside the heads (Sifrei Devarim 20:1).

AND BRING US BACK WORD OF THE WAY BY WHICH WE MUST GO UP. “There is no road which does not have crooked segments. AND THE CITIES UNTO WHICH WE SHALL COME — first to capture.” This is Rashi’s language. And so it is also stated in the Sifre:⁹⁹Sifre, Devarim 20. “There is no road which does not have crooked parts. There is no road which does not have traps. There is no road which does not have intersections. And the cities unto which we shall come — so that we may know by which road to come.” That is to say, from which direction we are to come into the Land so that we may capture those cities first. This is as I explained in the section Shelach Lecha¹⁰⁰Numbers, at the beginning of Chapter 13. that the Israelites requested spies only to show them the way.

ותקרבון אלי כלכם, even though you had leaders appointed to act as your representatives, appointed to concern themselves with your communal concerns, you all ganged up on me.

את הדרך אשר נעלה בה, “the road in which we should ascend, etc.” This is a reference to the initial steps prior to the conquest. The spies (people) did not voice any other purpose of the spies’ mission than to select the most effective route of approach.

ותקרבון אלי כלכם, “and all of you approached me;” the people did not come to Moses as a delegation in an orderly fashion but they mobbed him. (Sifri Devarim 20).

In a hodgepodge, etc. Rashi is answering the question: What is the rebuke in this statement?

VV. 22 u. 23. ׳וייטב וגו׳ ותקרבון וגו (siehe zu Kap. 13, 2).

ויחפרו לנו, “and espy on our behalf;” the expression חפר describes someone searching for something, generally below the surface of the earth; the principal meaning is to search for something which has been deliberately hidden. (Ibn Ezra)

וישבו אתנו דבר AND THEY SHALL BRING US WORD — i.e. they shall report to us in what language they speak (Sifrei Devarim 20:3).

נשלחה אנשים, “we ourselves want to appoint these men and dispatch them.” This was something G’d did not approve of, and this is why He told Moses: “you dispatch them!” (Numbers 13,2) The men that were to spy out the land were to be appointed by Moses himself, not by a mob. G’d was afraid that the people would appoint totally unsuitable people to be their spies. The Torah had therefore made a point of reporting that the men selected for this task by Moses were all known as outstanding people, כלם אנשים, including such men as Joshua and Calev. Even those among them, who in the end expressed their belief that they could not hope to conquer this land, did not have the effrontery to badmouth the land itself, but praised it as an excellent land. This was also why it was possible for the people to repent their sin, i.e. they had made a faulty judgment in believing the 10 spies’ assessment of the chances of conquering the land. (compare Numbers 13, 41-45.

ויחפרו לנו את הארץ, “so that they will spy out the land on our behalf.” The reason that the Torah uses the term חפר for what was really רגול, spying, is that digging is designed to uncover hidden objects; spying is also designed to reveal hidden things.

What language they speak. Otherwise, why is “word” needed? The purpose of knowing which language they speak is in order to detect if one of the seven nations dressed up like another nation. Then the Jewish People would recognize the hoax and be able to uphold the commandment, “Do not leave anyone alive (below 20:16).” This is not possible unless they knew which language they spoke so then they knew from which nation they are. Also, there are other explanations given on this matter.

את הדרך אשר נעלה בה BY WHAT WAY WE MUST GO UP — you will rarely find a road in which there is not some zigzag course (Sifrei Devarim 20:4).

There is no road in which there are no winding curves. Otherwise, for what purpose did they ask the spies which road to go upon? Certainly, whichever city they wished to conquer they would go up on that particular road.

ואת הערים אשר נבא אליהן AND UNTO WHAT CITIES WE SHALL COME first to capture them (cf. Sifrei Devarim 20:5).

[Which cities] will we have to capture first. Rashi is answering the question: The phrase, “And the cities,” implies that they will not go to every city. Yet this is not true, for they will inherit the entire land. For this reason Rashi explains: “Which cities... first.”