민수기 13:35의 Musar

And in Parshath Shelach 259b: "The Holy One Blessed be He takes pride in the Torah: 'Walk in My ways. Go and occupy yourselves with My Torah, and I will bring you to good worlds and to celestial heights.' (Bamidbar 13:17): 'Go up this (way) in the south,' and occupy yourselves with Torah, and see that it stands before you and that from it you will know Me."

1) The first question asked by all the commentators and foremost by Nachmanides, is what sin the spies actually committed since Moses had told them to examine the country, its people, whether they were strong or weak, numerous or sparse, whether they lived in open or fortified cities, etc. Surely their report had to include answers to all these questions! What was so serious about their saying: "however the people are a tough people?" (13,28). Did Moses send them on their mission in order for them to report untruthfully? We must not think that their sin was only that they described ארץ ישראל as a land that consumes its inhabitants (13,32), since they had quarreled with Caleb and Joshua already prior to that statement, and the Torah reports concerning them in Deut 1,28: "Our brothers have made our hearts melt saying that a great and mighty people live there in great cities fortified to the heavens, etc." Here the Torah reports all the Israelites as being afraid of death by the sword, that their wives and children would be taken prisoner (14,3). If that had been their sin, how was Moses able to describe the inhabitants of the land of Canaan in even more frightening terms, when he said to them in Deut. 9,1: "Hear O Israel, you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and conquer nations greater and more numerous than you; great cities with walls sky-high. A people great and tall, the Anakites of whom you have heard it said: "who can stand up to the children of Anak!" If the sin of the spies had been that they undermined Jewish morale, surely Moses had been guilty of the same thing in an even greater measure when he addressed the younger generation in similar fashion almost forty years later! This is the question raised by Nachmanides.

Another difficulty is: What was Israel's sin in asking for these spies to be sent out? Our sages claim that G–d tripped them up intentionally, since they should never have demanded such a mission. Furthermore, why is the fact that Israel initiated this mission by asking Moses to send spies, not reported here but only when Moses summarizes the events of the forty years before his death? (Deut. 1,22). Another problem is why several descriptions of the spies' mission are used such as לתור, לרגל, and לחפור. Besides, why did Moses have to send out twelve spies, would not two spies have been sufficient just as when Joshua sent two spies to Jericho?

A most puzzling aspect is the fact that all these twelve men at the time when they commenced their mission were obviously suitable, highly thought of, else Moses would not have selected them. What happened to change the outlook of these people? When the Torah in 13,26 states וילכו, ויבאו, this is to tell us that just as they were corrupt when they returned, they had already been corrupt when they set out. How is that possible? We must conclude that they were indeed wicked to start with, but since they occupied positions which the Torah has described as ראשי בני ישראל, leaders among the people (12,3), they were presumed to be righteous, since Moses did not have the ability to look into their hearts.

We also note that the spies appear to contradict themselves when they say on the one hand that the land consumes its inhabitants, whereas on the other hand they point to the giants that they had seen there. Surely a land that produces giants does not consume its inhabitants! Or did they mean to say that if the land even consumed giants, how much more deadly was the climate for normal people?! Although we know that a sinner falls victim to a foolish notion, or he would not sin, we must still ask ourselves how the evil urge could seduce these men, since remaining in the desert was certainly not an attractive alternative either!

And now we shall explain in brief the episode of the spies. For, on the surface, it is cause for great wonder: What is it that caused them to sink to such depths and to mislead Israel? More than that — even Sanhedrin erred in this, it being written (Bamidbar 19:1): "And the entire congregation [the Sanhedrin (Rashi)] lifted their voices, etc." And more than this, they said (Ibid. 13:31): "For they are stronger than He," which our sages of blessed memory interpreted as: "He is unable, as it were, to rescue His vessels from there." How could they speak such nonsense?

(Ibid. 13:31): "And the men who went up with him said: 'We shall not be able to go up against the people [(that is, we will not even be able to go up, as they said before (30): "Amalek dwells in the land of the south, and the Chitti, etc.")], for they are stronger than He.'" That is, when does the Holy One Blessed be He drive out a people? When He finds another that is better than it, He gives them power to destroy them and to inherit their place. But for people such as we, who were great sinners with the golden calf and with the flesh of lust, He will not drive out such great peoples. As to His promising us to give us the land, this is only on condition that we merit it, as tzaddikim. [Then,] He would drive out the foe before us and would grant us permission to destroy them.

And these two claims were countered by Joshua and Calev in short: As to your claim that you made a careful inspection and found its air to be bad, we, too, toured it and inspected closely, and we found that (Ibid. 7) "the land is good, extremely good."

And these two claims were countered by Joshua and Calev in short: As to your claim that you made a careful inspection and found its air to be bad, we, too, toured it and inspected closely, and we found that (Ibid. 7) "the land is good, extremely good."

Likewise our sages, of blessed memory, expounded (Bava Batra 15a): "'is there a tree there?' (Bamidbar 13:20) - is there a righteous person who shields the generation like a tree".

The moral lesson is that just as strangers must not take for granted their right to live in their host country, so Jews must not take for granted their entitlement to the Holy Land not even after they have settled there. When our sages criticise Jacob of whom the Torah said: וישב יעקב בארץ כנען, "Jacob settled down in the land of Canaan," this is exactly what they had in mind. The fact that the Torah underlines in that very verse that Jacob's fathers had only sojourned there, only reinforces our sages' criticism (compare Genesis 37,1 and Bereshit Rabbah 84,1). An allusion to the fact that the tendency of Jews who display a vested interest in their residence in the Holy land can be counter-productive is found in the description of the land by the spies as ארץ אוכלת יושביה היא, "It is a land that consumes those who settle in it" (Numbers 13,32). This is expressed more forcefully in connection with someone selling his house in the Holy Land permanently. The Torah states clearly that the land cannot be sold permanently by ignoring the laws of return to the original owners in the Jubilee year, when G–d goes on record in Leviticus 25,23: כי גרים ותושבים אתם עמדי, "For you are strangers and settlers with Me." The moment Jews want to treat the Holy Land as the Gentiles treat their soil, i.e. for merely secular enjoyment, the land is liable to react by "consuming" those who presume to "own" it. The spies portrayed the land of Canaan in a derogatory manner and thus profaned something sacred; their mouthings had no effect on the land. The Torah has seen fit to quote their words in order to instill in us a positive teaching:

When G–d said to Moses שלח לך, send for you, it meant that just as G–d's intention had been constructive, so also Moses was guided by constructive ideas when he consented to arrange this mission. The meaning of וישלח אותם על פי ה', means with the consent of G–d, and not because of the demand of the spies or the people. Moses understood part of this allusion, and though he did not foresee how these spies would report individually, he did have a notion of how the horoscope they were born under might influence them. This is why the Torah reports Moses as studying the individual names of these people for clues to their character. This is why the Torah repeats in 13,17: "these are the names of the men whom Moses sent out, etc." The Talmud in Sotah 34, says that we have a tradition that their names reflected their deeds, however, according to Rabbi Yitzchak, only in the case of the prince of Asher סתור בן מיכאל, does the Talmud manage to elaborate. Rabbi Yochanan also provides such a rationale in the case of the prince of Naftali, נחבי בן ופסי, claiming that the name means he hid from G–d, or that he cleverly hid his true intentions. His father's name ופסי is an allusion to פסע, skipping, i.e. reporting G–d's words only out of context, not completely. When Moses began to suspect that possibly these people harbored unworthy thoughts, seeing their names could be so construed, he renamed Hoshea, calling him Joshua, the implication being that G–d should assist him not to adopt the counsel of the other spies (Bamidbar Rabbah 16,9, on 13,16). The reason Moses employed the two-lettered name of G–d in doing so was that it had been employed when describing G–d's struggle against Amalek, at which time Joshua's eventual role had first been hinted at. The reason Caleb was the one who silenced the spies in the middle of their report, was that Joshua was afraid to say עלה נעלה, we can certainly ascend," i.e. conquer the land (13,30), since this might be construed as Joshua's personal ambition to lead the people.

Joshua and Caleb countered that whatever deity had protected the people of Canaan thus far had already departed from them, i.e. סר צלם מעליהם (14,9), and they had no longer any merits which would act as protection for them. The measure of guilt of the Emorite was by now such that it no longer could be a hindrance to Israel. The expression סר צלם, may be interpreted according to the Zohar on Genesis 18,4: "and recline under the tree." The significance of that tree was that Abraham could tell by it who was truly loyal to G–d, and who cleaved to idol worship. The tree would extend its branches towards those who believed in G–d and would envelop them in its shade. The same branches would withdraw when a person worshiping idols sat under it. Abraham would notice this and begin to engage such a person in a religious dialogue, pointing out the futility of worshiping idols. He would not move from there until he had converted the person in question. Similarly the tree would welcome those who were ritually pure, while rejecting those who were not. There was a well underneath that tree. The waters in the well would rise towards a person in need of purification. As soon as Abraham noticed, he would purify them by ritually pure water. What Moses had commanded the spies about investigating "a tree" (13,20), referred to the tradition mentioned in the Zohar. He wanted to find out how that tree would react when the spies were under it, if it would offer its shade, i.e. a sign that the spies were sincere, if it did not, it would signal the sinful motives of these people.

While explaining this we will also answer the question why twelve spies had been needed for that missionץ Another question that needs to be dealt with is why the Torah had to tell us that the time the spies went on their mission was the beginning of the grape harvest (13,20). Another difficulty that we plan to explain is the comment of Rashi that the local inhabitants when observing the spies said to one another: "there are some ants in the vineyards" (Rashi on 13,33). Where did Rashi get this from? A further difficulty is the wording of Caleb interrupting the majority report in 13,30, when the Torah says: "Caleb silenced the people before Moses." What great wisdom did Caleb pronounce when he told the people that with the help of G–d they would be able to inherit the land? One did not have to be a member of the spy team to come up with this kind of elementary wisdom! Any righteous person could have pointed this out at once!

The author here quotes Rashi as explaining that the words עלה נעלה, "we will surely ascend," meant that even if they had to climb up to the heavens, with the help of G–d this would all be possible –

We have learned in Avot 4,21, that "jealousy, lust, greed, and ego (i.e. the desire for public recognition) drive man from this world." These very negative virtues had driven Adam from the world. There was the jealousy of the serpent of Adam possessing Eve, its pursuit to gratify its lust, and the pursuit of ego, i.e. Adam and Eve wanted to usurp the unique place of G–d in the universe, since they responded to the lure והייתם כאלוקים, "you will be like G–d." Eve had squeezed out a cluster of grapes, ate it, found that they were unripe. This suggests that in this material world one must not pursue honor. Honor will be inherited by the scholars in the world to come. At that time what is written in Isaiah 24,23: "G–d's Presence will be revealed to His elders," will be fulfilled. This is what is meant when the sages describe יין המשומר, "well aged wine," as being part of the reward in store for the righteous in the future. Concerning what happens to the wicked at that time, it is written in Malachi 3,19: "For lo! that day is at hand, burning like a furnace.. All the arrogant and doers of evil shall be straw, etc." It also says in Samuel II 22,9: "smoke rose from His nostrils," i.e. when G–d was angry, and burned those whom He was angry at." Since we have shown that what happens on earth has its counterpart in the heavens, the Torah reports that the season the spies were dispatched was when the grape harvest commences on earth, i.e. a hint that many grapes are not ripe yet. The spies ignored the items mentioned in Avot as destructive. They ate unripe grapes, i.e they were greedy, they were concerned with their own honor and glory, hence they had to suffer what is described in Proverbs 10,26.

It is stated, “And Calev came to Chevron” (Bamidbar 13:22). Rashi explains that Kaleiv went to pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs that he should be saved from the sin of the spies. Based on this incident there has spread throughout Israel the worthy custom of visiting the grave of one’s forebear on the anniversary of his death. And if one is not in the vicinity of the grave at the time of the yahrzeit one should go to another Jewish cemetery to pray, for this causes all the souls in Gan Eden to be aroused, since the entire earth is a single unit. For the Holy One Blessed is He has decreed for Israel’s sake that the nefesh (the lowest aspect of the soul) of a righteous person should remain near the cemetery. This is in order that they will hear the supplications of those who come to pray at the grave site. Thus whoever has a sorrow of any sort should go to the graves of his forebears or other righteous individuals and reveal his sorrow there. For when the nefesh hears the living pouring out their sorrows it ascends to the ruach (the second aspect of the soul) in Gan Eden (Zohar, Part II, 141b). Then the ruach ascends to the chamber of Gan Eden in which the holy neshamos (the third aspect of the soul) dwell and arouses them to come to the Land of Israel to prostrate themselves before the Throne of Glory and pray on behalf of the living.