Комментарий к Бамидбар 13:33

הנפילים (lit., the fallen ones) — Anakim who were descendants of Shemchazai and Azael who fell from heaven in the generation of Enosh (cf. Targum Jonathan on Genesis 6:4 and Rashi on Niddah 61a s. v. בני אחיה).

בני ענק, descended paternally from giants

מן הנפילים, the original ones of which the Torah had written that they lived in antediluvian times (Genesis 6,4)

Who fell. As the Torah writes (Bereishis 6:2), “the sons of the lords saw the daughters of man…” For if not so, why is “הנפילים” (the giants) written twice? Rather it is certain that the second term “הנפילים” literally means fallen (from the root נפל — to fall), and there we saw those who fell from heaven, Shamchazai and Azael.

ונהי בעינינו כחגבים, "we felt in our own estimation as if we were grasshoppers (by comparison to them), and so we appeared in their eyes." The spies revealed by this comment that they felt vastly inferior even to the people in that land that did not fit the description of being men of stature. They knew this when comparing their own physiques to that of the average person whom they had observed.

V. 33. את הנפילים .ושם ראינו וגו׳, jene uralten Riesen אשר מעולם אנשי השם (Bereschit 6, 4) von deren gewaltiger Größe und Stärke die Sagen der Vorwelt voll sind, die haben wir dort in Wahrheit und Wirklichkeit gesehen; es sind dies die zu Chebron wohnenden Riesengeschwister, die ילידי הענק (Verse 22 und 28) בני ענק מן הנפילים sind die übrigen im Lande wohnenden Anakiden, die auch von den stammen (siehe oben V. 22).

הנפילים בני-ענק, “the Nephilim, descendants of Anak (giant);” anyone who took a look at these people would be overawed by them and feel totally inadequate, scared that they would attack him.”

ושם ראינו את הנפילים, “and there we have seen the Nephilim; some commentators believe that these people were very tall people who had fallen out of the sky, as in Job 14,18 הר נופל יבול, “mountains collapse and crumble,” where the words describe a great height.

וכן היינו בעיניהם AND SO WE MUST HAVE BEEN IN THEIR EYES — We heard them say one to another; “There are ants in the vineyards that look like human beings (Sotah 35a).

מן הנפילים, maternally descended from those giants.

כחגבים, anything low considers itself as like a grasshopper when compared to something much taller. We find proof of this in Isaiah 40,22 היושב על חוג הארץ ויושביה כחגבים, “compared to the One Who is enthroned above the vault of the earth views its inhabitants as if they were grasshopper.”

Say to each other, “there are ants.” There many who find difficulty with this statement: It is written “and so we appeared” which implies “like grasshoppers,” while Rashi explains that we heard them saying “there are ants.” Re’m amends Rashi’s words to read “grasshoppers…” However this does not appear correct, firstly because in every text it is written “ants.” Furthermore, if they were truly “like grasshoppers” when comparing their relative sizes, the comparison being that a hundred grasshoppers piled on each other reach the height of a person, and similarly the giants were the height of a hundred people. If so the Torah should have been brief and merely written “we were like grasshoppers in comparison to them.” Why did it add “and we were [like grasshoppers] in our eyes” which merely reflects how they appeared. Furthermore, there is a difficulty: Did the giants not see that all of the other inhabitants of the land were not giants, and if so why did they say “there are ants in the vineyards like people” as if they had never seen people other than giants like themselves. The answer is that it is a known phenomenon that one who looks down from a height, sees an object as being smaller than one who is standing on the ground and looking at the same object that is high up. The reason is that the sense of vision is like a flame, and it is the nature of a flame to rise and bring the object being viewed towards the eye. Thus, neither of them sees the object according to its actual size. The spies intended to deliver a slanderous report with each and every statement, thus they said “all the people that we saw there were men of great stature,” meaning that they are not used to small people like us. Then they said “we were like grasshoppers in our eyes” meaning that we were standing below and looking at the height of the giants, and we measured ourselves in comparison to them as the size of a grasshopper in comparison to a man. But in truth we were even smaller than this because we were looking upward and thus misrepresented their height. They concluded “and so we appeared in their eyes” meaning that according to the error that we made in looking up from a low position, to measure ourselves as being larger that than our true size, so too the giants erred in looking down from a height to measure us as being smaller than reality. Thus we were not considered like anything in their eyes, only as ants. Consequently they do not fear us at all, even though we are 600,000. Now there is a difficulty: Perhaps they knew how to measure correctly and did not err. If so what is meant by “and so [we appeared]?” Also perhaps Hashem made us appear large in their eyes. Therefore Rashi explains that we heard them saying “there are ants.” R. Yaakov Triosh

Die Tatsache übrigens, dass sich in Palästina noch Reste der vorsündflutigen Nefilin befanden, dürfte mit jener Auffassung (Sebachim 113a) übereinstimmen, nach welcher לא ירד מבול לא׳׳י, Palästina von der Sündflut verschont geblieben. Es dürfte dann dem Lande von der urwüchsigen Kraft der Erde bewahrt geblieben sein, die sich unter einer kenaanitischen Bevölkerung nur in Produzierung leiblicher Größe bewährt, ebenso aber es zum Boden des Gottesvolkes geeignet haben mochte, das durch Erfüllung des Gottesgesetzes dort das Ideal geistiger und sittlicher Menschengröße anstreben und mit ihr eine paradiesische Wiederverjüngung der Erdwelt beginnen sollte (siehe Bereschit 3, 19). Vergessen wir nicht, dass nach der Lehre der Weisen leibliche Kraft und Gesundheit eine der Vorbedingungen höchster Geistesentwickelung bildet und, wenn uns nicht alles täuscht, das, was, wo die Geistesarbeit brach liegt, gigantische Leiber erzeugt, bei einem Menschenstamm vorzugsweise geistiger Richtung, von geistiger Tätigkeit verbraucht werden könne, ohne dem Größenwuchs der Leiber zugute zu kommen.

בני ענק, according to one opinion cited by Rashi, the necks of these people reached almost to the sun. (Exaggeration, of course).

ענק — They were thus called because it seemed as if the sun was draped around their necks (מַעֲנִיקִים) because of their height (Sotah 34b).

וכן היינו בעיניהם, like grasshoppers, or even less significant. They did not bother to harm us as they did not think we represented a threat to them.

Who make the sun a necklace. Rashi in the Gemara explains “as if their necks extended through the ‘window’ through which the sun emerges.” He explains “who made the sun a necklace” as meaning that the opening through which the sun is viewed became like a necklace around their necks. One might ask why Rashi did not make this comment above on the verse “we also [saw] the offspring of the giant ($)” (v. 28). The answer is that their forefather may have been called ענק (giant) and thus they were called the sons of the giant ($) after him, similar to the term “the sons of Noach ($)” we apply to all mankind. But here it is written “there we saw the נפילים (lit. fallen ones).” Rashi has a difficulty as to why they were so called, and said that it must have been because they were they sons of Shamchazai and Azael. And if so, there is a difficulty as to why they were called “the sons of the ענק (giant),” rather it must be because they make [the sun] a necklace (ענק). (See Tosafos Succah 22).

The spies, referring to themselves add that they therefore felt as if they were as small as grasshoppers by comparison. This is not the only example where small creatures are compared to grasshoppers. Compare Isaiah 40,22.