Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Hukom 2:1

A Midrashic approach based on Tanchuma Shelach 1: the spies whom Moses sent out were fools. The spies whom Joshua dispatched were righteous people. We know this from Joshua 2,1 where we read: “Joshua sent out from Shittim two spies secretly to say, etc.” What is the meaning of the word חרש, generally understood to mean “deaf,” i.e. something no one heard about?” Those two men pretended to be potters offering their wares cheres, earthenware, for sale, calling for people to come and buy from them. They did all this in order not to arouse suspicion that they had come to spy. The two men in question were Pinchas and Calev. When they came to the house of Rachav the innkeeper and wanted to stay the night the King of Jericho somehow heard about these men and presumed them to be spies. Rachav tried to hide them. Pinchas told her that seeing he was a priest he possessed some faculties similar to those of angels and could make himself invisible. He also claimed to have prophetic stature, which meant that if he wanted to he could become invisible. Although Rachav took both men up to the roof of her house she hid only one of them amongst the flax stalks put out there to dry seeing that Pinchas had made himself invisible. All this is based on the words ותצפנם, “she hid them,” followed by ותצפנו, “she hid him,” in Joshua 2,6. First the Book described Rachav as hiding two people, then as hiding one person. This one person was Calev.
The twelve spies whom Moses had sent out were foolish by comparison. We know this because Solomon taught us that he who is מוציא דבה, engages in slander, is a fool (Proverbs 10,18). Thus far the Midrash. The Midrash means that these men who were righteous at the time Moses selected them managed to ruin their reputations, their future, no longer qualifying for the flattering description in Numbers 13,3 כלם אנשים, “all of them men of outstanding character.” When Channah (wife of Elkanah) prayed that G’d grant her a male child she begged for זרע אנשים, “seed who would grow into a worthwhile personality.” She used the word אנשים intentionally to describe the hopes she had for such a baby boy if and when G’d would grant him to her (Judges 2,1). Instead these 12 “men” aborted their mission, caused ruin to themselves and to a whole generation of Israelites; in his parting address to the Jewish people Moses described that whole generation as דור תהפוכות המה, “a generation that reversed itself, children who possess no loyalty” (Deut. 32,20). We learn from the whole passage how even a group of righteous men can turn into wicked people. This is what Solomon meant when he said that “he who engages in slander is foolish,” i.e. as soon as he engages in slander he becomes a fool.

And when you know the intellectual virtues and the dispositional virtues; and you know every type of them - if you want, study of wisdom and practice - and you know the mean and the ways of deeds that can be called good; and [know] the slight supplement to the mean which is from the famous actions of the pious ones; and [when you] know the supplement and the lack which are both bad -- just that one of them is more fit to [be called] evil and the other is called a transgression or an incorrect action, and the example with this is that caution is completely good without a doubt and much desire is completely bad without a doubt and the lack of feeling for enjoyment is actually not like much desire even though it is [also] bad and [so] it is called a transgression or an incorrect action, [such that] leaving caution slightly towards the side of lack of feeling is fit for the complete ones - and when you understand this matter, you will know that one who leaves caution slightly is called pious as we prefaced and that the lack of feeling is called a transgression, and that is why it stated about the nazirite (Numbers 6:11), "from that which he transgressed upon the soul," as we explained in the fourth chapter (Eight Chapters 4); and [when you understand] all of what we have prefaced and elucidated, you will know which [person] from among people is fitting to be called a boor and who is fitting to be called an ignoramus and who is fitting to be called and unformed person and who is fitting to be called a wise man and who is fitting to be called evil and who is fitting to be called a sinner. These seven names apply to seven people according to their having from the virtues and the vices and their study of the intellectual [virtues], as per what has come earlier in our commentary. And they already [added] names according to the properties of a man, as with the man who has vices in his traits - and he is called evil, as we have explained - but if he [also] has intellectual virtues that he uses for evil things, such a one is called by the sages a clever evildoer. And if he is an evildoer who hurts people - meaning to say that among his character vices are matters that hurt people, like brazenness and cruelty and [traits] similar to them - such a one is called a bad evildoer. And so [too] the one who has intellectual virtues and dispositional vices is called a wise man to do evil, as it states in the verse about someone like this (Jeremiah 4:22), "they are wise men to do evil; but to do good, they do not know" - meaning to say that they use their intellectual virtues for bad actions and not for good actions. But the man who has all of the virtues gathered in him - the intellectual [ones] and the dispositional virtues - to the point that there is no intellectual virtue and no dispositional virtue not in him, and this is rarely found and the philosophers would say that finding such a person is very unlikely but not impossible and when they find him, they would call him a Godly man. And so [too], the sages called him in our language a man of God. And I say that this man is called an angel of the Lord, as it stated (Judges 2:1), "And the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal." And the philosophers have said that it is impossible to find a man that has all of the vices gathered in him to their very end without intellectual [virtues] or ones of disposition to the point that he does not have virtue at all. And if one is found and this is improbable, they give him the name, 'an animal from the bad, dangerous animals.' And so [too] did Shlomo call him, a 'bereaved bear,' which is the gathering of stupidity and damage. And [of] these five compound names, four of them are to disparage - and they are the clever evildoer, the bad evildoer, the wise man to do evil and the bereaved bear - and one is for greatness, and there is nothing greater than it - and that is the man of God or the angel of the Lord. And Scripture has already elucidated that a man that has all of the intellectual and dispositional virtues found in him is called an angel of the Lord, and that is its stating (Malachi 2:7), "For the lips of a priest guard knowledge, and they seek Torah from his mouth; for he is an angel of the Lord of Hosts." And knowledge includes all of the intellectual virtues, as he will not be complete without them. And its stating, "they seek Torah from his mouth," is a proof of his completeness in dispositional virtues - as we have explained in the fourth chapter (Eight Chapters 4), that it is the intention of the Torah. And for [this reason], it states (Proverbs 3:17), "and all of its ways are peace." And we have already elucidated there (Eight Chapters 4) that peace is also from the dispositional virtues. And after [these indications of his completeness in the verse in Malachi], it stated, "for he is angel of the Lord of Hosts."