They rose early in the morning and they went up to the top of the mountain saying, "We are ready - we shall go up to the place that G-d spoke about, for we have (indeed) sinned."
Moses said, "…Do not go up, for G-d is not with you…"
They defiantly ascended the mountain top… The Amalekite and the Canaanite who lived in the mountain swooped down on them: they struck them and pounded them until Hormah. (extracts from ibid: 40-45)

Following repeated non-co-operation and in this case, proposed mutiny against Moses, the Almighty condemned the Israelites to remain in the wilderness for forty years. But although they were most grieved when they heard the bad news, they did react positively in two ways. Firstly, they were ready to make a desperate lunge to enter the Promised Land, despite the Spies' reports that it would be an extremely difficult task. Secondly - and for the first time - the Israelites admitted that they were, indeed, in the wrong. With the earlier sin of the Golden Calf, Moses opened his prayer to G-d with the statement that' 'this people had greatly sinned' (Ex. 32:31) - but there is no direct record of the Israelites themselves having regretted what they did. In contrast, the Israelites did openly admit that they had sinned in the case of the Spies.

Thus the aftermath of the sin of the Spies shows some spiritual development within the Israelite people - remorse for transgression, and a considerable degree of faith in making the first moves to conquer the seemingly impenetrable Promised Land. Why did G-d reject their initiatives and repentance? Why did He leave them to suffer at the hands of the Amalekites and the Canaaanites?

The Maggid of Dubno compares the incident of the Spies with a man whose son was offered two matches. One was the daughter of a wealthy man and the other, of a learned and pious rabbi. He actually preferred the rabbi's daughter, but he stipulated that unless the rabbi himself provided him with costly gifts, he would take the other match for his son. Hearing this, the rabbi refused, stating that even if the father took back his request, he would not allow his son to marry into his family. "I now know that this man does not appreciate my daughter's background and values, and he would be quiet content for his son to marry into a non-learned background. As such, what do our families have in common?"

Looking at the details of the narrative quoted above, we can see that as although the Israelites did confess their wrongdoings, it was on a very superficial level. They apologized, but that did not constitute real teshuva - penitence. Ezekiel brings the Word of G-d in defining teshuva :

When the wicked person turns away from his wickedness…from all his transgressions… he shall live, and not die… Cast off from yourselves all your transgressions, and gives yourselves a new heart and a new spirit… 'For I do not desire the death of the wicked,' says G-d: 'but he should only repent and live.'" (Ez.18:27-32 - extracts)

Say to them, "Do not go up, and do not fight, for I am not in your midst." (Deut. 1:42)

But the Israelites survived. There is no record in the texts that any of them were actually killed. As Moses himself elaborates in the parallel narrative in Deuteronomy:

Those… who lived in the mountain… chased after you like bees, and they struck you… as far as Hormah. Then you returned and wept before G-d, but He did not listen to your voice, nor did He pay attention to you (Deut. 1:44-5).

The Israelites were particularly close to G-d - as the Midrashic tradition states, a maid-servant saw more of G-d through the miracles at the Red Sea than Ezekiel experienced in all his prophecies. On their level, complete and absolute teshuva, of the nature outlined in the Book of Ezekiel, was required. Their teshuva was conditional and spiritually grossly insensitive - 'Yes - we are sorry - but let us get to the Promised Land and if not, we will take it anyway'. Such behavior was like someone who purifies himself in a mikveh (ritual bath) holding a dead sheretz (insect or crustacean emitting tumah - ritual uncleanliness). That attitude was incompatible with the concept of the Chosen People - in the terms of the Maggid of Dubno, spiritually too coarse to appreciate the benefits of marring into the pious and learned rabbi's family.

As a footnote: this discussion may be applied to the famous story of the would-be convert who approached Shammai and then Hillel, with view to converting to Judaism - on the condition that he could be taught the Torah whilst standing on one leg. Shamai's reaction was the normal one - the person wanted to convert, but at the same time he set a condition that could turn the sacred life-long process of learning Torah into a mockery. So he chased him out with his builder's stick. The Israelites represented the case of those learned in Torah standards, who grievously slipped up, and who had the cheek to 'repent' by dictating their own reduced terms to the Almighty. For such people, G-d laughed (c.f. Psalms 2:4), and 'chased them out with His builder's stick' by 'setting the bees on them'. Hillel, in contrast, distinguished the cases. He saw the prospective proselyte as ignorant, rather than defiant, and recognized that if he was given the snippet of Torah that was appropriate for him - 'what is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else - the rest is commentary' - he would indeed 'go and learn'… And in the case of the Israelites, the learning had to be a full forty years in the wilderness…

QUESTIONS ON PARASHAT SHELACH LECHA

1. What, according to Rashi, may be learnt from the Torah's putting the story of the Spies immediately after the story of Miriam (in the previous Parasha)?

2. According to the Ramban, what in the content of the report of the Spies was wrong?

3. In praying to G-d for forgiveness of the Israelites after the mass hysteria following the Spies' reports, Moses used only seven out of the Thirteen Attributes of G-d. Why, according to the Ramban, did he not use the remaining six?

4. What, according to the Talmud (Arachin 15a), were the ten times that the Israelites sorely tried G-d's patience?

5. Why, according to the Ohr Hachayim, did G-d not accept the Israelites' repentance after the sin of the Spies? (14:40)

6. In referring to the Tzitzit, the Torah says 'u-re-e-tem oto' - 'you shall see it' rather than 'you shall see them'. How does the Talmud (Menachot 43b) explain the use of the use of the singular, rather than the expected plural?

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON PARASHAT SHELACH LECHA

1. The Torah's putting the story of the Spies immediately after the story of Miriam (in the previous Parasha) is to illustrate how important it is to learn from other people's mistakes. For Miriam, Moses' sister, was punished with tzaraat for speaking improperly about Moses. The Spies ought to have learnt from her conduct that wrongful negative reporting brings G-d's grave displeasure, but they did not.

2. According to the Ramban, none of the facts that the Spies reported were actually untrue. However, they phrased that report to distort the truth, and to cause the Israelites to panic and lose faith. They did that by setting the facts within their own framework of their own personal negative thinking.

3. According to the Ramban, each of the Thirteen Attributes of G-d is appropriate to different situations, and only seven of them were relevant here. The Thirteen Attributes contain G-d's name twice - once referring to His mercy before the sin and once to His mercy after the sin - here of course, only the second Hashem was relevant because it shows G-d's mercy to sinners after the sin. The next words 'kel rachum ve-chanun' 'G-d - Compassionate and Gracious' did not fit in because they only apply to those who have shown repentance - and the Israelites had not shown that remorse. The attribute of 'emet' 'Truth' is omitted here because Truth is absolute and does not allow for the compromise and leniency that Moses sought for the Israelites. Moses also omitted 'notzer chesed la-alafim' 'Preserver of Kindness for thousands of generations' because that referred to the merits of the Patriarchs. For they loved the Holy Land that the Israelites had now rejected. And Moses did not speak of G-d as one who forgives 'chata-a' 'sin in error' because the sin of the Spies had been committed intentionally.

4. The ten times that the Israelites sorely tried G-d's patience were (a) in their outburst against Moses when the Egyptians chased them to the Red Sea (b) in their unseemly grumblings at the bitter waters at Marah (c) in their unseemly grumblings when soon afterwards they ran out of food in the desert (d) in their leaving manna over even when told not to (e) in their leaving the camp to gather manna on the Seventh Day against express instructions (f) in their unseemly grumblings when the water ran out at Refidim (g) in the sin of the Golden Calf (h) in their grumblings to Moses after they set off from Mount Sinai (11:1) (i) in their unreasonable complaints about the manna as a source of food and (j) in the sin of the Spies' report and the mass hysteria following it.

5. According to the Ohr Hachayim, although the Israelites confessed that they sinned (14:40), they did so because of the severity of the punishment, not out of total deep remorse for their involvement in the sin of the Spies. The repentance was not complete.

6. The Talmud (Menachot 43b) explains that use of the use of the singular, rather than the expected plural means that by looking at the tzitzit you shall see 'oto' - the Almighty Himself. For the tzitzit are a constant reminder of G-d's Presence, which should inspire a person to remember His commandments, and not blindly follow his own desires and passions.

ADDITIONAL QUESTION ON PARASHAT SHELACH-LECHA.

'You shall not stray after your heart and after your eyes.' (15:30).The word latur is unique to this Parasha. It occurs at the beginning, with the account of the Spies: Send for yourselves men and they shall spy out (veyaturu) the Land of Canaan (13:2) and at the end: You shall not stray (taturu) after your heart and after your eyes. What is the connection between the two sections: the first about the Chet Hamraglim and the second about Tzitzit?

Written by Jacob Solomon. Tel 02 673 7998. E-mail: jacobsol@netvision.net.il for any points you wish to raise and/or to join those that receive this Parasha sheet every week.

e-mail: jacobsol@netvision.net.il

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