This week’s parsha relates the mission of the twelve meraglim- spies, or scouts- who were sent to scout the land of Cana’an before the nation entered it. Ten of the meraglim came back and told the people they would not be able to conquer the land. Only two of those sent- Yehoshua and Caleiv-insisted that they would be able to conquer the land. How were they able to withstand the pressure of the other meraglim, and act independently? Rashi mentions a midrash which says that Moshe prayed that Yehoshua should not be influenced by the evil plans of the other meraglim. Caleiv, however, managed, on his own, to withstand the mergalim’s plans. The rabbis tell us that during the mission, Caleiv went to Chevron and prostrated himself at the graves of the forefathers. We need to understand why Moshe felt a need to pray for Yehosuha, and, also, in what way the preventative measure of Caleiv related to the challenge which the meraglim posed to the success of the entire mission.

When the meraglim returned with their report, they referred to the inhabitants of the land as giants, and added, “We were like grasshoppers in their eyes, and we were in their eyes” (Bamidbar, 13:33). How did the meraglim know what these giants thought of them? Rashi, citing the Talmud (Sotah, 35a) says that they heard them saying to each other that there were ants in the vineyards which look like men. Rabbi Abraham I. Twerski noted the change in the identity of the insect between the remark of the giants and the report of the meraglim, and explained that a certain psychological process had occurred. The meraglim, seeing the size of the inhabitants of the land, viewed themselves, in comparison, as grasshoppers, and thus projected their inner sense of low self-esteem. As a result, the giants saw them as an ever lower life form, and said that they were ants. We thus learn that if someone projects a sense of low self –esteem, others will see him as even lower than he sees himself. This explanation is somewhat difficult, because it assumes that ants are on a lower level of existence than grasshoppers, simply because they are smaller. One could argue, however, that ants are more productive, and, thus, on a higher level than grasshoppers, which can be quote destructive, as the Egyptians of the time of the exodus learned. I would, therefore, like to present a different explanation of the switch from grasshoppers to ants.

My teacher, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, zt’l, explained the remark of the meraglim concerning viewing themselves a grasshoppers in a way that is exactly the opposite of the way in which Rabbi Twerski explained it. He said that the meraglim viewed themselves as grasshoppers because of the way that they were viewed by the giants, and we learn from here a general principle that a person views himself the way others view him. Rav Aharon, however, did not comment on the Talmudic explanation, which says that the giants referred to the meraglim as ants. I believe that a comment of Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev can help us understand this change, from ants to grasshoppers, following the explanation of the verse given by Rav Aharon. Rav Levi Yitzchak,in his Kedusas Levi, explains the imagery of the ants in a very interesting way. He mentions the statement of the rabbis that, had the Torah not been given, we could have learned various character traits and moral standards from the animals, and even from insects. For example, we could have learned from the ants that it is wrong to steal, because ants are careful not to take that which does not belong to them. The midrash tells us that King Ptolmey told the Jews that they did not have a right to the land of Cana’an, because God, who created the world and could give it to whomever He wished, had given that land to its local inhabitants. This is, therefore, what the meraglim heard the giants saying, that the people they saw in the vineyards would not try to capture the land, since that would constitute theft, and the ants teach us that one should not steal. The giants, of course, were wrong, since God had also takenn the land from its previous owners and given it to someone else, as Rashi in the beginning of parshas Bereishis says. However, the meraglim, after hearing the comment of the giants, referring to them as ants and saying that they did not have a right to the land, began to doubt the morality of conquering Eretz Yisroel from the Canaanites, and began to view themselves as grasshoppers, about to launch a destructive war of conquest against the people they wee now convinced were the rightful owners of the land.

Based on our analysis of the imagery o the ants and the grasshoppers, we can now understand why Moshe prayed specifically for Yehoshua before the meraglim went out on their mission. Moshe knew that Yehoshua would be the person who would lead the nation in its war of conquest once it entered the land. However, a military commander who does not believe in his nation’s right to the land that he is supposed to conquer will not make a very effective leader. Therefore Moshe was especially worried that Yehoshua may be effected by the attitude the meraglim were open to adopt after scouting out the land and hearting what its inhabitants thought about the nation that intended to conquer it. For this reason, Moshe prayed that Yehoshua would not be influenced by their attitude. Caleiv was able to resist the attitude of appeasement that developed among the meraglim even though he did not have the benefit of Moshe’s prayers, because he already had strong convictions about the right of the nation to Eretz Yisroel. This conviction is reflected in  the fact that he went to he prostrated himself before the graves of the nation’s forefathers in Chevron. Caleiv’s attachment to Chevron was emblematic of his understanding that the land of Cana’an had been promised to the nation by God, and that the argument of the giants that the meraglim overheard was bogus. Unfortunately, the other ten meraglim believed that argument and thus doubted the right of the nation to Eretz Yisroel. It is the development of this attitude among the nation that we mourn each year on Tisha B’Av, when the evil report of the meraglim was issued.