Parshat Shelach-Tourist or spy?

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August 15 2017
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Parshat Shelach Lecha-Tourist or spy?


The parsha begins with the famous episode of the spies:


ב  שְׁלַח-לְךָ אֲנָשִׁים, וְיָתֻרוּ אֶת-אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן, אֲשֶׁר-אֲנִי נֹתֵן, לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל:  אִישׁ אֶחָד אִישׁ אֶחָד לְמַטֵּה אֲבֹתָיו, תִּשְׁלָחוּ--כֹּל, נָשִׂיא בָהֶם.


2 'Send thou men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel; of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a prince among them.'


 


All the commentaries are perplexed as to what went wrong here, especially as we are talking about a group of people who were leaders in their own right  כֻּלָּם אֲנָשִׁים- all were ‘men of distinction’ at the time when they were sent. Furthermore it is perplexing that they were sent initially with God’s agreement and nevertheless the mission is a complete disaster and leads to the death of a whole generation of Jews in the desert, without arriving in the promised land. Furthermore, in the Haftara we read that Yehoshua also sends spies without reservation, and this mission is very successful. Why was there no reticence in Yehoshua’s behavior after the debacle of the spying mission initiated by Moshe? We also see later in sefer Bamidbar that Moshe sends spies again and nothing bad occurs.


לב  וַיִּשְׁלַח מֹשֶׁה לְרַגֵּל אֶת-יַעְזֵר, וַיִּלְכְּדוּ בְּנֹתֶיהָ; ויירש (וַיּוֹרֶשׁ), אֶת-הָאֱמֹרִי אֲשֶׁר-שָׁם.


32 And Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they took the towns thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there.


 


If so, the main question is still regarding the initial mission and its failure as seen in our Parsha.


I believe that the Malbim(19th century-E.Europe) gives us the definitive insight by looking at the language of our parsha and comparing it to the other cases of spying. In the instruction to the spies they are told: וְיָתֻרוּ אֶת-אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן – ‘and they will visit the land of Canaan’. The Malbim contrasts this with the description of the mission as told by Moshe in Parshat Devarim,ch.1:


כד  וַיִּפְנוּ וַיַּעֲלוּ הָהָרָה, וַיָּבֹאוּ עַד-נַחַל אֶשְׁכֹּל; וַיְרַגְּלוּ, אֹתָהּ.


24 and they turned and went up into the mountains, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.


 


 


He explains that 2 different words are used here describing the mission: ‘Latur’ and ‘Leragel’. The difference is that ‘latur’ means ‘to visit’ (similar to the modern Hebrew word’tayarim’-tourists). The word ‘leragel’ however is a word used in describing military spying, for the purpose of finding the weakest points of the enemy defenses,for any attack to succeed. In the beginning of the mission, the agenda was ‘latur’-to go and see the land and its goodness and benefit for the future Jewish life in Israel. They were promised that God was with them militarily and any doubting of this axiom would be seen as a question of faith and trust in God. When they went, they immediately changed the agenda and instead of ‘latur’ it became ‘leragel’, a true spying mission for military purposes. This was a sign that they had questions of faith in God and this caused the people to lose faith in the power and promise of God to help them in Eretz Yisrael. As a result, when the spies came back and gave a bad report, the people’s faith was even more challenged, as they felt they would never be able to overcome the great military presence which they would find against them in Israel. This is why the mission failed and this is what makes this mission different to all other missions sent to Israel, be it  later on by Moshe, or in the days of Yehoshua. These later missions were all true spying missions preparing for the coming battles and this was all with Moshe’s/Yehoshua’s blessing.


The distinction between latur and leragel may also explain the symmetry of language found at the end of the parsha, where we find the word ‘latur’ in the famous paragraph of Tzizit.


 


לט  וְהָיָה לָכֶם, לְצִיצִת, וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם אֶת-כָּל-מִצְו‍ֹת יְהוָה, וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם; וְלֹא-תָתוּרוּ אַחֲרֵי לְבַבְכֶם, וְאַחֲרֵי עֵינֵיכֶם, אֲשֶׁר-אַתֶּם זֹנִים, אַחֲרֵיהֶם.


39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye go not about after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go astray;


 


In commanding the Jews not to go astray after sins such as idolatry, the verb ‘latur’ is used again. The import of the word is now very striking. It is not enough just to avoid idolatry and other related sins. One must not even ‘visit’ them for the sake of trying them out, as they can influence the Jews against God in the  most severe manner. Even a passing interest is not condoned, as this is so pernicious and can affect the person, even on a trial basis.


The crisis in emunah led to a whole generation losing its place in the land of Israel. This is a great message for us to strengthen our emunah in all matters to do with Eretz Yisrael today. We are truly witnessing a miracle in our time and with faith and trust in God may we go from strength to strength in our own country and may it be an even greater beacon of light for all the world to behold.


 


 

Venue: Stern College Stern College

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Classic insight of the Malbim to explain the whole story of the spies.

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    Learning on the Marcos and Adina Katz YUTorah site is sponsored today by Judy & Mark Frankel & family l'ilui nishmos מרדכי בן הרב משה יהודה ע"ה and משה יהודה ז"ל בן מאיר אליהו ויהודית