YOU

SHALL SEE WHAT [KIND OF] LAND IT IS, AND THE PEOPLE WHO INHABIT IT; ARE THEY

STRONG OR WEAK? ARE THERE FEW OR MANY? AND WHAT OF THE LAND

THEY INHABIT? IS IT GOOD OR BAD? AND WHAT OF THE CITIES IN WHICH THEY RESIDE

ARE THEY IN CAMPS OR IN FORTRESSES? WHAT IS THE SOIL LIKE IS

IT FAT OR LEAN? ARE THERE ANY TREES IN IT OR NOT? YOU SHALL BE COURAGEOUS AND

TAKE FROM THE FRUIT OF THE LAND." IT WAS THE SEASON WHEN THE FIRST GRAPES

BEGIN TO RIPEN.

(Bamidbar 13:18-20)

What is the soil

like is it fat or lean?

Now he commands them

regarding [reporting on] the land in general, and this does not relate to the

primary goal of their mission, nor did Israel request it, for they were

embarrassed to make such inquiries after God had promised them a land flowing

with milk and honey. Rather, our Rabbi Moses knew that they would not be

pleased to hear about the nature of the warriors living in the Land of Israel. He knew that giants dwelt there

and that their conquest would be burdensome. That is why he wanted to satisfy

their eyes with the land's bounty so that they would be strongly motivated to

risk their lives for it. There is no comparison between seeing things with

one's own eyes and [mere] belief, so much so that the midrash on parashat Ki

Tavo states that Moses did not break the tablets until he saw the calf and the

dancing with his own eyes, since hearing cannot be compared to seeing. That is

why Moses wanted them to deal with the Land's bounty in detail in order to

capture the hearts of Israel.

(HaNeTziV

MiVolozhin Ha'Amek Davar Bamidbar 13:20)

And what of the

land they inhabit? We find that

he is dealing with the Land's populace, he is asking how the Land's particular

qualities affect its inhabitants and shapes their character; what is the land's

virtue as a place for national development, is it good or bad from this

perspective, does it advance or retard a people's spiritual and moral cultural

life? We shall recount the Sages' dictum: "The air of the Land of Israel promotes wisdom" (Bava Batra 158b).

(Rabbi

S.R. Hirsch on Bamidbar 13:19)

The meaning of You

shall be courageous and take [from the fruit of the land] – that they

should not be afraid that people will realize they are spies when they take some

fruits of the Land.

(RaMBaN

Bamidbar 13:20)

Hoshea – Yehoshua: Emissary and

Sender, Viewer and Hearer

Shlomo Fox

Twelve men – each one

a prince in their midst – are sent to scout out the land and after forty

days they return and make their report: They went, and they came to Moses

congregation, and they showed them the fruits of the land (Bamidbar 13:27).

Scripture mentions that

the report was given before the leaders and before all the congregation of

the children of Israel,

and that the original report set forth information regarding the fruit of the

land and its inhabitants. However, it seems that the people immediately read

something between the lines of the debriefing and concluded that it was

impossible to conquer the Land, and so we read: Caleb silenced the people to

of it, for we can indeed overcome it." But the

people, for they are stronger than we. In the following chapter (14)

we also read: Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among

with us; do not be fear them."

There

is no argument over the facts reported by the spies. The question is rather

what should be done in the light of those facts, how the information should be

analyzed. The ten spies and the people got cold feet and concluded that they

were unable to rise up and conquer the Land, whereas Caleb and Joshua chose a

faith-based argument: they had succeeded up to that point thanks to the help of

the Creator – why should they now doubt His power? Regarding this it may be

asked: "Why were the men sent to begin with? After all they wanted to

discover and consider all the possibilities." It seems that the mission

was itself another trial intended to test the Israelites' faith. The Gemara (Sotah

35a) puts

harsh words into the mouths of the spies: "Hanina

were even the master of the house cannot remove his furniture from there."

Since the Spies' deed is

taken to be a serious sin it is fascinating to see how the Sages refer to this

group of ten "unbelievers" in order to explain the origin and nature

of the power of the minyan [prayer quorum]. We read in the Mishna (Sanhedrin 1:6): "From whence do we know that and edah

long will this evil edah (Bamidbar

14). [There were twelve princes] Joshua

and Caleb had left [the group leaving ten]"

Regarding this the Gemara

says:

Whence these rules [that

a quorum of ten is required for the sacred sections of prayer]? R. Hiyya b.

Abba said in the name of R. Yohanan: Because Scripture says, But I will be

hallowed among the children of Israel

(Vaykira 22): every act of sanctification requires not less than

ten. How does the verse denote this? – As R. Hiyya taught: We explain the word among

here, But I will be hallowed among the children of Israel, and it is written

elsewhere, Separate yourselves from among this congregation (Bamidbar 16); and we further explain the word edah here by

reference to what is written in another place, How long shall I bear with

this evil edah (Bamidbar

14). Just as ten are indicated there, so

too here. (Megillah 13b,

Talmudic quotes based on Soncino translation)

The idea that an edah

consists of ten men is learned from the edah of the spies; why was this

learned from an edah of sinners? It would appear to have been possible

to learn from Joshua and Caleb that a minyan includes at least two men.

Midrash Tanhuma (Miketz

6) cites an additional example: the ten

brothers of Joseph, who also did not exactly use their power for constructive

ends – rather they sold their brother into slavery. This is the language of the

midrash:

Joseph's brothers went

down, ten [of them]; and why ten?

Because they [as a group

of ten] had the power to ward off troubles, since when the Holy One, blessed be

he, came to destroy Sodom and our Father Abraham asked for mercy from Heaven

for them, he began counting [down] from fifty until ten, as it says, Perhaps

ten can be found there (Bereishit

18:32). This is because ten constitutes

an edah, for it is said, How long shall I bear with this evil edah

(Bamidbar 14). That is why it is said, Joseph's brothers went

down, ten, since also in the case of Sodom

he said [counted down] until ten.

These drashot seem to

imply more generally that an edah as a community, can act for good or

for evil, and therefore when assembling to perform an act of sanctification we

must clarify our direction: is it for good, or, God forbid, for evil.

Let us move along and

consider how Joshua is depicted forty years later, when we find him leading the

people and sending out two spies to survey the Land in general and Jericho in

particular (Joshua 2:1). He chooses anonymous spies; neither their names nor

their tribal affiliations are mentioned. The spies return to report good news: And the two men returned

the country have melted away because of us (Joshua 2:23-24).

Does Joshua listen to the

spies' report?

When Joshua had spied out

the land for forty days he and his comrades were strongly impressed by the

power of its inhabitants, so much so that they saw themselves as tiny grasshoppers.

Based on what they had seen, his comrades came to the conclusion that they

should give up: Let us set up a leader and return to Egypt (Bamidbar 14:4), while he and Caleb had faith in God's ability to fulfill

His promise. Now that Joshua stands before the power of that promise's

fulfillment he could say – and perhaps he did say: "I told you so!"

Instead of a

disheartening report, he receives an encouraging report.

How should he react; did

he listen to what the spies had to say?

The end of Devarim (27:2-4) tells us about a command that must be fulfilled upon entering

the Land: And it will be, on the day that you cross the Jordan to the land the Lord, your

God, is giving you, that you

shall set up for yourself huge stones, and plaster them with lime…when you cross the Jordan,

Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with lime. That is to say: after

crossing the Jordan, the

people must continue on to Mount Ebal and Mount

Gerizim in order to

perform the ceremony of the blessing and the curse. Joshua is aware of this

command, but only obeys it after fighting at Jericho and Ai, as it is written: Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel

the children of Israel, as it

is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole

burnt-offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace-offerings (Joshua

8:30-31).

Why

does Joshua tarry in carrying out his orders? Why does he first turn towards Jericho and begin

conquering the Land? Why doesn't Joshua listen to the spies?

The

spies had heard Rahab's analysis of the situation (Joshua

2:9-11): And

for the Lord your God He is God in heaven above and on the earth below. Her

statement was included in their report. Did Joshua's apprehensions get the

better of his faith?

Let

us try to imagine what would have happened had Joshua continued northwest after

crossing the Jordan, setting

up camp for 600,000 Israelites on the ridge by Mount

Ebal and Mount Gerizim,

knowing that the land's inhabitants had completely lost their courage. There

would have been no need to fight – was that God's intention?

The Gemara (Sanhedrin 44a) expounds upon the case of Achan taking booty for

himself, and then the discussion continues: "And the Lord said unto

Joshua, Get you up (Joshua

7). R. Shila expounded this: The Holy One

blessed be He, said to him: Your [transgression] is greater than theirs, for I

commanded, when

that you shall set up [these stones]; but you advanced sixty mils however, [into the country before setting them up]."

According to R. Shila,

Joshua was responsible for the sin that led to the defeat at Ai! The Gemara

continues: "But when he [R. Shila] had gone out, Rav responded to what he

had said: As the Lord commanded Moses His servant, so did Moses command

commanded Moses (Joshua

11)." In other words, this verse

demonstrates that Joshua fulfilled everything Moses had commanded – if so, he

did not sin!

"What then do the

words, Get thee up, teach us? – The Lord said to him, You have brought

and the cattle thereof shall you take for a prey] (Joshua 8)."

The Talmudic discussion

clarifies the cause for the misstep, why Achan took booty and all the

Israelites were treated as embezzlers. One act of embezzlement led to failure

in the battle at Ai and thirty-six deaths. The discussion clarifies the nature

of Joshua's mistake and points to the failure to sacrifice the daily offering

or to learn Torah. From here we learn that it is important to ensure that we do

not forget our main mission even – or perhaps particularly – at time of war. We

must think about why and for the sake of what we participate in war.

To summarize: The story

of the spies teaches us as a community about the power of an edah; how

much we should be aware of the danger of analysis of facts leading to the

forgetting of goals. Therefore, every time we join together in a minyan to

perform an act of sanctification we must count ten men and thus remind

ourselves of those ten who erred and caused others to err; we must examine the

goal of our gathering together.

This parasha teaches us

how, as a spy, Joshua knew how to see further and escape the error of the

majority. However, as a leader forty years later, even he did not necessarily

know how to listen and how to glean as much information as possible from the

report. He wondered and erred and thought that he must conquer. Regarding this

it is said: He is lead on the path upon which he wants to walk until he

understands his mistake.

Let us hope to learn not

only to supply the needed information, but also and chiefly to analyze it

properly.

Shlomo Fox teaches in Hebrew Union

College, in Beit Shemuel,

and in Kolot.

An Attitude of

respect for the Land requires an Attitude of Respect for People

It has been taught,

Said Rabbi Elazar ben Parta: Come and see, from the story of the spies, how great is

the power of slander. If [such was the punishment] for the spies who slandered

only trees and stones, then libel of one's fellow, all the more so!! As

is written: The men died, those bringing a report of the land, an ill one-

because of the slander of the land which they spoke.

(Yalkut Shimoni, Vayikra 14, 659)

And if Moses had Sent Women to Scout the Land?

He specifically mentioned [that] men [would be sent

to scout the Land] because the Sages said (Yalkut Shimoni Pinhas 5773: 27) that the men hated the Land and [this is

evident since the men] said let us make a leader and return to Egypt

(Bamidbar 14:4), while the women loved the Land and said, give us a holding

(27:4). And so, God said: To my mind, I see from

future events that it would be better to send women who love the Land, for they

would not speak badly of it. But [God told Moses]: [Send ] yourself [men] – that is, in accordance with your own opinion, for you think that they are fit and that they love the Land. [Go ahead!] Send

men! That is why [it says] yourself, i.e., according to your opinion, but in My opinion, it would be better to send women.

(Kli Yakar Bamidbar

13:2)

The

night – Rava said in the name of Rabbi Yohanan: That

night was the ninth of Av. The Holy One, Blessed be He said to them: You cried

for no good reason – I shall give you reason to weep for generations to come.

(Ta'anit 79a)

It is almost

impossible to fully exhaust the significance of the fact that the people which

merited that which no generation before and no generation thereafter merited –

for the giving of the Torah was a one-time, never to re-occur event – that this

generation in particular should fail totally, bringing about the nullification

of the divine plan which included the promise to bring the nation to the promised

land.

From this we

derive that man, through his actions, can ruin the world, even notwithstanding

the divine plan. The entire story of the generation which exited Egypt

is replete with signs, omens, and revelation, yet all of these were unable to

change man's nature, unable to bring him to faith, and certainly not to the

reform of the entire nation. One incapable of recognizing his status before God

and its ensuing commitments from within himself will never achieve this

awareness through any external agent. This conclusion is valid not only with

regard to the distant past, but also to the present and future; Divine

supervision and all that is humanly perceived to be "the finger of

God" cannot bring men to find their way even in political, national or social

matters … the correct path in management of the world, the state and society or

the determination of historical courses of events. All these flow from human

understanding, the reaching of conclusions and the making of

decisions. Paths of action are never given man as a free-gift, through the

medium of wondrous revelation, by supernatural means.

We do not belong

to the generation of the desert which merited divine revelation; we belong to

the generation of the wilderness which has no divine revelation. We do not know

– we cannot know – what event or act has elements of "the finger of

God" in the sense of divine intervention in historical processes. We

cannot know which of these phenomena belong in the category of Olam

k'minhago noheg – "the world acts in its usual way." We must

beware the great and terrible danger of dependence upon that which seems to be

"the finger of God", a dependence with potential for casting off

responsibility from the shoulders of man and nation – the responsibility of

determining their way according to their understanding and their

accountability.

(Y. Leibowitz: Sheva Shanim Shel Sihot al Parshiyot

haShavua, pp. 665-666)

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