Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parashat Shelach THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY LIFTED UP AND LET OUT THEIR VOICE, AND THE PEOPLE WEPT ON THAT NIGHT. AND THEY GRUMBLED AGAINST MOSHE AND AGAINST AHARON, ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, THEY SAID TO THEM, THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY: WOULD THAT WE HAD DIED IN THE LAND OF EGYPT, OR IN THIS WILDERNESS, WOULD THAT WE HAD DIED! NOW WHY IS GOD BRINGING US TO THIS LAND, TO FALL BY THE SWORD? OUR WIVES AND OUR...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parashat Shelach BUT THE MEN WHO HAD GONE UP WITH HIM SAID, "WE CANNOT ATTACK THAT PEOPLE, FOR IT IS STRONGER THAN WE." THUS THEY SPREAD CALUMNIES AMONG THE ISRAELITES ABOUT THE LAND THEY HAD SCOUTED, SAYING, "THE COUNTRY THAT WE TRAVERSED AND SCOUTED IS ONE THAT DEVOURS ITS SETTLERS. ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WE SAW IN IT ARE MEN OF GREAT SIZE; WE SAW THE NEPHILIM THERE – THE ANAKITES ARE PART OF THE NEPHILIM – AND WE LOOKED LIKE GRASSHOPPERS TO OURSELVES, AND SO WE...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Shelach Lecha   “The country in which they dwell — is it good or is it bad?” Onkelos, however, translated “Is it rich or is it poor” – for there are countries whose inhabitants are wealthy because their produce is inexpensive, and they are successful in their dealings and in commerce with their neighbors; and there are countries which are dependent upon their neighbors, and their own inhabitants are incompetent – even though the the land itself is good and not poor. (Ramban, Bemidbar 13:19)  ...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Shelach Factual reporting and making a value judgement One of our Spanish commentators, Isaac Arama, interprets the spies' behavior in his classic work Akedat Yizhak. The spies' crime, he avers, lay in the fact that instead of acting as neutral observers contenting themselves with the facts, they gave their opinion on this matter. Isaac Arama brings home his point by the following parable: It can be compared to a man who says to his agent, "Go to the warehouse and have a look at a tallit...