פרשת שלח לך תשי"ז - חטאו של דור המדבר

And wherefore doth the LORD bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey; were it not better for us to return into Egypt?’

סר צלם THEIR DEFENSE (lit., shade) IS DEPARTED [FROM THEM] — i.e. their shield and their strength is departed from them: the virtuous among them are dead; one of them was Job, who had protected them by his righteousness (Sotah 35a; cf. Bava Batra 15a). [Another explanation is: the shade (protection) of the Omnipresent is departed from them]. (Cf. Psalms 121:5).

And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes.

ויהושע בן נון וכלב בן יפנה מן התרים, and Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Yefuneh who had been part of the team that toured the land, etc. Who did not know that these two had been part of the team? Why did the Torah have to mention this? The reason is that the Torah wanted to justify that these two men rent their garments in grief over what their colleagues had done. Some of the Israelites might have seen such an action as something presumptuous seeing that none of the elders had seen fit to rend their clothing. The Torah therefore had to tell us that the reason that Joshua and Caleb rent their garments was not that they felt superior to the elders, etc., but that they had experienced the beauty of the land of Canaan, something even Moses had not seen with his own eyes. They had greater reason to mourn what they stood to lose than anybody else. They also hoped to lend emphasis to their feeling of disgust that their colleagues had despised the land of Canaan by publicly rending their garments in the sight of all the Israelites. This was the most potent protest against what the ten spies had said that they could think of.

Only rebel not against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defence is removed from over them, and the LORD is with us; fear them not.’

For they are [as] our bread. We will consume them like bread, as in, “Those who devoured My people partook of bread” (Tehillim 14:4).

Their protection is removed. Even a mighty warrior, if he has no shield to protect him, will be afraid.