פרשת שלח לך תש"כ - המרגלים

’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.’

שלח לך SEND THEE (more lit., for thyself) — i.e. according to your own judgement: I do not command you, but if you wish to do so send them. — God said this because the Israelites came to Moses and said. “We will send men before us etc.”, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 1:22): “And you approached me, all of you, [saying, We will send men, etc.]”, and Moses took counsel with the Shechinah (the Lord), whereupon He said to them, I have told them long ago that it (the land) is good, as it is said, (Exodus 3:17): “I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt … [unto a land flowing with milk and honey]”. By their lives! I swear that I will give them now an opportunity to fall into error through the statements of the spies, so that they should not come into possession of it (the land) (Sotah 34b; cf. also Rashi on Sotah 34b:8 מדעתך and Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 5).

Send forth: First God said to the Israelites "Go up and conquer."The Israelites then said to themselves: "Let's send people first." After this, God said: "Send forth men."

’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.’

'''Send for you men''' — ''According to your own judgment. I do not command you; if you wish, send. – Because Israel came up and said: "Let us send up men before us," as it is stated (Deut. 1:22) "And you approached me, all of you" etc. Moses, however, consulted the ''Shekhina.'' He [Hashem] said: I told them [the Land] was good, as it is stated (Ex. 3:17): "I shall bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to a good land." By their life! I shall give them room for error with the matter of the spies, in order that they may not inherit it.'' – The words of Rashi, from an ''aggadah.'' Now we should ask: If so, Moses himself sinned in this matter, as it is stated (Deut. 1:23): "And I approved of the matter." And why did he say to them about the Land: "Is it good or bad?" (v. 19), since he has been told beforehand that it is good and wide-stretched? Furthermore, what did the spies do [bad]? For Moses told them (v. 18): "And look at the Land, how is it, and at the people that dwell upon it: Is it strong or weak? Is it few-numbered or many-numbered?" And he said to them about the cities (v. 19): "[Do they dwell] outdoors or in fortifications?" So, no matter what, they were obliged to answer him on what he ordered them; what then is their crime and what is their fault when they said to him (v. 28): "Alas! for the people is fierce, and the cities are fortified [and] big"? Did he send them in order that they testify to him falsehood? Do not think that their crime was their saying "A land that consumes its dwellers" (v. 32) alone; for even before they would say that, the quarrel of Caleb with them took place. Also, it is stated (Deut. 1:28): "Our brethren have melted our hearts, saying, 'A people too great and too high for us' " etc., and here it is stated (below, 14:3): "...to fall by the sword, our women and little children will be taken captive." But even Moses our master said to their descendants similar things, and exaggerated to them about the strength of the people and the fortifications of their cities and the power of the giants, much farther than what the spies told their forefathers, as it is stated (Deut. 9:1-2): "Listen, O Israel! You are crossing today the Jordan, to enter and inherit nations greater and more powerfull than you, cities great and fortified in the heavens, a nation great and high, decendants of giants, of whom you know and have heard: who can stand up before descendants of a giant?" Now if the crime of the spies and their sin was in this manner, who would he dissuade their descendants as the spies have dissuaded their forefathers? Furthermore: What was the reason of Moses our master in this mission? If the Land is good and the people weak – then [all is] well; and if it is bad or the people are strong, does he intend turning them back to Egypt? But the resolution of the matter is thus: Israel spoke in the manner of all who enter to wage war in a foreign land, who usually send men before them to study the ways and the entrances to the cities; and when they return, the seekers go at the front of the army to show them the ways, in the manner that it is stated (Jud. 1:24): "Show us please the entrance to the city," and they advise them what city to fight first and from what side it is easier to conquer the land. Thus they have explicitly said (Deut. 1:22): "And they shall return to us word, the way through which we shall ascend and the cities" etc.; i.e., the cities which we shall enter first, from where we shall enter the entire land; and this is proper counsel for all conquerors of lands. Furthermore, so too did Moses himself do, as it is stated (below, 21:32): "And Moses sent to spy out Ya`zer," and similarly by Yehoshua bin-Nun (Josh. 2:1): "Two men as spies." Therefore Moses approved; because Scripture will not rely in any of its deeds upon a miracle, but will command the warriors to arm and guard and conceal themselves, as Scripture appears in the war of the Ay (Ibid., 8:2) which took place according to Hashem's word, and in many places. Then Moses consulted the ''Shekhina'' and Hashem gave him permission and said to him: "Send for you men and they shall seek the Land of Canaan, and let them study it and tell you, and according to them you shall take counsel about the conquest." Now Moses said to them (v. 17): "Ascend thus through the Negev," meaning: Go up this way through the Negev so as to study the people that dwell in the land of the Negev, from the side where israel was, is it strong and they would need for their purpose to guard themselves very much and arm themselves. Similarly the cities, if they are fortified then the [enemy] may entrench themselves therein and they would need to build a rampart and siege-walls, or they may enter from another side. He told them further to study the land itself whether it is good or bad, because if it is bad, they would conquer first some other places, for they were seeking out the Emorite mountain from the side of Hebron; for even Joshua didn't conquer them all. This is the meaning of the verse (19): "And how is the land that they dwell therein?" – about the people that dwelled in the Negev. It is also possible that Moses, because he knew that [the Land] was fat and good, as he has been told (Ex. 3:8): "...to a good and wide-stretched land" etc., therefore he ordered them to pay attention to learn about that, in order that they may tell the People, who would rejoice and renew their strength to go up there happily. Therefore he told them (v. 20): "And you shall be strong and take from the fruit of the Land," in order that they see in their own eyes the praise of the Land. It is well-known that Egypt is not very far from Hebron, only a seven-day walking distance, and the Land of Canaan reaches on its border near Egypt; it is impossible that those dwelling in Egypt didn't know about the Land of Canaan whether it was good or bad. But the intention of Moses was to study the way in which he should ascend and the cities which he should conquer first, as I have explained. Indeed, Israel in the land of Egypt were slaves [doing] punitive service, neither knowing nor understanding [such matters]; therefore Moses wanted the [spies] to tell them all about the Land, to gladden them with its virtues, for he knew all about them. What appears to me from the language of Scripture is, that Moses did not consult the ''Shekhina.'' Rather, this is the meaning of "Send for you": They agreed to send seekers. Now the custom was to send "two men as spies in secret (saying)" (Josh. 2:1), and that they should send from their lower ranks. But Hashem who knows future events commanded him to send one man per every tribe of Israel, and that they be the chieftains among them, because Hashem wished all the leaders to be involved equally in the matter, perhaps they shall reckon and return to Hashem; and if not, may the [evil] decree [apply] equally to the entire People. This is the meaning of "according to the word of God" (v. 3), that they be – at Hashem's order – chieftains and leaders of the Children of Israel. And what appears to me according to the plain meaning of Scripture is, that Hashem did not mention to Moses their request that they requested to send spies nor the consent of Moses to their request, for if it was thus, Scripture would have recounted here: "And the Children of Israel approached Moses and said: 'Let us send men before us' etc. And Moses approved," and afterwards it would state: "And God said to Moses, saying: Send for you men as they said unto you, one man" etc. But the matter was thus: Israel requested the mssion, Moses approved, and then the Word came to Moses like the other Commandments, and He said to him simply: "Send for you men." This is the meaning of the words: "...and they shall reconnoiter the Land of Canaan that I am giving to the Children of Israel," for He is speaking of a new matter which has not been discussed before. And all this transpired so, because Hashem wished for the sake of His justice that the mission be at His commandment, and that all their tribes and leaders be involved, in order that they may be saved. It also appears furthermore that they requested from Moses: "Let us send men before us and let them unearth the Land for us" (Deut. 1:22), which is the searching among the roads and about the purpose of conquest, from a similar phrase as "unearthed food" (Job 39:29). This is the meaning of "before us," that they shall go after them on their [the spies'] way, similar to the phrase (above, 10:33): "And the ark of the covenant of God travelled before them." But Hashem commanded "...and they shall seek out the Land of Canaan," which is similar to the meaning of "choice," like those who wish to buy something, from the phrase: "Besides the men who seek out and the merchants" (2 Chron. 9:14) and so too: "...to the Land that I have sought out for them" (Ezek. 20:6), and so too: "...to seek out a resting place for them" (above, 10:3). Therefore Moses commanded them to spell out "whether it is good or bad" etc., "is it fat or lean" etc, and all this to gladden them, for "it is the choicest of all lands" (Ezek. 20:6) so that they ascend unto it with great desire. Now the matter was stated here briefly, for so it was. But in the Duplicate Torah [the Hummash of Devarim] Moses mentioned to them all the details from the beginning, to tell them their crime, for they have sinned in their requesting and asking [this] of their own accord. But according to our Rabbis, they sinned by saying: "Let us send men before us," because they saw the salvation of Hashem which he was performing for them regularly, and they ought to go after the cloud to wherever the Spirit will be there to go. Moses acquiesced to them to satisfy their desire, and "I approved of the matter" (Deut. 1:23) would mean that I forbore your evil and instructed to do it. And Hashem commanded him to send one man per the tribe of his ancestors etc., similar to what is stated in Samuel (1 Sam. 8:7): "Listen to the People to all that they say to you; for it is not you that they have rejected, but it is Me that they have rejected from reigning over them." Now these men were not specified by names according to the Word of Hashem as they were with the Recountings (above, 1:5-15) and the Allotment of the Land (below, 34:19-28); for with the Commandment of God – no mishap may befall its followers, and the keeper of a Commandment shall know no evil outcome; but He, may He be blessed, commanded Moses: "One man per the tribe of his ancestors you shall send" etc., and that they be chieftains; and Moses, of his own accord, selected these ones and sent them, and they caused their own souls evil.

שלח לך אנשים, do not allow the selection of these men to be made by the people themselves! We know from Deuteronomy 1,22 that the initiative of sending out spies came from the people and that Moses was put under pressure to do this. G’d was cautioning Moses that by allowing the people to select the spies themselves, that if they chose unsuitable candidates and they came back with a faulty report, the people would blame G’d for what was wrong with the country instead of the inadequate ability of the spies to correctly evaluate what they had seen. Once the blame would be laid at G’d’s doorstep it would be impossible to do teshuvah. In the event, the people did teshuvah when they said “we have sinned against You,” as reported in Deuteronomy 1,41 As far as the spies whom Moses sent out were concerned, while it is true that they were guilty in bringing about the refusal of the people to undertake the campaign to conquer the land, and all this was due to a lack of faith in G’d, they did report truthfully on the excellence of the land and they brought back with them proof of it. (compare verse 27) where they are quoted as having said that not only was the land good, but it was a land flowing with milk and honey; In Deuteronomy 1,25 Moses also agrees that they had reported on the excellence of the land. Their fault lay in their asserting that the country could not be conquered by the Jewish people. Once the people realised that the problem had been their own lack of faith and not any shortcoming they had ascribed to G’d, the way was paved for repentance to become acceptable. They immediately reversed themselves, offering to ascend and to participate in the conquest of the land. (compare verse 41 in our chapter) They prayed and cried to G’d regarding their sin, but G’d did not accept their prayer. Their sin had consisted of a desecration of the Lord’s name in public, something that cannot be atoned for except after the death of the guilty party. G’d had already alluded to this in Exodus 32,34 in connection with the sin of the golden calf when He had said וביום פקדי ופקדתי, “on the day when I mete out justice (literally “remember” i.e. review the deceased deeds, etc.) I will also judge, etc.” In other words, this atonement is reserved for people only posthumously.

and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land.’—Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.—

And Caleb stilled the people toward Moses, and said: ‘We should go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.’

אל משה means he silenced them that they should hear what he was going to say about Moses. He cried aloud saying: “Is this the only thing the son of Amram has done to us?!" — One who heard him thus speaking believed that he was about to speak to his disparagement, and because they had something in their mind against Moses through the spies’ statements, all of them kept silent to hear his disparagement. He, however, said: “Did he not divide the Red Sea for us, and bring down the Manna for us, and collect the quails for us?!” (Sotah 35a).