Shelach - שְׁלַח־לְךָ֣ - Numbers 13:1-15:41 Making Torah Personal #Mussar

Ka'as - כעס: Irritation, annoyance, anger, exasperation, grumpiness, indignation, resentment. It helps to understand why Jewish tradition regards it as such a harmful trait (our Sages likened it to idolatry), and how Mussar might offer ways to understand it in order to begin controlling it. Anger can arise and be triggered by unmet expectations, feeling disrespected, or a lack of patience, among other things.

A person is drawn after the society he lives in. ~

Rambam / Maimonides, Hilchot De'ot, 6:1

Scouts are sent to investigate aspects of the Land, and 10 of them warn that the inhabitants are giants and warriors.

Only Caleb and Joshua say that the land can be conquered, as God commanded.

There is rebellion in the camp, the people complain and focus on the foods they ate while in Egypt.

Am Yisrael receives punishment for their distrust.

God decrees that entry into the Land will be delayed 40 years, and this generation will not see the Land.

Rules are given for sacrificial offerings, as are laws for consecration of the challah dough.

Shabbat is violated, and the offender is put to death.

The mitzvah of tzizit is described.

'''Send for you men''' — ''According to your own judgment. I do not command you; if you wish, send. Ramban on Numbers 13:2

Such is the way of defamers: they start off by saying something good, and conclude by saying evil. Rabbi Yochanan said in the name of Rabbi Meir: Any piece of slander which has not some truth in the beginning, will not endure in the end. ~ Midrash Rabbah; Talmud

Anger causes a person to be stubborn, and because of his anger a person will not make concessions, and he will not admit the truth. ~Orchot Tzadikkim / The Ways of the Righteous, Gate 12

We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we (13:30)

They said this even regarding G‑d Himself (the Hebrew word mimenu, “than we,” can also mean “than he”): Even He cannot remove them from there. Talmud; Rashi.

It is a land that consumes its inhabitants (13:32)

What was the reason that the spies, who were leaders of Israel and men of lofty stature, did not want to enter the Land?

The explanation of the matter is as follows:

A great majority of the physical mitzvot can be implemented only in the Land of Israel, especially the agricultural laws and the laws of the offerings brought to the Holy Temple. . . . The spies, who were on a most lofty spiritual level, did not wish to lower themselves to the level of physical action, preferring to remain in the desert, where they received all their needs from above, and related to G‑d by means of the loftier levels of thought and speech (i.e., study of Torah and prayer). They desired to draw down all the divine emanations into the “Land of Israel” that exists in the realm of malchut, the world of divine speech, where there also is a “Jerusalem” and a “Holy Temple.” Regarding the physical Land of Israel, they said: “It is a land that consumes its inhabitants”—if the divine light were to be drawn down into the physical world, our entire existence would be nullified.

But Joshua and Caleb said, “The Land is very, very good.” It is specifically in the Land of Israel down below, and specifically by means of the mitzvot implemented by physical action, that the truly infinite light of G‑d is drawn down—a light that includes both the spiritual and the material, which is why it is “very, very” good. ~ Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi

Rav Yisrael Salanter, the founder of the Mussar Movement, was especially aware of anger as an undermining trait. Once, while he was living in Berlin, a visitor found Rav Yisrael uncharacteristically upset. The visitor inquired as to the source of his troubles. Rav Yisrael answered that two Jews from Kovno had just come to visit, and had reported to him on potentially troublesome changes that were about to be made in the local Beit Medrash (study hall), where Rav Yisrael used to study. “Are the changes that bad?” asked the visitor. “No,” answered Rav Yisrael, “but nevertheless, I felt some anger when I was told of them.” “Did you speak to them in a way that could have contained an element of insult?” “No, not at all,” answered Rav Yisrael. “No one but myself knew of it. But you know just as I do, that when a person gets angry it is as if he were worshipping idols. About this I am upset.” ~ Rabbi Avrohom Feuer, A Letter for the Ages, p. 37.

The people wept that night (14:1)

On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers would not enter the Promised Land.

For we know that the children of Israel decamped from Mount Sinai on the 20th of Iyar (Numbers 10:11), and set forth on a three days’ journey (ibid. 10:33), following which they ate the quail for thirty days (ibid. 11:20). That brings us up to the 22nd of Sivan. Then Miriam was secluded outside of the camp for seven days (ibid. 12:15), following which Moses sent the spies (ibid. 13:1). Thus, the spies went out on the 29th of Sivan. And it is written, “They returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days.” The month of Tammuz was a “full” month (of 30 days) that year, meaning that they returned on the 8th of Av. And it is further written, “All the congregation lifted up their voice and cried; and the people wept that night.” Rabbah said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: That night was the night of the ninth of Av. Said G‑d to them: You have wept without cause; therefore I will set aside this day for a weeping throughout the generations to come. ~Talmud, Taanit 29b

Halakha is the path which does not stray to the right or left at all – only walking with equilibrium and not swerving to the left or the right, and therefore what we call ‘Halakha’ is called ‘Halakha,’ because one who walks walks in straightness and does not tend from the straight and equal path at all, not to the right and not to the left; and this is the quality of Beit Hillel, that they had this quality in all of their conduct – they wouldn’t stray from equilibrium because they were centered. And don’t say that Beit Shamai weren’t wise, for on the contrary they were very wise and intellectually sharp. Only in the area of Halakha which is the path of the straight it is according to Beit Hillel because they were masters of calmness without veering from the order. And so they were [calm] even when they were insulted, and they taught their words and the words of their friends, and all of this refers to being completely calm, for in the case of other people, when someone says something to him, he is quick to become angry and to insult him back, while in the case of Beit Hillel they had the quality of being calm and did not insult even someone who insulted them. And so too when they taught their teachings and the teachings of Beit Shamai. Furthermore, they would put Beit Shamai’s teachings before their own. In all of these matters they were organized in their actions, and they were not from the group of highly competitive against their friends, and they were from the group that succeeds. Netivot Olam, Netiv Ka'as, 1:2