ONE WRONG WORD
INTRODUCTION
TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA
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In
memory of Yakov Yehuda ben Pinchas Wallach
and Miriam Wallach bat Tzvi
Donner
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PARASHAT
SHELACH LEKHA
ONE
WRONG WORD
By
Rabbi Ya’akov Beasley
A.
INTRODUCTION
Although
the seeds of the tragedy of Sefer Bamidbar are planted in Parashat
Beha’alothekha, the death of the dream occurs in our parasha. With the people’s rejection of the
Promised Land, Hashem so despairs of the nation that He contemplated
obliterating them entirely, and only Moshe’s heartfelt pleas avert the decree.
Instead of triumphantly marching
into Eretz Yisrael, Bnei Yisrael will wander aimlessly in the
wilderness for forty years, waiting for the death of one generation so that the
next can enter the Land. Some of
the people attempt to attack the Land despite the withdrawal of the Divine
Presence, but they only deal the Jewish people their first military defeat. The parasha concludes with a
series of mitzvot, some of which are to come into effect only when the
people finally arrive in their Land (libations on the altar and the gift of
challa to the Kohen), and others that allude to the sin that the people
committed (the offerings of leaders that err and the mitzva of tzitzit,
which is intended to guard against following the desires of the eyes, as the
spies had done).
B.
PARADIGMS
OF ERROR
There
are two basic approaches found among the commentators to what the offense of the
spies was:
a)
RASHI
– The very act of spying out the territory implied doubt about the value of
God’s gift to the Jewish people, Eretz Yisrael.
b)
RAMBAN
– The act of spying and military preparations were perfectly acceptable; the
error was in the spies’ presentation.
The
first approach, that of Rashi, appears first in the Midrash, according to which
the very request for further information about Eretz Yisrael contained
the seeds of the subsequent rejection of the Land:
Even
though Hashem agreed, saying, “Send yourself out men,” He did not really
feel that they should be dispatched.
Why? The Holy One had
already told them the amazing qualities of Eretz Yisrael…This is
comparable to a king who told his son, “I have found you a beautiful woman, from
an excellent family, who is wealthy and altogether incomparable!”Said the son,
“I want to go check her out.” The
king was very hurt by the son’s suspicions. Said the king to himself, “What can I do
now? If I refuse his request, he’ll
be convinced that she is ugly [and I am trying to fool him].” So he gave his approval to his son. When
the son met her, he was overwhelmed.
“You like her?” Said the
king. “Good! Now, I swear that you will not have
her!” (Midrash Tanchuma,
Shelach 5)
The
original dispatch of the spies reflects a lack of trust in Hashem
regarding His promise of Eretz Yisrael. Each of the forty days of spying added
to the insult and directly contributed to the punishment of forty years.
A
variation of this approach distinguishes between the desire to understand the
nature of the land and the demand for military intelligence. The request to send
spies exposes a breakdown of faith in Hashem’s ability to wage the war
necessary to bring them into Eretz Yisrael.
And
Moshe sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them: “Get you up
here into the South, and go up into the mountains; and see the land, what it
is; and the people that dwells therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether
they are few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in,
whether it is good or bad… and what the land is, whether it is
fat or lean, whether there is wood therein or not. And be of good courage, and
bring of the fruit of the land.”
Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.
(13:17-20)
Hashem
told Moshe that there was no need for military intelligence. He allowed them to
send out explorers (tarim), not spies (meraglim). When they returned, they appended to the
appropriate information about the land a military analysis that was not their
business, negating all the good tidings that they brought to the people …
(commentary of the Malbim, 13:2)
It
was an outrageous thing that these spies said: “For they are stronger than we
(mi-mennu)” (13:31). Read that as “stronger than He (Hashem -
mi-mennu)! They were suggesting that even The Owner was not able to move
His tools out of there… (Arachin 15a)
As
opposed to this approach, the Ramban bases his explanation on the assumption
that he makes at the beginning of the parasha (13:2) – that the purpose
of sending the spies was for military reconnaissance. The Ramban explains the
series of questions that Moshe presented to the spies (verses 17-20) in terms of
this assumption – all are aimed at preparing for the military conquest of the
land. The first report of the spies was therefore mainly within the framework of
their mission, the Ramban explains. Only with the word “only” (efes -
13:28) do they begin to overstep their authority (although it is still a
military report, but of a different type).
This
[the espionage] is a perfectly acceptable approach, and Moshe himself sent spies
[against Ya’azer], as did Yehoshua [against Yericho]… This is why Moshe Rabbeinu
approved of the venture, because the Torah does not rely on miracles in all
things, but insists that combatants arm themselves, set up watches, and arrange
ambushes, just as we find in the war against Ai, which was waged according to
Hashem’s own instructions …
What
wrong did these spies do? After
all, Moshe told them, “See what kind of land it is, and the people who live
there – are they strong or weak, few or many? And about the cities are they open or
fortified? They certainly had to
tell him what they were sent to find out.
What was their sin, what was their terrible crime when they told him,
“However, the people living in the land are aggressive, and the cities are large
and well-fortified?” Were they sent
in order to lie upon their return?
Do
not think for a moment that their sin was in saying, “the land devours its
inhabitant” because even before they said that we find Calev disputing
them… As a matter of fact, Moshe
himself said a lot worse than this to the children of these people [forty years
later in Sefer Devarim, embellishing the power of the local population
and exaggerating the fortifications of their cities – far beyond what these
spies said to their parents,] as it states “You will be coming to conquer
nations that are greater and more powerful than you, with great cities,
fortified to the skies. They are a
great nation, as tall as giants, and you’ve heard the expression, ‘Who can
standup to a giant!’” (Devarim 9:1, 2). Now if the meraglim were
saying things like this, why would Moshe frighten the second generation exactly
the same way that the spies frightened the first?
[Why
then bring fruit back?] It is
possible that Moshe [intended to]… let the people know, so that they would be
happy and energized, inspired to go up to
According
to both the Ramban (13:1 and 13:27) and the Akeidat Yitzchak (77), it appears
that the sin of the spies lay in overstepping the bounds of their authority, in
their transition from being faithful reporters – which was the mandate given to
them - to becoming advisors with their own independent views and evaluations –
which lay outside the bounds of their mission. Indeed, such a distinction exists
in modern intelligence bodies, where the function of the information gatherers
is to report on what they have seen or heard, and that of the intelligence
evaluators is to evaluate the situation or to provide advice on the basis of
that information.
In
the transition from one function to the other, the spies indeed overstepped
their authority, but ultimately this was no more than a formal sin. Is this
really what constituted the true sin of the spies?
C.
IT’S
NOT WHAT WAS SAID
In
discussing the laws of slander, the Rambam makes a fascinating distinction
between tale-bearing and slander:
One
who is talebearer (meragel) on his friends transgresses a commandment, as
it says, “Do not go around as a talebearer among your people (Vayikra
19:16)… This is a terrible sin and brought about the death of many people from
among the Jewish people, as the verse continues “Do not stand over the blood of
your brother.” Take an example from
Doeg [whose accusations of treachery caused Shaul to wipe out Nov, the city of
kohanim, for assisting David].
The
talebearer refers to someone who hears something and then passes it to others,
saying, “So and so said this” or “I heard such and such about this person” –
even if it is true, it destroys society.
[Despite
this], there is a sin that is exceedingly worse than this, which is included in
the same commandment: lashon ha-ra.
This consists of saying something demeaning about someone, even if it
true. (Mishna Torah, Hilkhot De’ot, 7:1, 2)
This
implies that the sin of the spies was not a question of a lack of emuna,
faith, or the technical slip from exceeding one’s boundaries. Instead, the issue comes back not to
what was said, but something deeper – if it should have been said at all. In the Talmud’s
formulation:
Come
and see the incredible power of lashon ha-ra, which can be learned from
the meraglim (spies): if
this is what comes of speaking lashon ha-ra only of trees and rocks,
imagine what is involved when speaking lashon ha-ra about a friend! (Arachin
15a)
Despite
the fact that no damage was caused to the trees and rocks of Eretz
Yisrael, the spies changed the course of history for an entire nation. Clearly, lashon ha-ra is not
measured by the extent of the damage it causes, but the fact that it has been
spoken at all. The talebearer
reveals information that was not meant to be public. Ultimately, however, he presented the
information and the conclusions are drawn by the listener. The speaker of lashon ha-ra,
however, attempts to control the listener, to insinuate into his thoughts and
influence his conclusions. Through
speech, the speaker defines himself.
A generation that was capable of speaking evil about Eretz Yisrael
did not deserve to live there. As
the Talmud states:
The
decree against our forefathers in the desert was sealed only because of
lashon ha-ra, slander, as it states, “They have tested Me this ten times
…” (Bamidbar 14:22).
But
perhaps this lashon ha-ra was only the final straw [but ultimately was
not innately worse than any of the other sins]?
Impossible,
for it stresses here ‘they have tested Me this ten times,’ implying that
it was uniquely this - lashon ha-ra – that sealed the decree. (Arachin
15a)