torah

Of spies and their tears

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Imagine that we lived in a world of universal peace and harmony, in which war is simply unknown and there is no idol worship. Moreover, picture a time when the Beit Hamikdash stands in all its glory, Israel is governed by Jewish law, the Sanhedrin renders ultimate judgment, and anti-Semitism is not even a thought.

As Chazal teach us in multiple sources, the beginning of Shelach offers the possible fulfillment of these messianic visions. In theory, Moshe could have been the Mashiach, led our people into Eretz Yisrael and built the eternal Beit HaMikdash. Then the entire world would have recognized the truth of monotheism and our people’s singular role as Hashem’s chosen nation.

What exactly took place that brought these magnificent plans to a screeching halt? In his commentary on the Torah, the Ramban zt”l suggests that this was a direct result of the people’s reaction to the spies’ report concerning the seeming impossibility of conquering Eretz Yisrael, as found in our parasha. Chazal teach us that this poignant episode transpired on the night of Tisha B’Av:

“The entire community raised their voices and shouted, and the people wept on that night. All the children of Israel complained against Moshe and Aharon, and the entire congregation said, ‘If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this desert. Why does the L-rd bring us to this land to fall by the sword and for our wives and children to be as spoils? Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?’ They said to each other, ‘Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt’” (Bamidbar 14:1-4).

Rabbi Yitzchak ben Moshe Arama, known as the Akeidat Yitzhak, was a great Spanish exegete. In his Torah commentary on our parasha, Rav Arama suggests that the final verse of our passage contains the key for understanding the completely negative valence of our forebears’ response:

“They [the people] rejected the Land of Divine promise. It is this rejection of the land which has been our undoing throughout the ages. On account of it, we were exiled from our country, divorced from our soil, and became a reproach to our neighbors, a scorning and a derision to those around us. There is no way of restoring our integrity other than by returning unto it.”

Rav Arama goes on to ask, and answer, a powerful question as to why our ancestors’ behavior resulted in the permanent ban on the men of the generation — though not the continuously loyal women — from entering Eretz Yisrael. In so doing, he helps us understand our seemingly never-ending years of exile:

“What was the reason for the terrible wrath of the Almighty in giving forth this irrevocable decree? What should it matter to the Holy One, blessed be He, that they rejected a goodly land, a land flowing with milk and honey? Surely all these goods are only transitory!

“But the truth is that it was not [only] these earthly things that they rejected, rather they rejected Hashem, they despised the Holy One of Israel who granted them life and its joys, surrounded by the precepts of the Torah … They retreated, saying, ‘We cannot go up,’ implying that they did not desire to scale the heights of spiritual perfection, the ladder to which was the Holy Land itself, but preferred to choose a leader and go back to Egypt, descending to an impure land.”

Based upon Rav Arama’s trenchant insights, we can now summarize the two-part sin of the spies and the people’s response to their report: the rejection of the Land of Divine promise, and the repudiation of Hashem and His holy Torah. In a very real sense, our forbears’ rejection of the land represented the worst form of kafui tovah — rejection of the good.

Finally, the moment was at hand. Eretz Yisrael was all but in our grasp. Hashem’s beneficence was boundless, and His mercy unending. Yet we rejected both our Creator and His unlimited kindness.

 

Our ancestors cried for no reason, and it is precisely these causeless tears that have stained our relationship with the Almighty until today. May the Master of the Universe help us truly appreciate the untold wonder of our beloved land, and give us the wisdom to once again cry unto Him (Eicha 5:21): “Cause us to return to You, Hashem, so that we may return, and renew our days as they were in earlier times.”