Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Shlach Lecha Numbers 13:1-15:41

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - The most severe sin of the Bible was the sin of the scouts, the delegation of twelve Princes of the tribes of Israel who returned with a disastrous majority report denying the conquest of Israel and resulting in the death of the desert generation. What is most difficult to understand however is that the suggestion to establish such an ill-fated reconnaissance team came directly from the Almighty Himself at the very outset of this week’s Torah reading: “And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘send for yourselves men who will seek out (heb. vayaturu) the Land of Canaan which I am giving to the children of Israel each one representing a tribe of their fathers shall you send, each one a Prince from among them’”. (Numbers 13:1,2) How can G-d have suggested such a delegation destined for disaster?!

Rav Elchanan Summit, in his excellent study of the weekly Torah portions, suggests an insight which at the same time provides a textual underpinning for a magnificent homiletic interpretation given by Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik. The secret to understanding lies in the verb form used in the charge given by the Almighty, “send for yourselves men who will seek out (heb. vayaturu)”, the verb tur appearing no less than twelve times in this very sequence, the very number of the delegation itself. In fact, when Moses himself retells the story in his farewell address (Deut 1:22,24), he has the Israelites all coming to him and saying, “let us send men before us that they may check out (vayahperu) the land ….and spy (vayaraglu) it out”, using two verb forms very different from the “vayaturu“ used by G-d.

A careful search will reveal that in other Biblical contexts G-d does link the verb form “tur” to the Land of Israel, as in, “the Lord G-d who walks before you, He will do battle for you…to seek out (latur) for you a place in which you may settle your encampment”. Even the prophet Ezekiel (20:6) declares that “on that day I shall raise my hand for them to bring them out of the Land of Egypt to the land which I have sought out (tarti) for them. A land flowing with milk and honey, a most precious land for them among all the other lands”.

The power of the specific verb form tur used by G-d becomes even more clearly expressed when we look to the very conclusion of this week’s Torah reading, and discover that very verb form in a different but most revealing context. Almost inexplicably, this Torah portion which mainly deals with the scouts concludes with the commandment to wear ritual fringes on the corners of our four cornered garments: “and (the blue-and-white ) shall be for you for a fringe so that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them; and so that you not seek out or lust (taturu) after your heart and after you eyes which lead you to commit acts of harlotry (zonim) after them” (Numbers 15:39). And when punishing the Israelites, G-d once again makes reference to the sin of the scouts as having been an act of harlotry (znut), “and you children shall be shepherds in the desert for forty years, thereby bearing (the sin) of your harlotry (znut)” (Numbers 14:13).

The picture is becoming very clear. The Almighty was not at all interested in a reconnaissance mission to scout out the Land or even in an intelligence delegation to assess the military practicability of engaging in an act of conquest. That was perhaps what the Israelites had in mind when they asked Moses to send men before them to check out the Land, which probably meant to see by which roads it would be best to enter and which cities ought be attacked first. The Almighty had a very different design in mind. G-d wanted to impress them with the uniqueness, the chosenness of the Land which He Himself had picked for them, the Land that would be their ultimate resting place, the Land which was good and not bad, which produced luscious fruits and full bodied animals, the Land whose produce developed strong and capable men; G-d wanted them to conquer the Land with great anticipation and desire. (Ramban adloc numbers 13:1)

Rav Soloveitchik goes one step further. The Torah of Israel and the Land of Israel are both biblically called morasha which means heritage, but which our sages linked to Me’orsha which means betrothed and beloved. G-d understands that the conquest of the Torah of Israel as well as of the Land of Israel by the people of Israel will require strong feelings of love for each of these grand enterprises. And just as the Rabbis of the Talmud command us not to marry a woman unless we first see her and know that we love her, so did G-d ask Moses to send a group who would give the kind of visual description of the Land of Israel to the people of Israel which would inspire them to love the Land and even lust after the Land. G-d understood that such an emotional attachment was absolutely crucial if the Israelites were to overcome all of the obstacles involved in conquering the Land, settling it, and forging within it a holy nation and kingdom of priests.

Alas, the people- and probably even Moses himself - did not understand the Divine command. Their sin was in taking the mission to have been a scouting enterprise rather than an inspirational foretaste of what waited in store for them after their conquest.

Our generation - so similar to the Israelites who went from the darkness of Egypt to the light of freedom and stood at the entrance to the Promised Land - must do whatever is necessary to recapture and strengthen the love of Israel if we are to succeed in properly settling it.

Shabbat Shalom