Ilustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Midrash מִדְרָשׁ
Here’s Benei Yisrael’s reaction to the report from the מְרַגְּלִים (meraglim, spies):
וַתִּשָּׂא֙ כׇּל־הָ֣עֵדָ֔ה וַֽיִּתְּנ֖וּ אֶת־קוֹלָ֑ם וַיִּבְכּ֥וּ הָעָ֖ם בַּלַּ֥יְלָה הַהֽוּא׃
The whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night.
According to a midrash, Benei Yisrael’s reaction at this moment will remain a part of Jewish history forever.
אָמַר רַבָּה אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: אוֹתוֹ לַיְלָה לֵיל תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב הָיָה.
אָמַר לָהֶם הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא: אַתֶּם בְּכִיתֶם בְּכִיָּה שֶׁל חִנָּם — וַאֲנִי קוֹבֵעַ לָכֶם בְּכִיָּה לְדוֹרוֹת.
Rabbah said that Rabbi Yohanan said: That night was the night of Tisha B’Av (when the Beit HaMikdash would one day be destroyed).
The Holy Blessed One said to them: You wept needlessly that night, and I will make it so that you weep on that day for generations.
Benei Yisrael were about to receive an amazing blessing from God: a wonderful land. But they cried and refused to go in. According to the midrash, this astonishing lack of faith is what makes the Jewish people suffer the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, eventually giving them a real reason to cry.
- Why was it wrong for Benei Yisrael to cry when God was about to give them the land? What kind of behavior is that? What did that show about them?
- When Benei Yisrael were sent out of אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל (Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel), it was about 1,000 years after the meraglim and the night Benei Yisrael cried about going into the land. Why would it fit for both things to happen on the same date?
- When might crying be a good thing, and why should we make sure that we cry at the right time and for the right reasons?
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