Shelach שְׁלַח־לְךָ֣ -Numbers 13:1-15:41

(15) There are four types among those who sit before the sages: a sponge, a funnel, a strainer and a sieve. A sponge, soaks up everything; A funnel, takes in at one end and lets out at the other; A strainer, which lets out the wine and retains the lees; A sieve, which lets out the coarse meal and retains the choice flour.

(9) But take utmost care and watch yourselves scrupulously, so that you do not forget the things that you saw with your own eyes and so that they do not fade from your mind as long as you live. And make them known to your children and to your children’s children:

Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah said: Where there is no Torah, there is no right conduct; where there is no right conduct, there is no Torah. Where there is no wisdom, there is no fear of God; where there is no fear of God, there is no wisdom. Where there is no understanding, there is no knowledge; where there is no knowledge, there is no understanding. Where there is no bread, there is no Torah; where there is no Torah, there is no bread. He used to say: one whose wisdom exceeds his deeds, to what may he be compared? To a tree whose branches are numerous but whose roots are few, so that when the wind comes, it uproots it and overturns it, as it is said, “He shall be like a bush in the desert, which does not sense the coming of good. It is set in the scorched places of the wilderness, in a barren land without inhabitant” (Jeremiah 17:6). But one whose deeds exceed his wisdom, to what may he be compared? To a tree whose branches are few but roots are many, so that even if all the winds in the world come and blow upon it, they cannot move it out of its place, as it is said, “He shall be like a tree planted by waters, sending forth its roots by a stream. It does not sense the coming of heat, its leaves are ever fresh. It has no care in a year of drought; it does not cease to yield fruit” (ibid, 17:8).

(1) יהוה spoke to Moses, saying, (2) “Send men to scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelite people; send one participant from each of their ancestral tribes, each one a chieftain among them.” (3) So Moses, by יהוה’s command, sent them out from the wilderness of Paran, all of them leaders of B'nai Yisrael.

Those were the names of the participants whom Moses sent to scout the land; but Moses changed the name of Hosea son of Nun to Joshua. When Moses sent them to scout the land of Canaan, he said to them, “Go up there into the Negev and on into the hill country, and see what kind of country it is. Are the people who dwell in it strong or weak, few or many? Is the country in which they dwell good or bad? Are the towns they live in open or fortified? Is the soil rich or poor? Is it wooded or not? And take pains to bring back some of the fruit of the land.”—Now it happened to be the season of the first ripe grapes.

ויקרא משה להושע וגו׳ AND MOSES CALLED HOSHEA [THE SON OF NUN JEHOSHUA] — By giving him this name יהושע which is a compound of יה and הושע “God may save”, he in effect prayed for him: “May God save you from the evil counsel of the spies” (Sotah 34b).

החזק הוא הרפה WHETHER THEY ARE STRONG OR WEAK — He gave them a sign: if they live in open cities they are strong, since they evidently rely on their own strength, but if they live in fortified cities they are weak (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 6).

They went straight to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran, and they made their report to them and to the whole community, as they showed them the fruit of the land.

This is what they told him: “We came to the land you sent us to; it does indeed flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who inhabit the country are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, we saw the Anakites there. Amalekites dwell in the Negeb region; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites inhabit the hill country; and Canaanites dwell by the Sea and along the Jordan.” Caleb hushed the people before Moses and said, “Let us by all means go up, and we shall gain possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.”

זבת חלב ודבש [WE CAME INTO THE LAND … AND SURELY] IT FLOWETH WITH MILK AND HONEY — They stated this because no fabricated statement in which one does not say at least some true words at first can in the end be maintained (Sotah 35a).

AND SURELY IT FLOWETH WITH MILK AND HONEY. Since Moses had commanded them to see what the Land is, whether it is fat or lean the spies reported to him that it is fat, and surely it floweth with milk and honey. And in answer to his question whether there are trees therein or not they reported to him, and this is its fruit for so he had commanded them, to show it to him. Now in all this they said the truth, and gave a report about those matters which they had been commanded [to find out], therefore they should [indeed] have said [as in fact they did] that the people that dwell in the Land are fierce and the cities are fortified; for it was their duty to bring back words of truth to them that sent them, and Moses had commanded them [to see] whether they are strong or weak, [and what cities they are that they dwell in], whether in camps, or in strongholds. But the wickedness of the spies consisted in saying the word ephes [“nevertheless” — ‘Nevertheless’ the people that dwell in the Land are fierce], which signifies something negative and beyond human capability, something impossible of achievement, under any circumstances, similar to the expressions: ‘Ha’aphes’ lanetzach chasdo (Is His mercy ‘clean gone’ for ever?); and there is none else; ‘ephes’ (there is no other) G-d. Thus the spies told Moses that the Land is fertile and surely it floweth with milk and honey and the fruits are good, but it is impossible to fight against the people because they are fierce, and the cities are fortified, and very great; and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

But the other men who had gone up with him said, “We cannot attack that people, for it is stronger than we.” Thus they spread calumnies among the Israelites about the land they had scouted, saying, “The country that we traversed and scouted is one that devours its settlers. All the people that we saw in it are of great size; we saw the Nephilim there—the Anakites are part of the Nephilim—and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.”

They said (in Numb. 13:33), “And in our own eyes we were like grasshoppers.” The Holy One, blessed be He, said, “I forgave them for that [remark]; but I was exacting [when they said] (ibid., cont.), ‘And so we were in their eyes.’ Who would say that you were not like angels in their eyes? Do you know what I made you in their eyes?”

The whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night. All the Israelites railed against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in the land of Egypt,” the whole community shouted at them, “or if only we might die in this wilderness!” “Why is יהוה taking us to that land to fall by the sword?” “Our wives and children will be carried off!” “It would be better for us to go back to Egypt!” And they said to one another, “Let us head back for Egypt.”

(5) Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembled congregation of Israelites. (6) And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, of those who had scouted the land, rent their clothes (7) and exhorted the whole Israelite community: “The land that we traversed and scouted is an exceedingly good land.

If pleased with us, יהוה will bring us into that land, a land that flows with milk and honey, and give it to us; only you must not rebel against יהוה. Have no fear then of the people of the country, for they are our prey: their protection has departed from them, but יהוה is with us. Have no fear of them!”

As the whole community threatened to pelt them with stones, the Presence of יהוה appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites. And יהוה said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me, and how long will they have no faith in Me despite all the signs that I have performed in their midst?

[Likewise] one who put out a bad name (on someone else), as it is stated (Numbers 14:37), “And those who spread such calumnies about the land died of plague in front of the Lord.” And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Arakhin 15a) [that] if the punishment for one who puts out a bad name on the land is death, all the more so for one who puts out a bad name on a fellow Israelite - who is obligated in Torah and the commandments.

יהוה spoke further to Moses and Aaron, “How much longer shall that wicked community keep muttering against Me? Very well, I have heeded the incessant muttering of the Israelites against Me. Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says יהוה, ‘I will do to you just as you have urged Me. In this very wilderness shall your carcasses drop. Of all of you [men] who were recorded in your various lists from the age of twenty years up, you who have muttered against Me, not one shall enter the land in which I swore to settle you—save Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

(36) As for the agents whom Moses sent to scout the land, those who came back and caused the whole community to mutter against him by spreading calumnies about the land— (37) those who spread such calumnies about the land died of plague, by the will of יהוה. (38) Of those involved in going to scout the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived. (39) When Moses repeated these words to all the Israelites, the people were overcome by grief.

[Likewise] one who put out a bad name (on someone else), as it is stated (Numbers 14:37), “And those who spread such calumnies about the land died of plague in front of the Lord.” And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Arakhin 15a) [that] if the punishment for one who puts out a bad name on the land is death, all the more so for one who puts out a bad name on a fellow Israelite - who is obligated in Torah and the commandments.

Early next morning [their fighting force] set out toward the crest of the hill country, saying, “We are prepared to go up to the place that יהוה has spoken of, for we were wrong.” But Moses said, “Why do you transgress יהוה’s command? This will not succeed. Do not go up, lest you be routed by your enemies, for יהוה is not in your midst. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there to face you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned from following יהוה and יהוה will not be with you.” Yet defiantly they marched toward the crest of the hill country, though neither יהוה’s Ark of the Covenant nor Moses stirred from the camp. And the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that hill country came down and dealt them a shattering blow at Hormah.