This Week In The Torah.



Parsha Shelach Bamibar/Numbers Ch.13-15

A Fabric of Lies
by Rabbi Yechezkel Fox

Yehoshua son of Nun and Calev son of Yephuneh, of the spies of the land, tore their garments. Ch.14/6

After their fellow spies had sinned, Yehoshua and Calev tore their garments. Was this merely an act of frustration, or was it something more profound?

Yehoshua and Calev, as chiefs of their tribes, needed to be respected and honoured; not for themselves (for they would rather flee from honour), but rather for the office they occupied. Distinctive dress was one of the ways they elicited this respect. However, after the sin of the other spies, all of whom were also chiefs, the trappings of the chieftainship had been besmirched. What was formerly a mark of respect was now just fancy clothing. Since they were men of truth, and their clothing was false, they tore it.

Sources: The Kotzker Rebbe

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The Secret of Change

Why was the passage of the spies placed next to the passage of Miriam? For she was stricken over matters of speech which she spoke against her brother and these wicked ones (the spies) saw (what happened to her) yet did not take a lesson (from her.)---Rashi at the beginning of the parsha.

At the end of last week's parsha, Miriam was punished for speaking badly about Moses. She came down with tzara'as, which turned her skin white as snow. Consequently, she was put in quarantine, outside the camp for seven days. This would be used as a model for all future generations to remember how dangerous it is to speak lashon hora (evil speech---see Deuteronomy 24:9). After such a graphic lesson, the spies should have been more sensitive to the power of speech, and controlled their tongues with regard to the Land of Israel (see verse 32.)

Rashi said it was the wicked ones who didn't learn the lesson from Miriam. The implication is that Joshua and Caleb, who retained their integrity throughout this incident, did learn from Miriam. Why were they different?

Well, concerning Joshua, being already the right-hand-man of Moses, we can assume he was of superlative character. But what about Caleb, what was his uniqueness?

The answer is, Caleb was the husband of Miriam. This gave him a natural advantage. When Miriam was missing from his household that week, no one felt it as much as him. For him, the intellectual message of the effects of evil speech penetrated the heart. And that is what brings a person to change.

Our Sages tell us that the distance from heaven to earth is nothing compared to the distance from one's mind to one's heart. In Judaism, knowledge and belief in G-d's existence, while very important, are not sufficient. They have to penetrate the heart to bring a person to change.

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The Right Way to Say Nothing

They reported to him and said,"We arrived at the land to which you sent us, and indeed it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. But - the people that dwells in the land is powerful, the cities are very greatly fortified, and we also saw the offspring of the giant. Ch.13/27-28

That was the report the spies brought back from the Land of Canaan. The Ramban says they only went wrong with one word - but, or in the Hebrew efes. Efes means zero, or nothing. If this word had been omitted, it would have been an objective account - the land is very fruitful and the people very stong. With the word efes, they made it subjective - the land is very fruitful but it is all for nothing because the people are too strong. This showed their lack of trust in G-d, who had already promised them a secure homeland there.

Yehoshua was one of the twelve spies, but his faith remained intact (see Ch14/6-10). Thirty-eight years later he was the leader of the Jewish people, as they entered the land of Canaan. And it was then that he composed the famous Aleinu prayer, which we still recite three times a day. As part of the prayer we declare: True is our G-d, there is nothing beside Him. Once again the Hebrew word for nothing here is efes. It was as if Yehoshua was saying to the people: We have to be strong in our faith and never say efes again, it is all for nothing; rather say efes zulaso, there is nothing beside Him.




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