BS”D
FORGING FORWARD:
PARSHAT SHELACH
Shira Smiles shiur 2021/5781
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Parshat
Shelach records for us the unfortunate incident of the spies sent to
reconnoiter the Promised Land, their negative report, the tragic reaction of
Bnei Yisroel, Hashem’s response, a failed attempt at repair, and the final
resolution.
At
the request of Bnei Yisroel, Moshe gets permission from Hashem to send spies to
Eretz Canaan/Yisroel to send undercover scouts to check out the land Bnei
Yisroel is about to enter. However, instead of returning with only positive
feedback, the spies report that although the land is indeed fertile, it is a
land full of giants, a land that “consumes its inhabitants,” and they will be
unable to conquer it. This report leads to uncontrollable wailing in despair,
and Hashem decrees that this generation will indeed not enter the land, but
their children will enter it. The morning brings renewed uncontrolled wailing,
this time in remorse, but God’s decree had already been issued, and this night
would remain forever destined as a night of tragic wailing for Bnei Yisroel.
The
cries of Bnei Yisroel in the morning seem to encompass the full aspect of true
teshuvah, following all the steps required for complete return to Hashem. Why
was this teshuvah not accepted even minimally asks Rabbi Nevenzahl? When Hashem
decreed that Moshe Rabbenu would not enter Eretz Yisroel, Hashem responded to
Moshe’s prayers by allowing him to at least see the land, even if the full
decree would not be rescinded. Why did this teshuvah not at least lessen the
punishment, so that the wandering in the desert would be shortened to perhaps
twenty years instead of forty years?
Apparently
to prove their sincerity, a group went up the mountain to begin their journey.
But the Ark had not moved and the cloud had not risen to indicate the camp
should move. What were they thinking? Moshe then warns them that Hashem
is not with them and they will not succeed. The Ba’alei Mussar suggests that
this act of apparent teshuvah actually was a ploy of the yetzer horo. As
soon as they were told, “No,” they insisted on a defiant, “Yes.” And, in fact,
the Canaanites and Amalekites descend upon them and killed them, as Moshe had
warned. Perhaps, as Onkelos translates, those who ascended were indeed ma'apilim/defiant,
rather than repentant.
However,
if the people were in fact repentant, why did Hashem not accept their teshuvah?
The Shem MiShmuel presents the problem through an analogy. When garments
are laundered, most of the dirt is on the surface and gets removed. Sometimes,
however, the dirt is so deeply embedded in the cloth that it remains a
permanent stain. Similarly, this belief in the evil report of the spies entered
so deeply into the core of Bnei Yisroel that no cleansing teshuvah could remove
it. Hoping that the dawn would bring with it renewed chesed to join with their
teshuvah, they waited until morning to cry again and ascend the mountain, but
to no avail.
Rabbi
Weinberger recognizes an important defect in the teshuvah process of Bnei
Yisroel at that time. Bnei Yisroel did not acknowledge the great chesed of
Hashem in allowing them to move unobtrusively around the country. Even in
the mourning, their crying was for their loss rather than for their sin. By
constantly seeing the negative instead of the great kindness of Hashem, they
lost the opportunity to tap into the chesed of the morning and of the Land.
One
can, however, approach the actions of the ascenders from a positive
perspective. Jews are hard wired to take action rather than to sit back and
accept negative situations notes Rabbi Wachtfogel. [Note all the tikun olam
movements of Jews, albeit they forget that the rest of the verse is
b’malchut Shakai. CKS] These ascenders could not sit idly back and accept
the decree. They were willing to be moser nefesh, literally to sacrifice
themselves for the ideal of entering the land. [Some commentators say that
Tzelaphchad, the father of the five daughters who sought their father’s portion
in Eretz Yisroel, was among those that ascended and died. The daughters used
this death as an argument of his commitment to and love of the land as their
deserving to inherit his portion. CKS] This generation in general would need a
full generation of forty years to build a love of the land. Receiving the land
so quickly after disdaining it, even with teshuvah, would not grow that love,
adds Rabbi Dessler.
Teshuvah
does not guarantee acceptance, especially if the process is flawed, writes
Rabbi Nevenzahl. The essence of their sin had not been confronted and expunged.
The people had attributed independent power to the giants, had viewed the giants
as having strength outside of God’s will. Bnei Yisroel did not consider
Hashem’s promise that they would inherit the land in spite of anything as
unbreakable, and so they were afraid. Now Moshe warned them that Hashem told
them not to go forward, and again they rejected God’s word. They had not
rectified the essence of the sin, and did what they thought was right and
wanted to do in spite of Hashem’s direct words to the contrary, adds Rabbi
Moshe Scheinerman. Being a God fearing Jew requires accepting everything Hashem
says, observing all His mitzvoth, not picking and choosing. God’s word should
form the entirety of our lives.
The
essence of Judaism is total submission to Hashem’s will rather than to one’s
own. Rabbi Wolbe explains that the definition of vayapilu includes the
traits of strength and boldness. These traits can be very positive and enable
one to remain steadfast in his beliefs and Torah observance in very challenging
circumstances. But they can also be the basis of brazenness, chutzpah, of daring
to do that which is prohibited.
The
ma’apillim certainly knew they could not move forward without Hashem and
The Ark, writes the Birkat Mordechai. But they had learned from Moshe
who had the ability, through his passion, to turn to the Ark and declare,
“Arise Hashem…” and the cloud would rise as Moshe’s command. They internalized
that message and understood that passion [However, what undoubtedly
happened was that although it was Moshe’s voice that was the catalyst, it was
Hashem’s instructions to Moshe that initiated the process.] They felt their
passion would move mountains, and it can, but it cannot do so against Hashem’s
expressed will. At that point, writes Rabbi Mintzberg, Hashem’s answer is,
“No.” Their sin was their lack of awareness of Hakodosh Boruch Hu.
It
took forty years of a new generation to build up this bitachon and learn
to submit to Hashem’s will under all circumstances to merit entering and
inheriting the Land, writes Rabbi Schlesinger in Zos Hatorah. During
those forty years Bnei Yisroel were trained to follow Hashem no matter the
situation. Sometimes they would be camped merely overnight, and sometimes for
years at a time. Sometimes they could be uprooted from a comfortable site and
moved to an uncomfortable site, and sometimes the reverse was true. They
learned to submit to Hashem’s will and Hashem’s plan rather than on their own.
What is truly good is determined by Hashem, not by the individual.
Before
Bnei Yisroel asked Moshe to send spies into the Land, writes Rabbi Schlesinger,
the capture of the land would proceed through Hashem’s miraculous order.
However, once the people asked for the spies, Hashem activated the natural
order to supplant the miraculous order He had originally planned. Before the
spies, the timing to go into the Land was propitious; after the spies, the
energy of the time changed, and the action of the ma'apilim could not
harness an energy that was no longer there. As Rabbi Tatz notes, each action
has its proper moment in time with its own energy. When the time has passed, so
often has the opportunity. We recognize this truth in business; it is even more
valid in Torah observance. We must also recognize that just as each moment has
its own unique purpose and the energy to fulfill that purpose, so does each individual
have his own unique mission and the time to fulfill it. We cannot celebrate the
Pesach Seder in winter, and, although we may recite the Shema in late
morning, it will not have the same efficacy as if it had been recited in its
proper time of day. When an opportunity to do good presents itself, we must
grab the moment, for that moment will not come again.
Shir
Hashirim, the
allegorical love song between Hashem and Bnei Yisroel, puts it very poignantly.
The lover knocks and the beloved demurs. She has already removed her clothes
and washed her feet. Shall she now get dressed again and open the door for her
beloved? But the love stirs within her, and she rises to open the door. Alas,
the opportunity has passed, and the beloved is no longer waiting there.
We
need to be attuned to the call of the moment, as when the Prophet Elisha
understood the magnitude of the moment that Eliyahu threw his cloak over him.
Elisha knew it was time to follow his mentor Eliyahu and accept the cloak of
Divine prophecy.
It
was the Tribe of Levi that immediately answered Moshe’s call, “Me laHashem
Eili/Whoever is for Hashem come to me,” when Bnei Yisroel sinned with the
golden calf. Therefore the kohanim of the Tribe of Levi would be in the
forefront when Bnei Yisroel would be privileged to enter the Land.
It
would take forty years for Bnei Yisroel to learn and internalize this lesson.
It takes forty days for a fetus to form, forty for every rebirth in history.
Forty days of the flood, forty days on Har Sinai, and forty years, one year for
each day, for Bnei Yisroel to be reborn as the nation recognizing Hashem’s
chesed, and being worthy of entering the Land.