Oy Waze – Shlach
In parshat Shlach we read about the sin of the מרגלים. The Torah emphasizes that these were not simple people, they were all אנשים – people of renown - great people.
It is impossible for us to fully fathom the stature of Am Yisrael in דור המדבר. As it says in Masechet Shabbat (112b), if the Earlier Generations were like angels, then we are regular people compared to them. If they were like people, then compared to them we are donkeys (and not the donkey of R’ Chanina ben Dosa and R’ Pinchas ben Yair – but that’s another story). We cannot begin to understand their greatness, let alone judge them. Despite this, the Torah relates their sin, so that we may learn from it.
The twelve spies were sent to spy out the land before Am Yisrael entered Eretz Yisrael. This was not a commandment from Hashem, but rather an initiative from the people, which is why it says in the first passuk שלח לך אנשים. HKB”H says to Moshe, send them if you want to, but this is not from Me. I already told you what awaits you in Eretz Yisrael and I do not lie.
Moshe gives the spies explicit instructions where to go, in which order and what to look for. Their job was to return (like the spies Yehoshua sent to Yericho – Kalev and Pinchas) with a military report of the fortifications and the lay of the land.
As we know, ten of the spies began their mission with an agenda. Yehoshua, who had personally been blessed by Moshe had the strength to stand up to them. Kalev, in order to reinforce himself against the agenda of the ten spies, went to Chevron to daven בקברי האבות.
The rest of the story we know – the ten spies returned and instead of rendering a military report as instructed, added their own “analysis”, slandered Eretz Yisrael and aroused fear within Am Yisrael.
Obviously these ten spies, all אנשים of no less stature than Kalev and Yehoshua, all heads of their tribes, were not initially evil people. They set out with an agenda, it is true, and whatever they might have seen in Eretz Yisrael, would not have altered that agenda - but their motives were not evil.
Mark Twain writes in his memoirs about his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the late-1860’s, about the desolation and lack of populous. He describes how his fellow travellers look around them with “rose colored glasses” and see in their mind’s eye the birthplace of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Bethlehem, etc. while he only sees ruins and a land laid to waste. Two people can see the same thing with their eyes, but what they actually “see” depends on what is going on in the brain behind the eyes.
The perush I like most about the agenda of the מרגלים is given by the בעל התניא. He explains that these ten heads of the tribes looked around them in the מדבר and what did they see? They saw Gan Eden!
In the מדבר people used to get up at 6:00am every morning. They didn’t need to go to the bathroom, because they were eating Man, לחם אבירים, which was fully absorbed into their bodies with no waste products. They reached outside the opening of their tent and found their clothes, all perfectly laundered and repaired by the ענני הכבוד. They dressed and all rushed to the 6:15am Daf Yomi shiur with Moshe Rabbeinu, followed by the tefilot and korbanot Shacharit led by Aharon Hacohen in the Mishkan and Birkat Kohanim. They went back home to have breakfast – a fresh, new omer measure waiting on their doorstep – cornflakes, pancakes, sunny side up – whatever you thought – that’s what it tasted like. The rest of the day they spent studying Torah with their families and the gedolei hador. What else did they have to do? Shopping? For what? Going to a doctor or dentist appointment? Nobody ever got sick or had cavities. Studying Torah the whole day and singing praises to HKB”H – that is what Gan Eden was (before Adam and Chava sinned).
The spies knew what they were going to find in Eretz Yisrael before they even crossed the border. People having to work to make a parnasa, tilling the fields, harvesting crops, coming home at the end of the day so wiped out that they could barely keep their heads up, let alone learn Torah. Engaging in commerce, having to run cities and towns, maintain infrastructure – it all took away time from the “idyllic” situation they already had in the מדבר. So who needs that?
They left on their “mission” with the agenda of not wanting to leave the idyllic, Gan Eden situation of the desert …… and in fact they eventually got what they desired. Hashem “punished” them with 38 more years …. in the desert!
So why was that so bad? All they really wanted was total intimacy with HKB”H and the Torah, like it was in Gan Eden. Surely that is an admirable thing? And yet, the Torah deplores their actions and considers them רשעים. Why?
In many of my shiurim there is a recurring theme of events unfolding in history as a tikkun for חטא אדם הראשון. This in fact is the perspective of Chazal, that the entire progression of time after Adam and Chava were expelled from Gan Eden has one and only one ultimate purpose – to restore the world to the state it was before the sin of the עץ הדעת. The sin, as we have seen in previous shiurim, was not simply eating from the forbidden tree – it was multifaceted. It combined lack of gratitude with adultery and other things. The mefarshim in fact say that Adam and Chava were guilty of all the three sins one should die for rather than transgress – שפיכות דמים, גילוי עריות ועבודה זרה.
The Avot were the first stage of the tikkun. The second was יציאת מצרים and the third was מתן תורה and settling Eretz Yisrael. This multistage process, spanning many generations, would eventually culminate in the world being restored to its original intended state before the sin of Adam and Chava. Immediately after receiving the Torah it was HKB”H’s intention to relocate and settle Am Yisrael in the land flowing with milk and honey and the restoration would be complete.
And it would have been, if not for the חטא העגל which planted the seed for millennia more of trial and tribulation. HKB”H forgave Am Yisrael for the golden calf and the שכינה rested in the Mishkan, but the perfection in the relationship between the groom (HBK”H) and His bride (Am Yisrael) was no longer. There was a stain and barrier that would take many more millennia to repair and finally be resolved – in the time of Mashiach.
If the sins of the golden calf and the מרגלים had not taken place, Moshe himself would have led Am Yisrael into Eretz Yisrael, built the Beit Hamikdash and the era of Mashiach would have commenced. The world would then have been restored to its originally intended state and Am Yisrael would truly have been living in Gan Eden, with all the associated trimmings.
The 10 heads of the tribes, the מרגלים thought that their situation in the מדבר was like Gan Eden and it was, …. “like” Gan Eden, but not actually Gan Eden, because the מדבר is not Gan Eden. Eretz Yisrael is the location of Gan Eden, הר המוריה, the cornerstone from which the world was created. Yes the intimacy with HKB”H and the Torah in the desert were idyllic, but not absolutely idyllic because there was a GPS malfunction.
The spies mistakenly thought that anywhere could be Gan Eden – as long as you enjoyed extremely close intimacy with HKB”H and the Torah. Many generations since have also mistakenly thought this to be the case. Yes, in many places in the world throughout history, there have been situations of incredible intimacy with HKB”H and the Torah, entire communities and worlds of Torah, untold gedolei hador, Rishonim and Acharonim (imagine what it would have been to live in the time and around the corner from Rashi !!!!, the Rambam !!!)– like Gan Eden ….. but not Gan Eden.
To complete the tikkun of חטא אדם הראשון it is not enough that we reacquire perfect marital bliss with HKB”H, like we did at Har Sinai, we need the final stage – to live in this state of bliss - in Gan Eden, in Eretz Yisrael! Only then will the tikkun be complete.
The Yerushalmi in Taanit (4, 5) says that when the מרגלים returned from their mission and slandered Eretz Yisrael, Am Yisrael were in a middle of a shiur with Moshe Rabeinu discussing the subjects of ערלה and הפרשת חלה, both mitzvot that only apply in Eretz Yisrael (הפרשת חלה outside Eretz Yisrael is only מדרבנן).
וכי תבאו אל הארץ ונטעתם כל עץ מאכל וערלתם ערלתו את פריו וגו' (ויקרא יט, כג)
Just like HKB”H planted trees in Gan Eden (see my shiur on parshat Truma) He commanded us to plant trees in Eretz Yisrael and observe all the laws related to them, as a tikkun for the עץ הדעת.
והיה באכלכם מלחם הארץ תרימו תרומה לה'. ראשית ערסתכם חלה תרימו תרומה וגו' (במדבר טו, יט-כ)
When Am Yisrael reached Eretz Yisrael they were commanded to do הפרשת חלה as a tikkun for eating the fuit of the עץ הדעת – which was wheat (see my shiur on parshat Bo).
Immediately following the episode of the spies, the Torah details the halachot of נסכים and חלה הפרשת - to drive home the fact that the tikkun of חטא אדם הראשון can only be completed in Eretz Yisrael (corresponding to the opinions in the gemara what tree the עץ הדעת was – a grape vine or wheat, see my shiur on parshat Naso) .
Unfortunately for us, the מרגלים managed to sway the rest of Am Yisrael into believing their misconceived agenda and Am Yisrael began to weep. As a result HKB”H delayed our entry into Eretz Yisrael for another 38 years and with the exception of Yehoshua and Kalev, the entire generation of those who left Egypt (over age 20 at the time of חטא המרגלים) died in the מדבר and never merited entering Eretz Yisrael. HKB”H, as it were, commanded WAZE to re-calculate the route.
How could it have been that Am Yisrael were repeatedly swayed against the will of Hashem - in the חטא העגל, with the מתאוננים, the מרגלים, and Korach? This is the subject of next week’s shiur.
How many times throughout history have gedolim stumbled with the same חטא המרגלים … even today ….. looking upon Eretz Yisrael with an agenda. Instead of seeing the possibility of the “tikkun” and hastening the גאולה, all they “see” are the obstacles, the בני ענקים, the financial hardships, the moral hardships, the “idyllic” Torah situation of their cloistered communities in the מדבר ……
Imagine if a few more hundred thousands of Torah observant Jews were to move to Israel, what impact that would have on the electoral and cultural balance in the country. It would shift from an observant minority to a majority and the moral repercussions would be immense.
Imagine if all the Torah observant Jews IN Eretz Yisrael, started looking outside their own sectorial agendas and cloistered communities and started focusing on fostering achdut in Am Yisrael, both in spirit AND location, started focusing on HKB”H’s agenda, not their own that they each perceive to be HKB”H’s. HKB”H told us what His agenda is – Am Yisrael saying נעשה ונשמע – as one person with one heart, settled in Eretz Yisrael and serving Hashem in the Beit Hamikdash.
Every Jew in the world has the opportunity TODAY of observing all the mitzvot התלויות בארץ - shmita, ערלה, הפרשת חלה, trumot, maasrot, etc. There has been a demographic swing and there is now a situation of רב עם ישראל בארצו, which makes all these mitzvot halachically relevant - מדאורייתא.
How much did Moshe Rabeinu beg HKB”H to allow him to enter Eretz Yisrael so he could fulfill these mitzvot?
How much hardship and suffering did Jews in the 1951 years following the destruction of the 2nd Temple endure, by coming to live in Eretz Yisrael, in Tzfat, Teveria, Yerushalayim – in abject poverty, subject to Crusades, massacres and rape. These people מסרו את נפשם, often literally, just to have the merit of living in the holiness of Eretz Yisrael while willingly sacrificing more stable, profitable lives elsewhere in the world. Because of them, there has been an uninterrupted presence in Eretz Yisrael since Yehoshua conquered the land. They had to travel on foot, on horseback for weeks, even months, circumventing hostile regions. Today all we need to do is book an airplane ticket! (hopefully, ב"ה, when COVID-19 is behind us) and we are a maximum of 10 hours away!
It is true, that someone may temporarily travel to חוץ לארץ to find a spouse and to make a parnasa, if they cannot in Eretz Yisrael. We learn this from the Shulchan Lechem Hapanim –
ארבע טבעות זהב בארבע פאות רגליו לעומת המסגרת בתים לבדים (שמות כה, כו)
It is permitted temporarily (רמב"ם, הל' מלכים, פ"ה, ה"ט) to travel to ארבע פאות רגליו to make a parnasa - טבעות זהב. However you always need to remain לעומת המסגרת – close to your wellspring – Eretz Yisrael.
The Torah details the episode of the מרגלים to teach us to cast aside any agendas we may have, however well intentioned they may be and simply ……… comply with what Hashem tells us! There is no way to get around that. You either do or you don’t!
Am Yisrael, who are not already here in Israel, need to reset their WAZE, do a route recalculation and head in the preordained direction. HKB”H is already starting to give us hints, all over the world, that the time has come to return home. Am Yisrael who are already in Israel also need to reset their WAZE and recalculate their purpose here and concentrate on HKB”H’s agenda and not their own. Yes, there will be “obstacles ahead” and it will not be easy, but it is inevitable.
What Am Yisrael needs more than anything else right now, is to hear the message, loud and clear – “You have reached your destination!”
