Parashat Shelach Lecha (Numbers: 13:1 - 15:41)

by Rabbi Kathleen de Magtige-Middleton, The Liberal Jewish Synagogue

Summary:

Moses is commanded to send twelve scouts to reconnoitre the land of Canaan. They return after 40 days laden with fruit and the message that the land is inhabited by giants, and therefore unconquerable. Only two of the scouts, Caleb and Joshua, bring positive tidings that the land can be conquered, but the people refuse to listen to them. The people’s lack of faith is punished with 40 years of wandering in the desert. They will die in the desert and a new, more faithful generation will come after them and take possession of the land. Of that generation only Caleb and Joshua, the faithful scouts will be allowed to enter the land.  The portion concludes with a collection of miscellaneous laws regarding sacrifices, desecration of the Shabbat and the ritual law of attaching fringes on the four corners of one’s garment.

Commentary:

The events described in this portion are essential for the narrative of the Torah because it explains why it took the people 40 years to reach the Promised Land. We may all know the old joke ‘Why did Moses lead the people through the desert for 40 years?’ ‘He was ashamed to walk with them on the street!’

There is always a little truth to jokes, and in this case, the truth may be a question. Why were the people punished so severely for the scouts’ negative report of the land? According to tradition there were two crucial moments of sinfulness described in the Torah, the people’s worship of the Golden Calf and the scouts’ negative report of the land, which initiated a wave of fear among the people and the threat to return to Egypt under new leadership.

Was this fear among the people their greatest problem, or was it something else? According to the Talmud (Sotah 34b) and the midrashim the scouts’ greatest sin was the fact that they maligned the land, God’s treasured possession, which according to the tradition is a very grave sin indeed. According to Medieval Spanish exegete Moses Nachmanides, the sin committed by the scouts was the fact that they over-reacted to their own fear. As leaders of their clans they should have tried to encourage the people, rather than inspire fear.

According to the Chassidic masters the sin of the scouts was the fact that they were not prepared for real life, for a life of action, of doing good deeds and keeping the commandments once they had settled in the land. In the desert they lived an ideal life, in which they did not need to take responsibility. They were punished for their refusal to take responsibility for their lives, and to be full partners of God in the establishment of a better world.

In fact the people’s fear to conquer an unknown land, already inhabited by other people, and their secret wish to turn back to Egypt is all too natural. People often like to stick with the status quo that they know when in their heart of hearts they know the situation is unbearable, because they know the situation. To leave the known behind for the unknown demands faith, faith in one’s own capabilities, faith in one’s choices, that what one pursues is good and will lead to goodness, and faith in the Eternal One. Without such faith we are unable to reach our Promised Land, but remain in the desert like the generation of the scouts.

Rabbi Kathleen de Magtige-Middleton