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שלח לך אנשים

Moshe Marcovich
In Shelach, 5778

Send forth men, if you please. (13:2)

Rashi notes the words Sh’lach lecha, “Send for yourself,” suggesting that the lecha, for yourself, is superfluous. The pasuk should have said, Shlach anashim; “Send men.” What is added by lecha? Rashi explains that Hashem was intimating that He had not commanded Moshe Rabbeinu to send spies: Ani eini metzavecha; “I am not commanding you to do this. It is up to you – if you want to do it – then you may send.” Sometimes a person predetermines his decisions. He is not going to change, to give in, to concede that he might be in error. Nothing will…

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כל נשיא בהם

Moshe Marcovich
In Shelach, 5778

Everyone a leader among them. (13:2)

The word Nasi, prince, leader, is comprised of four letters which, when separated, make up two words which are opposites of one another. Nasi – nun, sin, yud, aleph: within these four letters are the words yeish, which means “there is,” and ayin, “there is naught.” Otzar HaChaim sees this as an allusion to the quality of a Nasi’s character. The Nasi who considers himself to be a yeish (there is; he is something), in actuality, has nothing; he is an ayin. The Nasi who views himself through the eyes of humility, who sees himself as an ayin, is thus…

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Home -> 5778 -> Shelach

וישכמו בבקר ויעלו אל ראש ההר לאמר הננו ועלינו אל המקום אשר אמר ד' כי חטאנו

Moshe Marcovich
In Shelach, 5778

They awoke early in the morning and ascended toward the mountain top saying, “We are ready, and we shall ascend to the place of which Hashem has spoken.” (14:40)

The other night, the entire nation had been trembling with fright, weeping incessantly (and unnecessarily) with bitter tears, demonstrating abject fear that they would be forced to ascend to Eretz Yisrael and conquer its inhabitants. Suddenly, their attitude changed. Not only were they now prepared  to go into battle – they went. We all know the outcome of that ill-fated trip, but what prompted them to go? What happened to the trembling, the fear? How did it dissipate overnight? Horav Reuven Karlinstein, zl, addresses this question, but first, he describes the scenario (based on Chazal) which so captivated Klal Yisrael,…

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Home -> 5778 -> Shelach

כי תבאו אל ארץ מושבתיכם אשר אני נתן לכם

Moshe Marcovich
In Shelach, 5778

When you will come to the Land of your dwelling places that I give you. (15:2)

Chazal (Midrash Rabbah 17:3) ask why Eretz Yisrael was called Eretz Canaan (after the pagan tribe that inhabited the land prior to the Jewish nation’s arrival). It is not as if they were a nation whose moral demeanor was something of which to be proud. Their spiritual affiliation was paganism. So why did they warrant such distinction? Chazal attribute their distinction to the fact that, when they heard that Klal Yisrael was on the way to evict them from the Holy Land, they cleaned up the land, preparing it for its new inhabitants. Hashem said, “Since you prepared the land…

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Home -> 5778 -> Shelach

ויהיו בני ישראל במדבר וימצאו איש מקשש עצים ביום השבת

Moshe Marcovich
In Shelach, 5778

The Bnei Yisrael were in the wilderness and they found a man gathering wood on the Shabbos day. (15:32)

The Maharal m’Prague (Gur Aryeh), notes that the mekoshesh eitzim, one who gathered wood on Shabbos, carried out his act of contempt during the second Shabbos of the Jews in the wilderness. Apparently, they observed the first Shabbos. Chazal teach (Shabbos 118b) that had they observed two Shabbosos, they would not have experienced the bitter exile. Shabbos is the great panacea which would have protected them. Why did the mekoshesh desecrate the second Shabbos? He acted for the sake of Heaven (or so he believed), in order that people would realize that Shabbos observance was serious business. When they would…

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Home -> 5777 -> Shelach

שלח לך אנשים ויתרו את ארץ כנען

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shelach, 5777

Send forth for yourself men, and let them spy out the Land of Canaan. (13:2)

Rashi comments concerning the juxtaposition of the sin of the meraglim, spies, upon the sin of Miriam, which concluded the previous parsha. The meraglim should have derived a lesson from Miriam’s punishment for speaking about her brother, Moshe Rabbeinu. If the tzadekes, righteous woman, Miriam, was punished for simply talking about Moshe in a manner that might have a negative connotation, how much more so should they have been mindful of her punishment and not spoken negatively? The question concerning Rashi’s comparison (Miriam’s lashon hora to that spoken by the meraglim) begs elucidation. Lashon hora is evil under any circumstance….

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Home -> 5777 -> Shelach

ויעלו בנגב ויבוא עד חברון

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shelach, 5777

They ascended in the south and he arrived at Chevron. (13:22)

From the Torah’s use of the singular va’yavo, and he came, Chazal (Sotah 34b) derive that Calev alone left the group, so that he could visit the graves of the Patriarchs to pray that they intercede on his behalf. So great was the ability of the meraglim to influence that Calev feared being influenced by them. Yehoshua had no reason to leave, since Moshe Rabbeinu had already prayed for him before they had all left the camp. In his Iyun Yaakov commentary to the Talmud, Horav Yaakov Reisher, zl, asks why Calev prayed at the graves of the Patriarchs. Chazal…

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ותשא כל העדה ויתנו את קולם ויבכו העם בלילה ההוא

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shelach, 5777

The entire assembly raised up and issued its voice; the people wept that night. (14:1)

The Talmud Sanhedrin 104b states that the fateful night on which the meraglim, spies, shared their slanderous report of Eretz Yisrael with the nation was the Ninth of Av. The people reacted with unwarranted, incessant weeping, which consumed the entire nation. The weeping was a reaction to a report that was foundless. Furthermore, they had been guided by Hashem in the wilderness under the protective shield of the Clouds of Glory. For them to cry without reason was ludicrous. Hashem said, “You cried a bchiyah shel chinam, unwarranted weeping. I will establish for you a b’chiyah l’doros, weeping for generations.”…

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Home -> 5777 -> Shelach

במדבר הזה יפלו פגריכם

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shelach, 5777

In this wilderness shall your carcasses drop. (14:29)

Ever since that first Tishah B’Av, when the meraglim, spies, returned with their slanderous report of Eretz Yisrael, Tishah B’Av became a sad, fateful night for the male members of Klal Yisrael. The decree had been issued that they would not enter into the Promised Land. The wilderness would become their graveyard. Every Tishah B’Av every (eligible) Jew dug a grave for himself, lay down in it and prayed. Would he wake up in the morning, or would this be his last night on earth? Every year, fifteen thousand men did not wake up. Whoever did not arise in the…

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והיה אם מעיני העדה נעשתה לשגגה

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shelach, 5777

And it will be, if from the eyes of the assembly it was done by error. (15:24)

Enei ha’eidah, eyes of the assembly, refer to the Sanhedrin who, as the leaders of the nation, provide guidance, vision and illumination – which are all functions of one’s eyes. As the final arbiters of Jewish law, they infuse our nation with the clarity that comes with Torah erudition and the wisdom, the result of their daas Torah, wisdom honed and inspired by the Torah. In his hesped, eulogy, for the Maharam Shick, Horav Nota Wolf, Rav of Pressburg, Hungary, and the leading elder of the Torah community, offered the following parable, which gives us a powerful insight into the…

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