Parashat Shelach

Parasha Thoughts

By Rabbi Shlomo Zargari

(במדבר ×™×’, לב) ארץ אוכלת יושביה היא דרש רבא אמר הקב”×” אני חשבתיה לטובה והם חשבו לרעה אני חשבתיה לטובה דכל היכא דמטו מת חשיבא דידהו ×›×™ ×”×™×›×™ דניטרדו ולא לשאלו אבתרייהו …הם חשבו לרעה :ארץ אוכלת יושביה היא

The spies said: “It is a land that consumes its inhabitants” (Bamidbar 13:32). Rava taught: The Holy One, Blessed be He, said, “I intended the land to appear to consume its inhabitants for their own good, but they considered this proof that the land was bad. I intended it for their good by causing many people to die there so that anywhere that the spies arrived – the most important of them died – so that the Canaanites would be preoccupied with mourning and would not inquire about them… However, the spies considered this proof that the land was bad and said: ‘It is a land that consumes its inhabitants.’( Sota 35)”

HaRav Yaakov Yisrael Kanievski זצ״ל writes in Birkat Peretz that the reason for their mistaken thought was, as our Hachamim explain, “In the path that a person desires to go, he will be led.” If the spies would have actually paid attention and realized that these funerals which “happened” right at the time they were traveling through Eretz Yisrael were in reality the kindness of HaShem, they would have gained much strength in their emuna and trust in HaShem. They should have seen with their own eyes how He was guarding and saving them by busying their enemies so that they would not pay attention to them. However, being that their intentions were evil, they turned the events around and they used it as proof that it’s not worth it to enter the land.

In truth if we take a closer look, we see that their conclusion was absurd. If they were correct in their assumption that this was a land that devoured its inhabitants daily, then the people living there would have all been used to the phenomenon and would not be so overwhelmed by it.
We can also assume if death was so widespread, not EVERYONE would be gathered in this way. Rather, they would each mourn separately for their loss; that would certainly not have been enough of a distraction not to notice the group of strangers among them and understand that they were spies.

We see here that only if they wanted to, they could have seen the kindness of HaShem protecting them. Sadly, they had taken a bad turn and wanted to speak against the Holy Land, so they explained in their own way anything to prove their point. Unfortunately, this caused a time of crying for all generations until the time that HaShem will have mercy on us all and redeem us with a complete Geula soon. Amen.

Shabbat Shalom