English translation — שלח א

A.

On the verse "Send for yourself men" Chazal say¹

"Send for yourself — according to your understanding²

that the sending of the spies was dependent on the understanding of Moshe,

but "I am not commanding you"³.

One must understand:

Moses our teacher was indeed a faithful servant of the Most High<sup>4</sup>,

it is therefore understandable,

that that which the opinion of Moses was to send the spies,

it is because thus was the opinion of his Master

(the Most High).

And as the verse<sup>5</sup>

bears witness "And Moses sent them etc. <b>by the word of the Lord</b>" — with the permission of the Holy One, blessed be He<sup>6</sup>.

It means,

that the matter of the sending of the spies

(in itself)

is a good and desirable thing<sup>7</sup>,

explains,

that the usual way of conquering a land is by sending spies beforehand to find out what is the best and easiest way "to conquer the land"; and since one does not rely on miracles and one <b>must</b> prepare for war in a natural way — Moses our teacher agreed to send the spies].

Is not understandable: why did the Most High make this dependent on the mind of <b>Moshe</b>,

and not Himself from the outset command regarding this?

Also one must understand:

Regarding the spies, Rashi says⁹

"At that time they were kosher."

And as is understandable also with simple intellect,

that if Moses our teacher himself chose them,

they were

(not only "kosher" in general,

but)

the best suited for <b>this particular mission</b>.

So how does it happen,

that with them there occurred such a great change,

from one extreme to the other,

that not only did they not carry out the mission properly,

but through this they brought upon Jews a "weeping for generations"¹⁰?

2.

One will understand this with the introduction of the explanation in that which one finds,

that the mission is

(in general)

comprised of two matters:

a)

to discover the details which pertain to the conquest of the land — "and you shall see etc. the strong etc. the few etc. the camps etc."¹¹.

b)

To find out the details about the land itself — “whether it is good or whether it is fat, etc.”¹².

And to such an extent was this

(second)

part

of their mission,

that Moses commanded them “<b>and be strong </b>and take of the fruit of the land”¹³

: even though by taking “of the fruit of the land” they put themselves in danger

(so that they could be recognized as spies¹⁴),

they should,

nevertheless,

strengthen themselves and exert themselves and bring “of the fruit of the land”.

is not simple: true indeed that seeing is not like hearing&lt;sup&gt;15&lt;/sup&gt;,

and therefore,

not looking at what the Above has already told Jews that the Land of Israel is a "good and broad land etc. a land flowing with milk and honey"&lt;sup&gt;16&lt;/sup&gt;

and Jews are indeed "believers children of believers"&lt;sup&gt;17&lt;/sup&gt;

for surely "those who dwelled in Egypt" knew what was happening in the Land of Israel&lt;sup&gt;18&lt;/sup&gt;]

— but it does not come to <b>seeing </b>the fruits of the land,

which would have caused among Jews an extra joy

("to go up there with joy"&lt;sup&gt;19&lt;/sup&gt;),

nevertheless,

is it then so necessary,

that to the point of staking over this the lives of the spies?

3.

One of the explanations in this:

Although the foundation of the existence of the Torah is the precedence of naaseh to nishma²⁰,

nevertheless, "naaseh" alone is not sufficient,

rather it must also be

(after the "naaseh")

"Venishma"&lt;sup&gt;21&lt;/sup&gt;

— from the language of understanding

(like: "For Your servant hears"&lt;sup&gt;22&lt;/sup&gt;).

And so this is also relevant to entering the Land of Israel: The Almighty indeed told Jews that it is a good and spacious land, etc. — but the Almighty wants that Jews should perceive the goodness of the Land of Israel also &lt;b&gt;with their own intellect&lt;/b&gt;.

And therefore Moshe Rabbeinu commanded to bring from the fruit of the land,

so that the will of Jews to go to Eretz Yisrael should be

(not only because the Almighty commanded so and consequently they obey the command of Hashem

(naaseh)

— but)

also from their own side,

they understand that one must want to go to Eretz Yisrael,

because it is the true good and spacious land.

And the same thing is regarding the

(first)

part of their mission — to find out in which way one should conquer Eretz Yisrael,

that the intention thereby was that Jews should see &lt;b&gt;with their intellect&lt;/b&gt; how "we are able to go up"&lt;sup&gt;23&lt;/sup&gt;.

And this is also the reason why the Supreme One did not command regarding the sending of the spies,

but rather "Send for yourself — according to your understanding".

Since the intention of the sending of the spies is to bring about among Jews the "we will hear" regarding the entry into the land,

therefore also the sending itself came in a manner of "according to your understanding" — that one does it because thus it must be

from the aspect of understanding

(and not only in a manner of "we will do",

because "I command you").

4.

With this one will also understand how the spies — who "at that hour were kosher" — could have failed so greatly,

to the point of saying "we cannot go up"²⁴

Since the matter of the mission was — the "we will hear",

to investigate the matter of entering the land according to intellect,

therefore there could have occurred among them an error in judgment

— because everything that the spies said about Eretz Yisrael and its inhabitants — "strong people ..

and also the children of the giant etc."²⁵

— was indeed true²⁶.

and also their conclusion,

that "we cannot go up"

(according to <b>nature </b>one cannot conquer Eretz Yisrael)

has a place in reason.

It turns out,

that the spies

(in their opinion)

<b>fulfilled </b>the mission on which they were sent.

Their mistake consisted in this,

that they

(in general)

added a conclusion,

"We cannot go up": Moses our teacher did not ask them from the outset whether one <b>can</b> conquer the Land of Israel or not.

He only sent them to find out <b>how</b> it is easier to conquer it;

And on the contrary: from the very fact that Moses sent them to spy out the land,

to investigate <b>how</b> to conquer the Land of Israel,

was a proof,

that "we can surely go up"

Also in the way of <b>nature</b>²⁷,

then there is no place for the matter of sending spies].

It turns out,

that their saying "we cannot go up" is not just an addition to the mission,

but rather — it is the <b>opposite</b> of the mission.

H.

Torah is from the word teaching²⁸.

It is therefore understandable,

that in Torah there is also the instruction how to protect oneself from the sin of the spies.

What is the advice?

The name of the parshah

(according to the custom of Israel)

is "Shelach"²⁹,

from the term mission.

A Jew must know,

that even when he occupies himself with the service of "naaseh",

understand with his intellect,

"ledaatcha" — he must constantly remember that he does it as an agent of Moshe — not because <b>he</b> wants to understand the matter,

but because such is the ratzon haelyon.

And then one is protected not only with the "naaseh" but also with the "nishma" — this ensures that the intellect will be a true intellect and come to the true conclusion.

The matter of intellect is — to discover how the object of intellect is in its truth.

One must nullify all one's own inclinations etc.,

and bring oneself to the matter that one wants to understand.

When someone does in a matter with his intellect because of his own taste etc.,

then it is right,

that his own inclinations etc. should interfere,

until he will try to "fit" the reality to his opinion.

Which this is one of the explanations in the matter of bribery,

that Torah says that "bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous"³⁰.

At first glance:

Since the Torah of truth testifies that it speaks about "wise ones" and "righteous ones",

they are indeed true wise ones and righteous ones.

Now how is it that they should take bribes from the outset?

Rather — because the matter of bribery is

(not only that one takes money

(and the like)

and therefore one will speak an open lie,

rather)

— that one does not think about the reality as it is,

rather one thinks about oneself and one's own reality³¹.

Then one cannot have any true understanding of the concept,

as it truly is.

And this was the reason of the

(error v)

fall of the spies: by them was lacking in this the nullification to Moses our teacher in a manner that this should be heard also during the time that they were occupied with a matter of "and we will hear",

to spy out the land.

And since that they "felt" their own existence,

therefore the seeing of

"The Nephilim, sons of Anak" cast a fear upon them until "we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers"³²,

and this became a matter of bribery that perverted their intellect,

until saying "we are not able to go up."

But when one remembers that one is a <b>shliach</b>

("shlach"),

that a person's agent is like himself³³

— a shliach has no independent existence, rather his entire existence is the existence of the one who sent him³⁴,

And in this itself,

one is an agent of <b>Moses</b>,

that Moses our teacher is the attribute of <b>truth</b>³⁵

: one remains bound to Moses our teacher

(the attribute of truth)

and one does not depart from him; one thinks the entire time

(not about oneself,

but)

that one goes on a mission of Moses our teacher,

Then one is not bribed,

and consequently one carries out the mission of spying out the land

(which requires an intellect and understanding that is true)

perfectly,

and one says³⁶

"The land is good which the L-rd our G-d gives to us",

And this brings afterwards the conquest of the heart to the borders of Y.,

until the fulfillment of the prophecy³⁷

that "Hashem your G-d will enlarge your border",

with the coming of Mashiach our righteous one,

speedily in our days, literally.

(From the talk of Shabbos Parshas Shlach 5733)