QUESTIONS AND COMMENTARY ON PARASHAT SHELACH-LEKHA

1. After bringing the people of Israel through the desert to the edge of the Promised Land, why does God end up not allowing them to enter the land?

Joshua Brumbach

This week's parasha begins with the sending-out of the twelve spies. After reconnoitering the land God was about to give them, they return with news that, though the land was indeed flowing with chalav udevash, milk and honey (Numbers 13:27), there were also fierce people dwelling there, and that their cities were fortified and well protected (13:28-29).

Continuing, the Torah says, "At this all the people of Israel cried out in dismay and wept all night long (14:1)." They began to grumble against their leaders, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb; and cried out to return to Egypt. The people lost faith that it was possible to enter the land God promised them.

Upon hearing the charges against them, these leaders fell on their faces and tore their clothes.  Joshua and Caleb spoke to the community, pleading, "If the LORD is pleased with us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us - a land flowing with milk and honey.  Just don't rebel against the LORD" (Numbers 14:8-9).

Our ancestors did not have faith. Trusting in their insecurities, Israel rebelled against the LORD and thought it would be better to return back to Egypt (the place of our enslavement). This lack of faith ignited God's anger, and he appeared before all the people, and even threatened to destroy us. 

During one of the most beautiful sections of the Torah (Numbers 14:13-19), Moses pleads with the LORD to reconsider and forgive his people as he did on Mt. Sinai (see Exodus 34:1-9). 

But Moses said to the LORD, "When the Egyptians hear about this people whom you brought up from their midst by your might, they will tell every inhabitant of that land that they heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people; that you O LORD appear in plain sight when your cloud rests upon them; in a pillar of fire you go before them during the day and in a pillar of fire at night. If you slew every person among this people, the nations, who have heard your fame, will say, ‘Is the LORD not able to bring this people to the land which he swore to them on oath that he slaughtered them in the wilderness?' Now let the might of the LORD be great. In accordance with what you said [at Mt. Sinai], ‘The LORD slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, forgiving sin and transgression, indeed not remitting punishment but visiting the iniquity of parents upon children to the third and fourth generation.' Forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love just as you have forgiven this people from when they were in Egypt until now."

God agrees, but with the condition that the generation who had the opportunity to enter the land, but rebelled and lacked faith, would not see this promise fulfilled.

Presented with the opportunity, but lacking the faith to see it through, the generation that rebelled against God was forced to return to the desert to wander for forty years.  

2. Shelach-lekha concludes with the commandment to wear tzitzit, fringes on the corners of our garments. What is the larger connection of the mitzva of tzitzit to this week's Torah portion?                   

Joshua Brumbach

The concluding verses of chapter 15 describe the commandment to wear tzitzit on the corners of our garments. These verses are the basis for the mitzva of wearing a tallit. God instructs that the wearing of tzitziyot are meant to be a reminder to us for all generations. We are to look upon them and be reminded of our relationship and obligation to God. Why? "So that you shall not follow after your own heart and eyes after which you go astray (Numbers 15:39)."

The wearing of tzitzit were meant to be a safeguard against our often lack of faith. To be constant reminders not only of God's commandments, but also of God's loving faithfulness for each one of us. All too often we focus on the negatives we are faced with each day, forgetting the many times we have seen God act on our behalf.  The many miracles God has done for us, and the deliverance from that which we have been set free. Just like our ancestors, we often lack faith.  We know God's promise for our lives, but we cower when faced with fierce opponents and well fortified lands.  It is so much easier to hide behind our insecurities and cry out to return to our own individual Egypt, the places of our own individual enslavement. Why do we wear tzitzit? Because we constantly need reminders of our faith and our constant devotion to God so that we, like our ancestors, will have the faith to enter the Promised Land.      

3. After the bad and discouraging report of the spies, the Torah tells us that "All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night (Numbers 14:1)."  According to tradition, what other important historical events happened on the same night? What is the special name assigned to this day (Hint: It happened in the Hebrew month of Av)? How is it observed today, and what is its significance?

Jason

The report of the spies happened, according to tradition, on the ninth of Av.  As it says in the Babylonian Talmud (b. Ta‘anit 29a)

Rabbah said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, "That night was the night of the ninth of Av. The blessed Holy One said to them, ‘You have wept without cause, therefore I will set [this day] aside for a weeping throughout the generations to come.'"

Thus Tish‘a be'Av (literally the ninth of Av) became a night on which many of the most terrible tragedies in Jewish history occurred. Some of the horrific calamities that our understood to have happened to our ancestors on this date include: 

1. The sin of the spies caused God to decree that the Children of Israel who left Egypt would not be permitted to enter the land of Israel;

2. Destruction of the First Temple;

3. Destruction of the Second Temple;

4. Destruction of Betar, the last fortress to hold out against the Romans during the Bar Kokhba revolt in the year 135 CE.

5. First Crusade decreed by Pope Urban II. In the first month, ten thousand Jews alone are killed.

6. Expulsion of Jews from England, accompanied by pogroms and destruction of books and the seizing of property (5050/1290).

7. King Ferdinand of Spain issued the expulsion decree, setting Tish‘a Be'Av as the final date by which all Jews must depart Spain (5252/1492).

8. World War I - which began the downward slide to the Holocaust - began on Tish‘a Be'Av.

9. The beginning of Deportations from Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp (5702/1942).

Tish‘a Be'Av will fall on Thursday, August 3 this year (Jewish Year 5766). Like Yom Kippur, the fast of Tish‘a Be'Av begins the night before and lasts through the day. Unlike Yom Kippur, and like the other public fast days, work is permitted. Tallit and Tefillin are not worn during the morning prayers in accordance with a tradition begun by Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg (ca. 1215-1293). They are put on again at the afternoon prayer (Mincha). Eicha, the book of Lamentations, is read at both evening and morning services.