13:26 then records that apparently immediately upon their return, the 12 spies gave their report to Moshe, Aharon and the entire nation. The spies began by showing the fruit of the land of Canaan (Israel) and then they testified that the land was flowing with milk and honey, the inhabitants of the land were strong, and the cities were fortified, 13:26-29. This report seems to have agitated the people, since 13:30 records that Calev (one of the spies) had to quiet the people down, and he urged the people to go to Israel.
Why did the people become agitated? Ramban (on 13:2 and 13:27) suggests it was because the bad spies added the word, efes, nevertheless, (13:28), after describing the fruits of the land and before their description of the strengths of the people living the land. This word implied that it would be difficult for the people to enjoy the fruits of the land. The people understood this and started grumbling and this is why Calev had to quiet them down. This could be, but maybe the report itself was a shock to the people. The people might have assumed that conquering Israel was going to be a trivial event, and once they were told that the inhabitants of the land were strong, they realized that their assumption was incorrect, and this caused their agitation.
The other spies, excluding Yehoshua, then stated that the people would not be able to conquer the land, 13:31, and then they defamed the land by stating that it “eats its inhabitants,” 13:32. The spies concluded their report by stating that the land of Canaan (Israel) was filled with giants, 13:33. The people responded by crying, and complaining to Moshe that they wanted to return to Egypt since they thought they would die if they went to the land of Israel, 14:1-4. G-d then punished the people by decreeing that they would have to stay in the desert for 40 years and the ten bad spies were killed immediately, 14:5-37.
The Ramban (on 13:2 and on 13:32) explains that the spies committed two sins. One, their task was to report information, but they added their advice that the people should not go to the land of Israel. In addition, they also defamed the land of Israel. This was their second sin and the Ramban suggests that this second sin was why they were killed immediately, as the Torah uses the same word, debat, both in 13:32 and in 14:37 when referring to their punishment.
Why did the spies think the people could not capture the land of Israel and why did the people believe them? The spies and the people had witnessed the 10 plagues, the splitting of Yam Suf, the cloud of G-d and they had heard G-d’s promise to give the land of Israel to the Jewish people, see Shemot 34:11 (even after the sin of the golden calf). Even if they really believed that the inhabitants of the land of Israel were giants, how could they doubt G-d’s ability or desire to give the people the land of Israel (see 14:22)?
With regard to the spies, various "conspiracy" theories have been suggested. Nachshoni (1987, p. 611) quotes from Hasidic sources, that the ten spies really had pious intentions because they thought it was more proper for a religious person to stay in the sheltered life of the desert than to enter the real life in the land of Israel. A slightly less apologetic approach could be that they thought the people were not ready for the real life, so they wanted the people to remain with the miraculous existence of the desert. Or, one could impart sinister reasons to the conspiracy theory. Yissakhar Teichtal (2000, p. 259) quotes from the Zohar that the spies feared that they would only be princes in the desert, but they would lose their power if the people entered the land of Israel. Or one could claim the spies were just evil people who wanted to harm the people, but then it is hard to understand why Moshe chose them. Notwithstanding the popularity of conspiracy theories, they are hard to prove, and I doubt the case here involves a conspiracy.
A different possibility is that when the spies were traveling in the land of Israel, they had forgotten the miracles of G-d. With this idea, their thoughts had become so fixated on their mission during their travels, that even when they returned to the camp and saw the divine cloud, still they were unable to change their mind. Thus, they gave their report immediately upon their return. Their actions would then show a lack of perspective that they could not discern or critique information, which, in retrospect, made then unfit to be spies. This amnesia seems unlikely to me.
With regard to the people, N. Leibowitz (1982, p. 146) writes, “Their sin lay in making their own selfish calculations of the material prospects ahead of them. They were afraid of the responsibilities of freedom, the dangers involved in securing it. Far better it was to wander in the wilderness and even to return to the Egyptian bondage. The slave has no responsibility and his fate is decided by others. They spurned the opportunity to lead their own lives, foster their own economy and govern themselves.” While N. Leibowitz is following the reasonable approach that the people had a “slave mentality,” which dates at least to the Rambam (Moreh 3:32), her application of the theory here seems more like a modern-day Zionist critique of Diaspora Jewry. There is no mention in the text that the people made any monetary calculations, but simply that they were afraid they were going to die. The people were not preferring slavery to freedom, but in their eyes slavery to death.
It seems to me that there are three possibilities why the spies and the people doubted G-d's power. One, maybe they thought that G-d meant for the people to capture the land through normal means, as otherwise why bother sending spies? Thus, the spies' advice that the people could not conquer the land of Israel was made without any assumption of divine help. Clearly there is some truth to the idea that the people would have to live normal lives without daily miracles once they reached the land of Israel, and we usually say that one is not to rely on miracles. Yet, here they could have relied on a miracle since G-d had told them that He was going to give them the land of Israel. However, maybe the people thought that G-d was only going to take them to the land of Israel but not conquer it for them and/ or they thought that they were not worthy of G-d's assistance to conquer the land.
A second possibility is that the people and the spies were unable to develop any perspective other than their immediate sensation, and they only focused on the supposed fighting abilities of the inhabitants of the land of Israel. This inability to detach themselves from the immediate present is childish and shows the people were not ready to enter the land of Israel. This also shows a lack of true faith in G-d, as one minute they could believe, but then the next minute they would be swayed to believe something else. Presumably this behavior was because they had been slaves, as a slave only focuses on the immediate present of what ordered to do by the master. Thus, the punishment here was not just to wait for a new generation who had not been slaves, but also to wait a specified length of time, which would teach the people to separate from the present.
A third possibility is that the people believed that the gods of the people of Canaan were stronger than G-d. How could they think this after seeing the splitting of Yam Suf? The answer is that when the spies came back with the report that the people in the land of Canaan were giants, then the people made the deduction that if the people were so big, then surely their gods were also bigger and stronger. This was a rebellion against G-d to think that there are gods more powerful than G-d.
This last approach is indicated by Yehoshua and Caleb's attempt to convince the people to go to the land of Israel/ Canaan. 14:9 records that they said to the people, "their (Canaanite's) cloud has departed from them, G-d is on our side, do not fear." Milgrom (1990, p. 109) notes that the reference to the cloud is "a metaphor for divine protection." Yehoshua and Calev were telling the people not to fear from the Canaanites gods (the cloud) since they had departed, which means that they could not match up with G-d. From this argument, we see that the people were worried about the Canaanite gods, but the people did not accept Yehoshua and Calev's argument and tried to stone them, 14:10.
No matter how one explains the behavior of the generation of the people of the desert, their behavior would seem to be problematic for the existence of an eternal covenant. It was the generation of the desert that made a covenant with G-d, but was this generation with its “slave mentality” really able to make such a commitment?
The answer is that in Devarim, G-d made another covenant with the new generation, which supplemented the covenant at Mount Sinai (Devarim 28:69), see our discussion on Devarim 28:69, 29:3-5, "Full covenantal knowledge." Within the establishment of this covenant, Devarim 29:13,14 records that the covenant is binding on all future generations. Thus, it was the new generation and not the generation of the desert who bound all future generations to the covenant.
Leibowitz, Nehama, 1982, Studies in Bemidbar, translated and adapted by Aryeh Newman, Jerusalem: The World Zionist Organization.
Milgrom, Jacob, 1990, The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.
The Ramban (on 13:2 and on 13:32) explains that the spies committed two sins. One, their task was to report information, but they added their advice that the people should not go to the land of Israel. In addition, they also defamed the land of Israel. This was their second sin and the Ramban suggests that this second sin was why they were killed immediately, as the Torah uses the same word, debat, both in 13:32 and in 14:37 when referring to their punishment.
Why did the spies think the people could not capture the land of Israel and why did the people believe them? The spies and the people had witnessed the 10 plagues, the splitting of Yam Suf, the cloud of G-d and they had heard G-d’s promise to give the land of Israel to the Jewish people, see Shemot 34:11 (even after the sin of the golden calf). Even if they really believed that the inhabitants of the land of Israel were giants, how could they doubt G-d’s ability or desire to give the people the land of Israel (see 14:22)?
With regard to the spies, various "conspiracy" theories have been suggested. Nachshoni (1987, p. 611) quotes from Hasidic sources, that the ten spies really had pious intentions because they thought it was more proper for a religious person to stay in the sheltered life of the desert than to enter the real life in the land of Israel. A slightly less apologetic approach could be that they thought the people were not ready for the real life, so they wanted the people to remain with the miraculous existence of the desert. Or, one could impart sinister reasons to the conspiracy theory. Yissakhar Teichtal (2000, p. 259) quotes from the Zohar that the spies feared that they would only be princes in the desert, but they would lose their power if the people entered the land of Israel. Or one could claim the spies were just evil people who wanted to harm the people, but then it is hard to understand why Moshe chose them. Notwithstanding the popularity of conspiracy theories, they are hard to prove, and I doubt the case here involves a conspiracy.
A different possibility is that when the spies were traveling in the land of Israel, they had forgotten the miracles of G-d. With this idea, their thoughts had become so fixated on their mission during their travels, that even when they returned to the camp and saw the divine cloud, still they were unable to change their mind. Thus, they gave their report immediately upon their return. Their actions would then show a lack of perspective that they could not discern or critique information, which, in retrospect, made then unfit to be spies. This amnesia seems unlikely to me.
With regard to the people, N. Leibowitz (1982, p. 146) writes, “Their sin lay in making their own selfish calculations of the material prospects ahead of them. They were afraid of the responsibilities of freedom, the dangers involved in securing it. Far better it was to wander in the wilderness and even to return to the Egyptian bondage. The slave has no responsibility and his fate is decided by others. They spurned the opportunity to lead their own lives, foster their own economy and govern themselves.” While N. Leibowitz is following the reasonable approach that the people had a “slave mentality,” which dates at least to the Rambam (Moreh 3:32), her application of the theory here seems more like a modern-day Zionist critique of Diaspora Jewry. There is no mention in the text that the people made any monetary calculations, but simply that they were afraid they were going to die. The people were not preferring slavery to freedom, but in their eyes slavery to death.
It seems to me that there are three possibilities why the spies and the people doubted G-d's power. One, maybe they thought that G-d meant for the people to capture the land through normal means, as otherwise why bother sending spies? Thus, the spies' advice that the people could not conquer the land of Israel was made without any assumption of divine help. Clearly there is some truth to the idea that the people would have to live normal lives without daily miracles once they reached the land of Israel, and we usually say that one is not to rely on miracles. Yet, here they could have relied on a miracle since G-d had told them that He was going to give them the land of Israel. However, maybe the people thought that G-d was only going to take them to the land of Israel but not conquer it for them and/ or they thought that they were not worthy of G-d's assistance to conquer the land.
A second possibility is that the people and the spies were unable to develop any perspective other than their immediate sensation, and they only focused on the supposed fighting abilities of the inhabitants of the land of Israel. This inability to detach themselves from the immediate present is childish and shows the people were not ready to enter the land of Israel. This also shows a lack of true faith in G-d, as one minute they could believe, but then the next minute they would be swayed to believe something else. Presumably this behavior was because they had been slaves, as a slave only focuses on the immediate present of what ordered to do by the master. Thus, the punishment here was not just to wait for a new generation who had not been slaves, but also to wait a specified length of time, which would teach the people to separate from the present.
A third possibility is that the people believed that the gods of the people of Canaan were stronger than G-d. How could they think this after seeing the splitting of Yam Suf? The answer is that when the spies came back with the report that the people in the land of Canaan were giants, then the people made the deduction that if the people were so big, then surely their gods were also bigger and stronger. This was a rebellion against G-d to think that there are gods more powerful than G-d.
This last approach is indicated by Yehoshua and Caleb's attempt to convince the people to go to the land of Israel/ Canaan. 14:9 records that they said to the people, "their (Canaanite's) cloud has departed from them, G-d is on our side, do not fear." Milgrom (1990, p. 109) notes that the reference to the cloud is "a metaphor for divine protection." Yehoshua and Calev were telling the people not to fear from the Canaanites gods (the cloud) since they had departed, which means that they could not match up with G-d. From this argument, we see that the people were worried about the Canaanite gods, but the people did not accept Yehoshua and Calev's argument and tried to stone them, 14:10.
No matter how one explains the behavior of the generation of the people of the desert, their behavior would seem to be problematic for the existence of an eternal covenant. It was the generation of the desert that made a covenant with G-d, but was this generation with its “slave mentality” really able to make such a commitment?
The answer is that in Devarim, G-d made another covenant with the new generation, which supplemented the covenant at Mount Sinai (Devarim 28:69), see our discussion on Devarim 28:69, 29:3-5, "Full covenantal knowledge." Within the establishment of this covenant, Devarim 29:13,14 records that the covenant is binding on all future generations. Thus, it was the new generation and not the generation of the desert who bound all future generations to the covenant.
Bibliography:
Leibowitz, Nehama, 1982, Studies in Bemidbar, translated and adapted by Aryeh Newman, Jerusalem: The World Zionist Organization.
Milgrom, Jacob, 1990, The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.
Nachshoni, Yehuda, 1987, Notes on the Torah, Bnei Brak.
Teichtal, Yissachar (1885-1945), 2000, Eim Habanim Semeichah, English translation by Moshe Lichtman, Mevaseret Tzion: Kol Mevaser Publications.
Teichtal, Yissachar (1885-1945), 2000, Eim Habanim Semeichah, English translation by Moshe Lichtman, Mevaseret Tzion: Kol Mevaser Publications.
No comments:
Post a Comment