In Moreh Nevuchim (section 3, chap 46) the Rambam discusses the korbanot. He talks about the public atonement offerings that are always from he-goats.
He explains that this is because the first sin of the Jewish people as a whole between man and his fellow had to do with a he-goat. When they sold Yosef Hasadik they slaughtered a he-goat and dipped Yosef’s coat in its blood. He says that we shouldn’t take this reason lightly. The purpose of a korban is that a person should pay attention to his sin, and remember it constantly.
As David Hamelech says, “Hatati Negdi Tamid, Always remember your sin.
And since this sin if the brothers is the first source for all of our sins between man and his fellow, we must constantly remember it.
(The ultimate sin between man and God is the sin of the golden calf, which has a korban from a cow. Since we are getting close to the three weeks, we will add that as there are two main sins of the three weeks. They start off with 17th of Tammuz, which is the sin of the Golden Calf, and they end with Tisha B’Av which is the sin of the spies. You may wonder why it is the sin of the spies and not the sin of Yosef and the brothers- we will get back to that.
For now, there are two fundamental sins. One between man and his fellow, which was the selling of Yosef, and one was between man and God, which is the Golden Calf. For now, we are going to focus on Yosef and the brothers. But how do the spies fit in?
When the brothers came to buy food during the famine, Yosef wanted to make a false allegation against them as part of his plan to reveal himself. He used two words, Meraglim Atem/ You are spies
Simply, this means, “You came out to spy the land of Egypt.” But the deeper explanation is that they would come back again, in the sin of the spies. 10 out of the 12 brothers sinned with the sin of the spies, and 10 out of 12 brothers sinned with the sale of Yosef. Yosef called them Meraglim/spies, and by doing so, he indicated that he was not a spy. He knew that Yehoshua, who came from him, would not sin in the sin of the spies.
We see from here that the sin of the spies was nothing more than a repeat of the sin of Yosef and the brothers.
Tomorrow, B’Ezrat Hashem we will discuss the link between these two sins, but it is extremely important to always have this on our mind- says the Rambam, because this is a source for all of our sins between man and his fellow.
Baal HaTurim says
(Bereshit 42,9)