Ein Beit Midrash belo chiddush, our sages say there’s no house of study without novelty. So I would like to share with you a novelty on this week’s parasha. Although we might think that everything has been exhausted, it has not. The parasha of Shelach Lecha is very famous for the story of the spies, who go into Israel and come back with a very negative report to Moshe Rabbeinu. We know the rest of the story.
I don’t know why, but this year I thought about a point of reflection that I would like to share with you. In the description of where they went, there’s something interesting. First of all, why does the Torah need to tell us where they came from, where they got to, and how they came back in detail? It says in the Pasuk (verse)—you can read it in Bamidbar, in Numbers, chapter 13, Pasuk 21, 22, and 23. The Pesukim discuss the geography there. It’s a little bit boring, in a sense. You could just say, “Look, they toured Israel and came back with a very negative report.” No. It tells you exactly where they came from: Midbar Tzin, which is on the southeastern side of Israel, down at the bottom. If you know the Negev, you know where Eilat is. It’s on the right of Eilat, on the eastern side of Eilat. Over there is Midbar Tzin. This is where they come from, and they go in there to the Negev. Then it tells them, “You go through the Negev, which is the southern part of Israel, to the area.” Everybody knows that we’re talking here about Hebron.
Let’s summarize it. They’re going from the southeastern side of Israel, under Israel today. They go up the Negev. They go to Hebron and come back. I have a question: Did they tour all of Israel or not? It’s actually a discussion, because for 12 people to tour all of Israel in 40 days back then, just walking, would have been very difficult. Some Mefarshim (commentators) say, “Well, it happened with the Kefitzat HaDerech (miraculous shortening of the road).” They had Nissim, they had miracles that got them to see, etc. But the simple peshat of the Pesukim, Rabotai (my masters), is that, no, actually, maybe they did not tour all of Israel, as some Mefarshim say.
What would that be? You know what that would be? It would be like going into a restaurant and ordering an appetizer. The appetizer you order, you don’t like. It’s not good. You have two options. Either you say, “Look, maybe I picked the wrong item. I wanted to be creative. I took the weird one.” You could try another appetizer. You could say the main course is going to be more conservative. It’s meat or whatever it is. You can’t judge the whole menu and the whole restaurant on one appetizer that you tried.
If we stay true to the Pesukim here, it could be that all they saw was actually a very small part of Israel. The Pasuk goes into detail and tells us that in the area they toured, there happened to be the people I just mentioned, who were giants, and the story we know: they saw big people, etc. It happened that those people lived there, but they had not seen all of Israel. They judged all of Israel based on one little sliver of Israel. How about suggesting that this could be part, if not most, of the mistake they made?
You’re judging all of Israel just on the one area that you saw. You know how many times we do the same? Don’t we judge people just on one part of what they said or what they looked like, or maybe one episode that disappointed us? And we totally forget about the other 99% of their personality, maybe even the favors they did for us or some amazing things about them. It’s because we focus on that little bad thing. How about imagining that this was the nisayon (test)? Maybe they went in and saw something negative. Maybe they were right; that part was challenging. But they made a mistake because they judged all of Israel based on one little experience that they had. And that may be the Mussar (ethical lesson) that we should learn. Because the Chachamim (our sages) tell us that this is juxtaposed with the parasha that talks about Lashon Hara. When we say Lashon Hara about people, what is it? We’re focusing on that one little part that is negative in our eyes, and we build the whole case and the whole Lashon Hara and the whole personality based on that one thing. It’s wrong. Judge the whole person. You want to judge someone? Fine. But look at the whole picture, not just that one thing that you didn’t like. If we do that, people won’t say Lashon Hara. I believe this is a novel way of seeing the touring of the spies and learning a big lesson.