In the beginning of parshas Shelach, God tells Moshe Rabbeinu
to send spies into the land of Israel, “שְׁלַח־לְךָ אֲנָשִׁים וְיָתֻרוּ אֶת־אֶרֶץ
כְּנַעַן .../Send out men who shall spy out the land of Canaan …” (Bamidbar
13:2) However, in parshas Devarim
when Moshe Rabbeinu recounts the story, he says that the nation asked him to
send the spies.[1] Furthermore, Chazal teach us that sending the
spies did not find favor in God’s eyes.[2] How can we reconcile the two versions of this
story and why did God command Moshe Rabbeinu to send the spies if He was
against it?
The Sfas Emes finds the answer to these questions in the
first Midrash on the parsha.[3] The Midrash says that there is nothing as
precious to God as a shli’ach mitzvah/one sent to do a mitzvah. An emissary is one whose sole motive is to do
the sender’s will. If he has other
personal motives, he is no longer simply an emissary. He is on his own mission as well. An emissary who has no personal motives in
the mission is called, in the words of the Midrash, one who puts his soul into
the success of his mission.
The Chiddushei HaRim, expounding on this point explains that
it is highly significant that, according to Chazal, the two spies Yehoshua sent
to Jericho disguised themselves as potters.[4] Clay pots exemplify things with no intrinsic
value. Their value is defined solely by
their functionality. The spies were
prepared to fulfill Yehoshua’s will with absolutely no personal ulterior
motives.
Both the version that Moshe Rabbeinu relates in Devarim and
the version of our parsha are true. The
people wanted to send spies into the land.
Out of kindness, God commanded Moshe to send spies even though the
nation had already asked for it and even though He was against it. The spies were being sent on a dangerous
mission. It was physically dangerous and
spiritually dangerous. God turned the
mission into a mitzvah in order to afford the spies protection.[5] They became shluchai mitzvah/emissaries
sent to do a mitzvah.[6]
In order to become true emissaries, though, they needed to suppress
their own desires and motives and proceed with the mission only because God
commanded it. If they had done this they
would have been protected. Ten of the
spies failed and the results were tragic.
This Midrash is teaching us something very important about
our lives in this world. The Chiddushei
HaRim used to say that we are all shluchei mitzvah/emissaries sent do to
a mitzvah. God sent us into this world
to fulfill His will. In this sense, we
are His agents. However, we are only His
agents, in the true sense, when our desire is solely to fulfill His will rather
than for any ulterior personal motives.
This world is a dangerous place fraught with pitfalls and
traps. It is easy to be snared. The advice we glean from the Midrash is to
suppress our own desires to do the will of God.
We have the ability to transform all of our daily activities into
mitzvos. In fact, another Midrash in
this week’s parsha says that God left nothing out.[7] There is no action that cannot be transformed
into a mitzvah. By making everything we
do a mitzvah we connect to the inner Godly life force that inheres in each
action. This connection affords us
protection in this world.
There was, however, a positive mission that the spies were
sent to accomplish. Before entering the
land of Israel, there was no need to work at
attaining any physical need. Every
physical need was provided. God was
manifest in the daily lives of the people.
After entering the land of Israel, the nation would have to
work within nature to satisfy their physical needs. Maintaining the same level of faith while
living within the boundaries of nature would not be easy. The Chiddushei HaRim explains that the larger
context of the spies’ mission was to help make this difficult transition as
smooth as possible. They were supposed
to show that the light of the Torah exists within nature as well. In fact, the word for spies, meraglim
has the same root as hergeil/habit.
The spies were supposed to teach us how to bring the light of the Torah
into our daily lives.
This concept is alluded to in the Zohar[8] on a pasuk from this week’s
parsha, “... וַיָּבֹא
עַד־חֶבְרוֹן/… he came to Chevron.” (Bamidbar 13:22) The Zohar explains that Chevron represents
the Torah SheBe’al Peh/Oral Law.
The word Chevron has the same root as the Hebrew word for connection – chibur. Furthermore, a person who studies the Oral
Law is called a chaver. All of a
Torah scholar’s actions are drawn after the
Torah. His essence is connected to the
Torah. He brings the light of the Torah
into his daily activities. For this
reason we say in our morning brachos, “שֶׁתַּרְגִילֵנוּ בְּתוֹרָתֶךָ/You have made us
accustomed to Your Torah.” In essence we
are praising God for helping us to bring the light of the Torah into our daily
lives, through the mitzvos.
God told Moshe, “... וְיָתֻרוּ אֶת־אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן .../… and they shall spy out the land of
Canaan …” (Bamidbar 13:2) “וְיָתֻרוּ/And they shall spy
out” has the same root as the word for Torah.
God wanted the spies to show the nation that it was possible to bring
the light of the Torah into the physical world.
It was possible to live in the physical world, to work within the
boundaries of nature and still live a spiritual life. This was the spies’ ultimate mission. This is our ultimate mission as well and it
is accomplished by realizing that in every aspect of our lives we are shluchai
mitzvah/emissaries to do a mitzvah in this world.
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