 |  | In this week's parsha, Parshat Sh'lach, we learn about the tragic sin of the spies. Upon returning from surveying Eretz Yisrael, ten out of the twelve spies Moshe dispatched returned with an evil report about the land, saying, "The people that dwells in the land are powerful, the cities are fortified and very great, and we also saw there the offspring of the giant. Amalek dwells in the area of the south; the Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Amorite dwell on the mountain; and the Canaanite dwells by the sea on the banks of the Jordan...We cannot ascend to that people for it is too strong for us...The land through which we have passed, to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants...we were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes" (Bamidbar 13:28-33). As a result of their evil report, the entire Jewish people become panic-stricken, crying out, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in the Wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land to die by the sword? Our wives and our children will be taken captive! It is better for us to return to Egypt" (Ibid., 2-3). How is it possible that the report of ten men could plunge the entire Jewish people into national hysteria? How is it possible that the report of ten men could undo the people's faith and trust in all of the promises God gave them about entering Eretz Yisrael? How it is possible that all of a sudden, Yehoshua and Kalev, Moshe's two most trusted servants in this very matter, now have no credibility with the Jewish people?
To help answer these questions, I would like to turn to the words of the Yalkut Shimoni, which teaches us that when the spies returned from scouting out Eretz Yisrael, they did not make any open pronouncements initially because they knew that if they did speak publicly about their negative views of Eretz Yisrael, no one would believe them. Therefore, "they stood up and distributed themselves throughout the tribes, each one going home to the camp of his tribe. Then, each one started pacing the floor of his home, with a distressed look on his face, going from one corner to another, as if he were caged, until his sons and daughters came up to him and asked, 'What is troubling you?' Then, as he stood there, he pretended to faint on the floor. From that position he looked up at them and said, 'I am aggrieved for you, my children, over how the Amorites will make mockery of you! How can I even look at you?' All of them would immediately burst into loud weeping, until the neighbors heard and ascertained the matter, so they began to cry and wail, too. The grief spread from family to family, until every tribe lifted its voice crying, and each tribe cried for the other. In the end, all six hundred thousand were crying together, as one group, and their wailing rose up to the Heavens."
What is the Midrash trying to teach us? Why does this Midrash alter the pshat, or "plain-sense" reading of how this event took place in the Torah? After all, a simple reading of this episode, as it is presented in the Torah, would lead one to think that once the spies returned they gave their evil report right away, resulting in the people's immediate panic. This Midrash, however, teaches us that in order to cause panic on a national level, the ten spies first returned home, and then used their families to create the national uproar. It is clear that the most effective way to destroy community is to destroy the home, the family-unit. The Jewish home is most sacred. The Jewish home, when intact, when united, can overcome any obstacle and weather any storm that comes its way. When the Jewish home is together, the Jewish community is together, because the goals and values of the community reflect what happens in the Jewish home. However, when the Jewish home is torn apart, when the Jewish home is no longer unified for the sake of Torah, when family, directly or reflexively, turns its members against Jewish values, Jewish tradition and Jewish faith, the overall strength of the Jewish community is greatly weakened and the Jewish people as a whole become less able to withstand tests of faith by holding onto observance and values.
The ten spies knew that the only real and sure way to turn the entire Jewish community against the words of Yehoshua and Kalev, the only way to make them surrender their faith in God's promises was to turn their families against them. They intentionally struck fear into the hearts of their loved ones, those closest to them, in order to create a dramatic ripple effect throughout every Jewish home. Then, and only then, could the entire Jewish people have raised its voice as one, and, as a community, denounce Yehoshua and Kalev, and renege on its obligation to trust in God and fulfill its national, spiritual mission to enter and inhabit Eretz Yisrael.
The Jewish home is sacred, as Rabbi Soloveitchik writes, "Every [Jewish] home is a Temple" (The Lord is Righteous in All His Ways, p 289). The Jewish home is the anchor of the Jewish community. The Jewish home is the heart beat, the life-blood, the very essence of Jewish life. Thus, the ten spies sought to undermine the Jewish community by undermining the Jewish home. This Shabbat, let us consider the great power and responsibility we have as the guardians of our homes to ensure that Torah values, Jewish traditions and Jewish faith serve as the hearth warming our homes and all those who dwell within them so that that the glow and warmth of that light can be felt by every Jew. The Jewish community reflects the conversations, observances and commitment of the Jewish home. This Shabbat, let us do the opposite of the ten spies, and make our homes loving and nurturing places of growing faith and dedication to the Torah, to God, to Jewish community and to the love of Eretz Yisrael.
Shabbat Shalom!
-Rabbi Dan
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