The entire Sefer of Devarim is --amongst
other things-- one long speech of Moshe Rabbanue to the Jewish People,
recapping the previous four books of the Torah as well as Moshe rebuking the
Jewish people for their previous misdeeds. This week’s Parsha is always read on
the Shabbat immediately preceding the Ninth of AV, the day on which both of the
Temples were destroyed and the beginning of the exile of the Jewish people. The Gemara in Mesechet Tannit 29a tells us
that the root and source of the destruction of the Temple started out with the
sin of the meraglim who did not want to go into the land of Israel, “ You wept
in vain; I will establish for you weeping for all generations” .
In the middle of Moshe’s summary of
this tragic episode, he interjects that "The Lord became angry with me
as well, because of you saying, “you too shall not come there (the land). (Devarim
1:37) All of the commentators are troubled by this verse, because as we know
Moshe was not permitted to enter the land of Israel not because of the sin of
the meraglim (spies), but
rather because he hit the rock at Mei Merivah as found in Parshat Chukat. The
Or Hachayim Hakodesh offers a very interesting explanation for the interjection
found in this Pasuk. He writes that the correct answer is based on Chazal’s
statement that Hashem established the day of Tisha Bav as a day of weeping for
all generations and the temple was destroyed on that day. Our Sages also say
that the Beit Hamikdash would never had been destroyed had Moshe entered the
land, and built it. This is what Moshe meant when he said "The Lord
became angry with me as well, because of you saying, “you too shall not come
there (the land)." For had the
sin of the meraglim not taken place, and had the Jews entered the land of
Israel immediately, Moshe would have possibly entered with them and built the
Beit Hamikdash. Since the Jewish people would have been on such a high
spiritual level, the Temple would never have been destroyed and the last 2,000
years of Jewish history would have been a completely different story.
There are many opinions as to what
exactly the sins of the meraglim were, and how we should go about trying to
repair the damage that they caused. The Zohar in volume 3 pg 158 and the Shela
Hakodesh in his pirush on Parshat Shelach, explain that the sin of the meraglim
stemmed from the fact that in the desert they were the tribal leaders of the
Jewish people. They understood that when the Jews entered the land, they would
no longer hold their previous leadership positions, and thus, the meraglim preferred
to remain in the desert in order to maintain their positions of power.
The Baal HaTanya
in Likuti Torah provides a different opinion and writes that the meraglim
wished to stay on the level of those who lived in the desert, the consumers of
manna, and an overall divine experience. Free from the need to worry about
their physical needs, they were able to engage in spiritual pursuits. The Holy
One, Blessed be He, saw to it that they had food as well as clean (and even
fresh) clothes. The meraglim thought that such would not be the case in the
Land of Israel; they sensed that life in Israel would not see manna falling
from Heaven - and that they would have to work in the fields to make a living.
Therefore, they reasoned, they would not be able to devote themselves to
spiritual pursuits. What would become of Torah?(Parshat Shelach 28:2)
This explanation of the Baal
HaTanya begs the question, how was this claim a sin? Their claim is seemingly
justified because living a natural life in the Land of Israel would make it
more difficult to stay on the spiritual levels that they enjoyed in the
dessert. Furthermore, the claim was not brought because of personal interests
but rather for the “sake of Heaven”?
The
Gemara in Mesechet Berachot 10a
seems to offer us the explanation for how the meraglim could sin even when it
was for the “sake of Heaven”. The Gemara recounts a story where the prophet Isaiah
goes to visit the ailing King Hezekiah.
Isaiah tells the King to “Instruct your household for you shall die;
and you shall not live” (Isaiah 38:1). The Gemara writes that the meaning
of “for you shall die; and you shall not live” is that the king will die
in this world, and not live in the world to come. The king questioned the prophet, “What have I
done that I deserve a punishment such as this?" Isaiah responded to him “because
you did not get married and have children”, negating completely a positive
commandment in the Torah. We know that King Hezekiah was a righteous man and he
must have had a good reason for this behavior. He answered Isaiah, “the reason
why I did not fulfill this commandment is because I saw with divine
inspiration, that if I would my son that came after me, he would be a wicked
king." Isaiah responds, “You have
no reason walking in the pathway of the Almighty.”
The essence of this above Gemara is
also the understanding of the sin of the meraglim. In the first chapter of the Mesilat Yesharim,Rabbi
Moshe Chaim Luzzato writes about Avodah Temeima, the pure unadulterated service of Hashem. The question could be
asked, is there any type of service of Hashem that is not pure? The above
Gemara tells us, yes there is. When a person wants to serve Hashem in the manner
that they deem fit, regardless of whether or not it contradicts what Hashem
deems fit, that is the definition of impure service of Hashem. This is the
reason why the second explanation of the sin of the meraglim is so tragic. To
quote Rav Nachman Kahana, "the meraglim were more deeply steeped in the
knowledge of Torah than any of the Torah giants in whose shadows we walk today,
and their spiritual level was far above any tzadik who we wish to emulate, and
yet they still fell prey to impure service of Hashem."
The truth is that the claims of the
meraglim were completely unfounded; they believed that the spiritual level of
the Jewish people would suffer when they entered the Land, but the exact
opposite is true. The Chesed LeAvraham writes in Nahar 21, Ein HaAretz, that
the physical fruits of the Land of Israel, have the same spiritual status of
the Manna. He explains that that is the reason why there was no manna in the
Land of Israel because “The fruits of Eretz Yisrael come from holiness, and the
spirituality that was fitting for the manna attached itself to these holy
fruits.”
Furthermore, the Chatam Sofer
writes,“In my humble opinion , Rav Yishmael (berachot 35b) only applies the
verse of “you shall gather your grain (Devarim 11:14) In the Land of Israel when
the majority of Israel dwells in the Land…the very act of tilling the Land
fulfills the Mitzvah of Settling the Land….It is like saying “I will not don
tefillin because I am studying Torah.” So too one must not say I will not
gather my grain because I am studying Torah. It is also possible that other
trades which involve social welfare are included in this Mitzvah.”( Chiddushei
Chatam Sofer, Sukkah 36a). This means that not only is it permissible to work
fields in the Land of Israel, it is in fact a Mitzvah!
The sin of the spies can be
simplified into very basic terms: they believed that they knew better than the
Creator of the world. They wanted to serve Hashem the way
that they deemed fit, not in the way
that He desired. May we merit fulfilling
what is read in Shemonah Esre every Shabbat “Purify our heart, to serve you in
truth.”
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