Numbers 13,2. “send out men for your own ‎satisfaction.” We have a rule that when an Israelite ‎arrives at a place where he serves the Lord, all the ”sparks” (that ‎had fallen to earth from the Shechinah on account of some ‎misdemeanour) that are scattered around him, feel ashamed in ‎the presence of such people. [The expression ‎ניצוצות‎, ‎sparks, occurs both as something material, though not tangible, ‎in the writings of Maimonides for instance, examples hilchot ‎Shabbat 28/25 and hilchot tefillin 4,18, whereas in ‎‎Yalkut Shimoni, i.e. midrashic exegesis, it occurs as more ‎esoteric, though not as applicable to purely spiritual beings as in ‎‎kabbalah. Up until this point, our author always used the ‎term for spiritual concepts such as “fallen angels.” At this point I ‎am not quite sure how to understand his reference to it. ‎Ed.] In the Talmud Shabbat 31 we read that G’d created the ‎universe only in order that His creatures be in awe of Him. ‎‎(opinion of Rabbi Yehudah) The scriptural “proof” for this ‎opinion quoted is Kohelet 3,14 ‎והאלוקים עשה שייראו מלפניו‎, ‎‎“and G’d has acted so that [man] should stand in awe of Him.” ‎Accordingly, it appears that the author understands the word ‎ניצוצות‎ here as negative forces that obstruct man in his quest to ‎fulfill the Creator’s commandments. When these negative forces ‎‎(commonly called Satan) observe how man goes out of his way to ‎fulfill G’d’s commandments, they become ashamed, and while in ‎that state man can easily overcome their feeble efforts to distract ‎him from serving G’d. (and, according to our author elevate these ‎negative forces to a higher spiritual level in the process of his ‎worshipping Gd.) There is, however, a limitation to the statement ‎expressed in the rule expressed at the beginning of our exegesis, ‎and this is that the rule that the person wishing to worship G’d ‎can overcome external obstacles is based on the premise that he ‎himself has freed himself of subjective, sensually influenced ‎considerations when setting out to perform one of G’d’s ‎commandments.‎ The choice of the words ‎שלח‎, at the beginning of our portion ‎is reminiscent of Genesis 37:32 where Onkelos translates the word ‎וישלחו‎, commonly translated as: “they sent,” as ‎ושלחו‎, “they ‎stripped” [Joseph of his striped coat, the personification of ‎his earthly aspirations. Ed.]

Another approach to our verse: The words: ‎שלח לך אנשים‎ ‎should be viewed in connection with Rashi’s commentary ‎on Joshua 2,4 where we are told that the innkeeper who resided ‎within the walls of Jericho welcomed Joshua’s spies and hid them. ‎On the word: ‎ותצפנו‎ commonly translated as “she hid them,” (but ‎literally meaning: “she hid him”) Rashi explains that the ‎reason why the text uses the word in the singular mode was that ‎Rahav, (the innkeeper) hid each spy separately so that if one were ‎to be discovered the other one would still be able to save himself. ‎Alternately, her reason –according to our sages- was that only ‎Caleb needed hiding as Joshua was able to make himself invisible. ‎When the sages speak about someone being able to make himself ‎invisible, they mean that he could strip himself of his physical ‎desires so that his body had become an ‎אין סוף‎, as if non-existent. ‎Or, expressed in terms of our explanation above, he could dispose ‎of the potential obstacles, ‎ניצוצות‎, to his serving G’d with all of his ‎spiritual potential. Accordingly, we have to assume that Calev ‎was not yet on that level.‎ It is a fact that the Canaanites whom the 12 spies of Moses ‎encountered were on such a low spiritual level that they could ‎not elevate themselves sufficiently to enter celestial regions even ‎in the presence of 12 such outstandingly good men as Moses had ‎chosen as the spies. As proof of this we need only look at ‎Deuteronomy 20,16 where the Torah commands the Israelites ‎about to conquer the Holy Land not to allow a single soul, ‎נשמה‎, ‎not merely ‎נפש‎, to remain alive. Keeping all this in mind, i.e. the ‎strength of these Canaanites, viewed as the spies’ potential ‎obstacles in fulfilling their mission, they had to strip themselves ‎completely of any residual earthly concerns if they were to have a ‎chance to fulfill their mission successfully. The fact that Rahav, ‎almost 40 years later had to “hide” Calev, is proof that he had not ‎succeeded completely in divesting himself of earthly concerns ‎when fulfilling G’d’s commandments. At any rate, we see that ‎‎Rashi already alludes to the absolute single-mindedness ‎necessary in order to serve our Creator optimally.‎

Another look at “send for yourself men to tour the land ‎of Canaan which I am about to give to the Children of ‎Israel.” Most commentators already focused on the ‎word ‎לך‎, “for yourself,” in this verse, finding it difficult to ‎understand ‎I believe that G’d’s principal purpose was that ‎Moses should use the most G’d fearing individuals from each tribe ‎to make up this delegation, men whose devotion and sincerity to ‎the highest principles of Judaism was beyond doubt. The word ‎לתור‎, usually translated as to “tour,” i.e. to examine visually, in ‎this instance was not intended as an instruction for these men to ‎examine the material benefits that the land of Canaan had to offer ‎the Jewish people. By dispatching truly G’d fearing men to tour ‎this land, G’d intended for this land to become attuned to the ‎presence of G’d fearing human beings, [seeing that since ‎the day Yaakov had left it there had not been anyone residing ‎there who was a servant of the Creator. Ed.] It was hoped ‎that after being visited by such individuals, the soil of the land of ‎Canaan itself would experience a desire to become the home of ‎the people who had sent such emissaries. The mere temporary ‎presence of these “tourists,” would encourage the response from ‎the celestial sources of G’d’s largesse to bestow it in generous ‎measure on this land, much as it had done while the patriarchs ‎had resided there. We may therefore understand the word ‎שלח‎ ‎in the sense of ‎המשכה‎, extension, continuation, similar to Exodus ‎where Pharaoh’s daughter whose arm was not long enough, ‎dispatched her servant maid to bring her the basket that ‎contained the infant Moses. One of the sages in Sotah 12 ‎discussing that verse understands the word ‎אמתה‎ as referring to ‎the princess’ arm and not to her maid servant.‎ We may extrapolate on this allegory somewhat further, ‎following our approach when dealing with true service of the ‎Lord, and understand Pharaoh’s daughter as “stripping herself” of ‎material physical concerns when setting out to save the life of ‎Jewish baby after seeing the basket had aroused maternal ‎instincts in her. Similarly, in our portion, when Moses dispatched ‎the twelve emissaries to examine the qualities of the land of ‎Israel, he charged them with divesting themselves, ‎שלח‎, of ‎material concerns when setting out on a mission approved by the ‎Lord Himself. (Numbers 13,1) The choice of the word ‎ויתורו‎, ‎instead of ‎וירגלו‎, “and to spy out,” or ‎ויחפרו‎, as in Deuteronomy ‎‎1,22 is an allusion to the word ‎תורה‎, and points to the difference ‎between what the people had demanded and what G’d had agreed ‎to.‎ To repeat, G’d’s i.e. Moses’ purpose in agreeing to the ‎people’s request to spy out the land of Canaan was to sublimate ‎what was a material quest into becoming a spiritual quest and to ‎thereby convert it into an act of worship. The word ‎לך‎, “for you,” ‎therefore simply means that Moses should select the kind of men ‎for this mission that best guaranteed that G’d’s criteria for ‎allowing it would be met. This is also the reason why G’d repeats ‎to Moses: ‎אשר אני נותן לבני ישראל‎, “that the land that I give to the ‎Children of Israel” in order to perform His commandments when ‎they are in that land, not for any other reason. The fact that this ‎land is a gift from G’d for a purpose must never be absent from ‎the minds of the men viewing the land for the first time. When ‎Moses prayed that Joshua should remain steadfast against any ‎attempt by his colleagues to abort the purpose of this mission by ‎adding a letter ‎ה‎ as a reminder of G’d’s name to his name, this is ‎what he had in mind. (Compare 13,16) He did not want him to ‎become a ‎מרגל‎, “spy.” The ‎תורה‎ element in this mission had to be ‎preserved for it to be crowned with success.‎

Another aspect of the opening line of our portion: ‎‎Rashi, commenting on the word ‎לך‎ explains it as short for ‎לדעתך‎, “in accordance with your opinion,” as opposed to “in ‎accordance with MY opinion.” G’d, while not opposing the ‎mission, did not specifically approve it. This is hard to understand ‎in light of the fact that the Torah describes the dispatch of the ‎spies as having occurred ‎על פי ה'‏‎, “at the command of ‎‎Hashem.” (13,3)‎ In the Talmud Shabbat 87, the point is made that there ‎were three instances in which Moses added to G’d’s instructions ‎without first obtaining G’d’s consent but that subsequently G’d ‎thanked Moses for having added these items arbitrarily. One is ‎that he divorced his wife, another that he smashed the first set of ‎the Tablets, the third one quoted there being the third ‎preparatory day before the revelation at Mount Sinai. [If ‎Moses’ addition was approved by G’d, why is it not listed as ‎another addition made by Moses and subsequently approved, ‎which would account for the words: ‎על פי ה'‏‎ in verse 3? ‎Ed.]‎ On folio 57 in Pessachim the Talmud relates a ‎conversation between the king [Agrippas II ? Ed.] ‎and his queen when the king and queen disagreed as to which ‎animal provides tastier meat, the king preferring a young kid, ‎whereas the queen preferred lamb. In order to settle their ‎disagreement they agreed to abide by the opinion of the High ‎Priest. The High Priest, in a quandary and forced to use ‎diplomacy, waved his hand, and said that if a kid were better, ‎surely it would be required as the animal to be used for the daily ‎communal sacrifices. The king, angry at the High Priest for ‎having waved his hand, a sign of disrespect for the king, ordered ‎his right hand to be cut off. [The Talmud continues with ‎this story. Ed.] Our author questions the relevance of this ‎story in the Talmud to the fate of this High Priest, which is ‎described in further detail there in the Talmud.‎ Our author also has a problem with the Talmud’s blanket ‎statement that the generation of the adult Israelites that ‎wandered through the desert after leaving Egypt have no share in ‎the world to come. (Sanhedrin 110) [There too this ‎statement is challenged and has to be qualified. Ed.] The ‎statement appears firmly founded on Numbers 14,35 ‎‏ זאת אעשה ‏לכל העדה הרעה הזאת הנועדים עלי, במדבר הזה יתמו ושם ימותו‎, “Thus I ‎will do to all that wicked community that banded together ‎against Me; in this very desert they will expire, and there they ‎will die “‎ We shall explain all this so that it will become clear. There are ‎times in the year when the Creator awakens in man feelings that ‎stir his desire to worship Him with a full heart. Such times have ‎been described in the Torah as ‎מועדים לשמחה חגים וזמנים לששון‎, ‎‎“festivals for rejoicing and assemblies and festivals for rallying the ‎seasons, etc.” (from the amidah prayer on every holiday.) ‎On those predetermined days G’d and His angels are in a joyous ‎frame of mind, and the joy that has communicated itself to His ‎angels results in a spillover of joyful inspiration for His people ‎who observe the rituals prescribed for these days. Having ‎experienced this psychological lift, the Jew on these holydays ‎finds it far easier to devote his attention both in prayer and in ‎gratitude to his Creator.‎ Moses’ intention when telling the people to prepare ‎themselves for the revelation at Mount Sinai for an extra day was ‎that they should use their own spiritual resources to generate the ‎right frame of mind to get the maximum spiritual benefit from ‎G’d’s manifesting Himself on Mount Sinai. Every Jew experiences ‎some degree of heavenly assist, as we have a tradition that a ‎heavenly voice calls to man every day asking him to return to G’d ‎through penitence. (Chagigah 15). If a person has ‎accumulated sufficient merits he hears this heavenly voice. When ‎a person has attained the level when he hears this voice but ‎ignores it, he forfeits his claim to life in the hereafter. The Jewish ‎people, collectively, were on an extremely high spiritual level ‎while in the desert, seeing that they hosted the Tabernacle, G’d’s ‎residence on earth, but they did not respond to this heavenly ‎assist to become penitents. ‎

When the Talmud in Sanhedrin 110 begins by stating ‎that the people of the generation who had left Egypt have no ‎share in the hereafter, the word ‎אין‎, normally translated as “not”, ‎means that these people considered themselves as totally ‎insignificant, devoid of ego; since this was so, the very fact that ‎they had acquired this level of humility qualified them for an ‎afterlife. The word ‎מדבר‎ used there in the Talmud, usually ‎translated as “desert,” is not used by the sages there in that sense, ‎but is derived from medaber,” they were only speaking,” i.e. ‎their worship of G’d expressed itself through their mouths, ‎prayer, praise and thanksgiving, and the word ‎יתמו‎ in the ‎quotation from Numbers 14,35 does not refer to their “expiring,” ‎but is derived from ‎תמים‎, “perfection,” the Torah testifying that ‎these people had, as a result of their grievous sin rejecting the ‎land of Israel as their future domicile, realized that they had ‎sinned and had accepted their fate without protest.‎ ‎ They had tried to perfect their personalities by refining their ‎speech so that no improper words should cross their lips. When ‎the Torah adds in Numbers 14,35 ‎שם ימותו‎, normally translated as ‎‎“there they will die,” [which would be a repetition of what ‎the Torah had already said, Ed.], the meaning is that they ‎had achieved while on earth what the average person achieves ‎only by reason of his soul leaving its body behind on earth. Moses ‎had hoped that the men he had chosen to explore the goodness ‎of the land of Canaan would approach their task in a spirit that ‎would place them beyond material considerations that are ‎commonplace on earth. G’d was aware of Moses’ lofty aspirations, ‎but did not feel that He should deprive Moses of the opportunity ‎to realize his high hopes for his people. When the Torah writes ‎that the mission proceeded ‎על פי ה'‏‎, this does not literally mean ‎‎“at the command of G’d,” but rather: “in the spirit of G’d.” It ‎would be quite wrong for us to give G’d part of the blame for the ‎failure of these men to live up to the trust Moses had placed in ‎them.‎ The author proceeds to remind us that the sages have said ‎that wherever the Torah associates the death of a person with the ‎word ‎שם‎, as in Numbers 14,35, this is an allusion that the person ‎or persons concerned died by means of a heavenly kiss, i.e. a kiss ‎from G’d. Rashi spells this out in connection with the death ‎of Miriam, reported in Numbers 20,1, ‎‏ שםwhere the Torah, having ‎already told us of the location where this took place, adds the ‎word ‎שם‎ twice. ‎[Rashi adds that the reason the Torah did not ‎make this clear beyond doubt by writing: ‎על פי ה'‏‎, “by the mouth ‎of G’d,” as we find when Moses died in Deuteronomy, 34,5, is ‎seeing that G’d is masculine, it would have given some ‎blasphemer an opportunity to read a sexual nuance into that.” ‎Ed.] At any rate, we are entitled to understand the ‎words ‎ושם ימותו‎ in Numbers 14,35 as promising each one of the ‎Israelites who had left Egypt as adults but did not get to the Holy ‎Land that they would be given a Divine “kiss” when their souls ‎would leave their bodies.‎ Whereas it is true that Moses had not had clear proof that ‎these men had already enjoyed a “heavenly” assist, as does every ‎Jew on the festivals we have discussed, he felt that they were of ‎the caliber that could generate this by their own efforts seeing ‎that the mission for which they had been selected was of such ‎significance.‎‎

When the Talmud in Shabbat 156 states that ‎אין מזל ‏לישראל‎, commonly translated as “the Jewish people’s fate is not ‎subject to the influences of zodiac constellations,” the true ‎meaning of the statement is that when a person considers himself ‎as insignificant to the point of ‎אין‎, as amounting to nothing, then ‎he does not need to worry about negative zodiac constellations ‎spelling trouble for him. According to our author the word ‎מזל‎ in ‎that context does not really refer to zodiac constellations, but is ‎derived from a root meaning ‎השפעה‎, G’d’s largesse, as we read in ‎Numbers 24,7 ‎יזל מים מדליו‎, “water may flow bountifully from its ‎buckets;” when a human being disregards the limitations imposed ‎upon him by nature, then G’d can bestow upon him unlimited ‎amounts of His largesse emanating in transcendental regions. On ‎the other hand, as long as he is “firmly rooted” in nature, seeing ‎in nature the bulk of his supply of sustenance, this limits G’d in ‎His ability to make available to him the bulk of His largesse. The ‎relationship between man’s receiving G’d’s largesse and his ‎depending on natural sources for his needs, is in direct ‎proportion to his reliance on the one or the other. If follows that ‎when a person is an atheist, he will not become the beneficiary of ‎any of G’d’s largesse. The reason is that such people consider ‎themselves as in command of nature rather than as recipients of ‎G’d’s generosity.‎ Seeing that we –the rgihteous- are not entitled to view ‎ourselves as ‎צדיקים‎, who may eschew the natural elements into ‎which we have been born, we must not be arrogant enough to ‎always wait for external divine stimuli such as we receive on our ‎festivals, but must rather endeavour to generate such spiritual ‎stimuli ourselves. This brings us back to the discussion in the Talmud as to ‎whether a kid tastes better than a lamb. The king who said that ‎the kid tastes better understood the word ‎גדיא‎, i.e. “kid,” as ‎related to the word ‎מזל‎, a word which, as we explained, alludes to ‎G’d’s largesse. Such largesse is earned when the human being ‎considers himself as “nothing,” i.e. denigrated his ego completely. ‎This state of ‎אין‎, “nothingness,” is the result of Divine influence ‎as a reward for one’s ultimate humility.‎ The queen who had said that ‎אימרא‎, sheep or lamb tastes ‎better, used a word derived from ‎אמר‎ alluding to speech, alluded ‎to worship of G’d in the commonly accepted way by mortal ‎human beings. She credited these people with having generated ‎their own spiritual elevation without having been “awakened” to ‎do so by a heavenly assist. When both the king and the queen in ‎the story agreed to let the High Priest become the arbiter of their ‎disagreement, and the High Priest raised his hands and waved ‎heavenwards, he meant to point to the source of heavenly ‎inspiration, and pointed out that such inspiration occurs rarely ‎and that therefore it is far better to rely on self-generated ‎inspiration. The moral lesson is that we must not be content to ‎wait for the advent of the festivals to be awakened into ‎worshipping our Creator.‎‎

Numbers 13,3. “Moses dispatched them from the ‎desert of Parana at the command of Hashem;” [note ‎that the Torah writes about this both in verse 3 and again in ‎verse 17, so that exegesis for this repetition is forced upon us. ‎Ed.] Moses and his generation, predominantly part of ‎the generation of the desert, are viewed as comparable to the ‎written Torah, whereas Joshua and the people entering the Holy ‎Land with him, are viewed as comparable to the oral Torah. This ‎is also what the Talmud in Baba batra 75 referred to when ‎the sages said that the face of Moses was comparable to the sun ‎whereas the face of Joshua was comparable to the moon. The oral ‎Torah is viewed as being the vessel which received input from the ‎written Torah, just as the moon receives its light which it then ‎reflects from the sun.‎ When the Torah writes here that Moses dispatched the 12 ‎men to “tour” the land of Canaan, this is an allusion to the ‎generation of the Israelites that were supposed to make their ‎home in the Holy Land, i.e. it was appropriate for these men to ‎reflect the oral Torah. Actually, seeing that, as we explained ‎repeatedly in connection with the ability of the righteous in each ‎generation being able to change G’d’s decrees, the “oral Torah” is ‎not quite the same in each generation, as the sages in each ‎generation have the power to add or change protective decrees ‎knows as ‎סיג לתורה‎ “a protective fence around Biblical decrees.” ‎This is also the reason why the Israelites who are perceived as ‎symbolic of the oral Torah count their months according to the ‎lunar calendar, the moon being symbolic of the oral Torah. ‎‎[I believe that the author wished to explain why the name ‎of Moses had to be mentioned again in this verse, seeing that he ‎had been addressed by G’d in the verse before and the subject had ‎not changed. Ed.]‎

Numbers 13,16. “Moses renamed Hoshea son of Nun, ‎Yehoshua.” Rashi comments on this verse that this ‎means that Moses prayed that G’d should protect him against ‎being swayed by the evil advice offered by the majority of the ‎men who were part of this mission.‎ This commentary is strange, as whence did Moses know ‎already that these men would turn out to be spies counseling ‎that the land was beyond their ability to conquer? Surely, if ‎Moses had been aware of the tragic outcome of this mission he ‎would never have allowed it to go forth? This is also why ‎‎Rashi says that at the time when this mission set out all the ‎members partaking in it were beyond suspicion of wanting it to ‎fail. If Rashi is correct, we must then ask what made Moses ‎pray for Joshua’s being protected against the “spies’” evil ‎influence?‎ It appears that the answer to the above questions is that G’d ‎had told Moses to send out men to “tour” the land of Canaan, ‎whereas in Deuteronomy 1,22 when the whole incident is recalled ‎by Moses he describes the intiative for this to have been the ‎people, who had, however, demanded that the mission be one of ‎spying, i.e. ‎ויחפרו את הארץ לנו את הארץ‎ “who will spy out the land ‎for us.” the Midrash Kohelet Rabbah 1,9 in relating to this ‎request states that just as a human being has 248 bones and 365 ‎tendons, so the earth is similarly made up of as many constituent ‎parts. [The text there only speaks about man and the ‎earth having certain organs in common. Ed.] It elaborates ‎by saying that just as the Torah speaks of ‎ערות הארץ, לב הארץ, ‏טבור הארץ, עין הארץ‎, “the nakedness of the earth, the heart of the ‎earth, the navel of the earth, an the eye of the earth, etc.; these ‎are only a few examples of the earth possessing parts which serve ‎it in a manner similar to the way that the bones and tendons ‎serve the human being. It follows that when the Israelites perform G’d’s ‎commandments on this land, that the land itself will develop a ‎fondness for this people. We are entitled therefore to view in the ‎expression ‎לתור את הארץ‎, Moses’ way of instructing these men to ‎establish a personal relationship with this land based on Torah ‎‎(‎תור‎) observance. By doing so the Jewish people would assume the ‎role of dispensing spiritual largesse of their own to this land. The ‎land, seeing that it had become a recipient of largesse from the ‎Jewish people would also become indebted to them. This explains ‎Moses’ command to the subterranean waters in the part of the ‎land of Canaan already captured by the Jewish people to give ‎forth its waters, i.e. Numbers 21,17 ‎אז ישיר ישראל את השירה הזאת ‏עלי באר ענו-לה באר חפרוה שרים‎, “then Israel sang this song: ‘spring ‎up O well-sing to it-, the well which the princes dug.’ The word ‎חפרוה‎ is derived from ‎חפר‎ “to dig,” and is completely analogous to ‎the expression ‎ויחפרו את הארץ‎ in Deuteronomy 1,22 where we can ‎then translate it “in order to dig for us in the land.” The wish ‎expressed by the Israelites when singing this song was meant to ‎convince the earth of the land of Canaan (in this instance the east ‎bank of the Jordan) that complying with Israel’s request was for ‎its own benefit.‎

Numbers 13,17. “ascend from here in the south and ‎climb the mountain from which you will be able judge the ‎nature of the land.” The rule is that when engaging in the ‎attempt to elevate “sparks”, i.e. spiritually fallen people, one ‎must first attach oneself firmly to G’d’s attribute of ‎חסד‎, loving ‎kindness. The location of that attribute traditionally is the south, ‎דרום‎, another word for ‎נגב‎, south, means ‎חסד‎, i.e. breaking the ‎hold of the evil urge over one’s various ‎תאוות‎, lust and cravings. ‎We have already explained this elsewhere in connection with ‎psalms 119,98 ‎מאויבי תחכימני מצותיך כי לעולם היא‎, “Your ‎commandments make me wiser than my enemies, they always ‎stand by me.” The “enemy” in this verse is the evil urge, Satan, a ‎force that G’d employs to test man’s ability to resist temptation. ‎Man’s basic error in relating to the satisfying of his cravings is ‎that he imagines that by indulging his cravings he attains true ‎satisfaction, well being without more cravings. He does not realize ‎that the only craving that will result in such satisfaction is his ‎desire to provide pleasure for his Creator. This is what the ‎psalmist means when he describes the fulfillment of his craving ‎for the service of the Lord as one that is enduring. This idea is also alluded to when Moses said to the men ‎‎“touring” the land of Canaan ‎ועליתם את ההר‎, “you will ascend the ‎Mountain,” the “mountain” being the evil urge. We have a statement in Sukkah 52 in which the evil ‎urge is referred to as ‎הר‎, “mountain.” The Talmud there refers to ‎the post-messianic era during which G’d is presented as ‎‎“slaughtering” the evil urge in the presence of both the righteous ‎and the wicked. The evil urge in that story appears to the ‎righteous as a mountain, whereas to the wicked he appears as a ‎thin hair. Both the righteous and the wicked weep when looking ‎at the evil urge. The wicked weep as they cannot believe that ‎they had been unable to overcome such a weak adversary, ‎whereas the righteous weep as in retrospect they marvel at ‎having conquered such a high mountain. According to the report ‎in the Talmud, G’d agrees with the wicked having reason to berate ‎themselves for failing to have conquered their cravings. The ‎righteous’ amazement was due to their realizing that they had ‎used the very efforts by Satan to indulge their material cravings ‎as a tool to serve the Lord with the kind of overpowering desire ‎that had enabled them to completely dehumanize, i.e. turning ‎the ego, ‎אני‎ into an ‎אין‎, a creature devoid of material desires, by ‎concentrating on the source from which all the divine souls ‎originate. There is an additional allusion to this subject when ‎Moses added that the “tourists” are also to evaluate the cities in ‎the land of Canaan i.e. ‎ומה הערים‎? In the words of the Talmud in ‎‎Pessachim 88, when discussing the difference between Moses ‎and Avraham, the Talmud distinguishes between an early stage in ‎serving the Lord, when to Avraham G’d appeared to have His ‎residence on top of the mountain, i.e. (Isaiah 2,3) whereas to ‎Yaakov He had already appeared as a “house-guest” (in the same ‎verse). Moses had attained a level where he could completely ‎divest himself of ego, as when he said of both himself and his ‎brother Aaron: ‎ונחנו מה‎, “what do we as personalities amount ‎to?,” making sure that he omitted the letter ‎א‎ in the wordאנחנו ‏‎, ‎when referring to himself and Aaron. (Exodus 16,7-8). When the ‎‎tzaddik is aware of all the three nuances in serving the Lord, ‎he will succeed in elevating the “sparks” together with him and as ‎a result subject Satan to a humbling experience.‎

Numbers 13,33 “we looked like grasshoppers in our ‎own eyes, and so we looked in their eyes.” Rashi ‎explains that they had heard the Canaanites say that their ‎vineyards had been invaded by “ants.” On the face of it, this ‎seems very difficult, seeing that according to our text they had ‎referred to them as grasshoppers. Apparently, we have to ‎understand this as follows: when the Israelites perform the will of ‎G’d this reflects favourably on their G’d and His kingdom. This is ‎also what Calev referred to when the Torah quotes him (13,30) as ‎ויהס כלב את העם עלה נעלה‎, usually translated as “Calev hushed the ‎people, saying: “we will most certainly be able to ascend, etc.” He ‎meant that if only they would acquire the necessary merits by ‎remaining on the same “wavelength” as G’d they would overcome ‎any apparent difficulties. Rashi had hinted that the “spies” ‎had been guilty of throwing off the yoke of the Torah, and that is ‎what he meant by his reference to “ants,” similar to what ‎Solomon had to say about the ants in Proverbs 6,6 when he urged ‎his people to learn a lesson from the ant which in spite of not ‎even having a ruler who forces them to act diligently still do so ‎due to their own intelligence. [grasshoppers are ‎destructive, living for the immediate satisfaction of their desires ‎without concern for the future, whereas the ants provide for the ‎winter when the grasshoppers will not find anything fit to eat. ‎Ed.]‎

An alternate explanation: According to Yalkut Shimoni ‎on this paragraph, Talmay, one of the leading citizens of Chevron, ‎asked Calev why they wanted to conquer this land seeing that G’d ‎had given it to the Canaanites and it would be violating the ‎commandment not to rob if they nonetheless conquered it, ‎seeing that the Canaanites had not warred with them? Our sages ‎already dealt with this problem, quoting the verse from Proverbs ‎we quoted in the last paragraph. They understood that Solomon ‎wanted to warn us not to collect matter belonging to others. Just ‎as the ants collect only what is not private property or viewed as ‎such, so the Israelites must take them as their model in this ‎respect. Talmay’s argument is flawed of course, and seeing that ‎the entire universe belongs to its Creator, the Creator can ‎dispossess any tenant whenever He sees fit to do so. [G’d had ‎already foretold Avraham in Genesis chapter 15 that the measure ‎of the Canaanites’ sins would not be full so that He could feel ‎justified in dispossessing them, until at least 4 generations after ‎He had promised Avraham their land to his descendants. (Genesis ‎‎15,16). Ed.]‎

Numbers 14,17. **“Hashem’s forbearance is long ‎lasting;”**when the Israelites committed the sin of the golden ‎calf, this was a sin of direct disobedience of the second of the Ten ‎Commandments, i.e. a sin that directly provoked G’d. In this ‎instance, the sin of the spies was a provocation of Israel’s image, ‎i.e. they did not believe that their fellow Jews had sufficient faith ‎in G’d to overturn the numerical and physical superiority of their ‎adversaries the Canaanites’, by the power of their prayers. This ‎attribute called ‎רחום‎, is G’d’s ability to attach Himself closely to ‎the “lower” parts of His universe, just as a rich man who displays ‎true empathy for the poor needs to share the poor man’s pain so ‎that he can truly have mercy on him. The two Divine attributes ‎of ‎רחום וחנון‎ are therefore practically inseparable, as the latter ‎implies that the victim in need of this attribute has found grace ‎in G’d’s eyes. Seeing that the spies underestimated the Jewish ‎people’s faith in G’d, Moses omitted coupling the attribute the ‎two attributes of ‎רחום וחנון‎ but appealed only to ‎ארך אפים‎, G’d’s ‎attribute of forbearance.

‎14,20. “Hashem said: ‘I have forgiven according ‎to your word.’” In his commentary on this verse Rashi ‎amends the word ‎דברך‎, “your word” (singular), to ‎דבריך‎ “your ‎words.” He does so, in order that we understand that Moses’ ‎‎“word” which G’d referred to would be understood clearly as the ‎‎“words” ‎מבלתי יכולת ה'‏‎, “that G’d had killed His people because he ‎was not able to make good on His promise to dispossess the ‎Canaanites in their favour,” and surely G’d would not wish to ‎create such an impression. At first glance we do not see what ‎Rashi’s commentary added to the understanding of this verse.‎ I believe that what Rashi had in mind was that the ‎principal concern in Moses’ prayer at this time was to avoid that ‎the Israelites’ sin would result in a public desecration of G’d’s ‎name, i.e. the impression being created that G’d was not ‎omnipotent. Moses specifically pointed to the reaction the ‎destruction of the Jewish people would cause in Egypt, the ‎Egyptians being able to point out that the Israelites had been far ‎better off while they had been slaving for them before their ‎Exodus. Surely this is a very weak argument seeing that G’d is ‎able to mislead human beings in the conclusions they draw when ‎observing certain events. ‎[There comes to mind an example cited by the Torah ‎itself in Exodus 14,2 when G’d commanded the Israelites to ‎encamp at ‎פי החירות‎ for the express purpose of making the ‎Egyptians think that they had lost their way. Ed.] Seeing ‎that G’d is free to do this, Moses’ argument appears to be very ‎feeble.‎ We must however remember that the mere words uttered by ‎G’d make an indelible impression. [The author quotes Job ‎‎22,28 “You will decree and it will be fulfilled” in support of this. ‎Ed.] It would follow from the above that the mere ‎mention of the possibility of an act by G’d that would result in ‎His name being desecrated worldwide, would undermine a ‎subsequent reversal when the decree is not carried out.‎

...Our sages, quoted in a Tossaphot Baba Batra 119, claim ‎that the individual gathering firewood on the Sabbath and ‎subsequently executed for having violated the Sabbath (Numbers ‎‎15,32-36) had committed his sin with a noble motive, i.e. to ‎demonstrate the Torah’s warning of the penalty dealt out to the ‎deliberate transgressor is not an empty threat. He did not want ‎his peers to think that seeing that they would not enter the Holy ‎Land anyways that the Torah laws no longer applied to them.‎ The whole episode of the Israelite gathering firewood is ‎puzzling even without this especial motivation that he ‎supposedly had for this. We have a general rule that when a ‎major violation of the Sabbath is performed without the ‎intention being that this act is the one intended, i.e. that it had ‎been used for when building the Tabernacle (‎מלאכה שאינו צריכה‎ ‎לגופה‎), the act is not punishable by death. Seeing that this is so ‎the execution of this individual appears highly questionable, as ‎what he did was not the classic desecration of the Sabbath. We ‎must therefore conclude that his execution was a signal to the ‎other Israelites not to consider Torah laws as no longer binding ‎for the adults who would not enter the Holy Land.‎

Numbers 14,21. “nevertheless, as I live and as the ‎Lord’s Presence fills the whole world, etc.” The ‎opening words of the verse following the above, i.e. ‎כי כל האנשים‎, ‎‎“for all the men, etc.,” certainly seem to be inaccurate, besides ‎what does this have to do with G’d’s glory filling the universe? It ‎almost sounds as if the people who were going to die in the desert ‎would thereby become the instrument of demonstrating G’d’s ‎glory? Numbers 14,21. “nevertheless, as I live and as the ‎Lord’s Presence fills the whole world, etc.” The ‎opening words of the verse following the above, i.e. ‎כי כל האנשים‎, ‎‎“for all the men, etc.,” certainly seem to be inaccurate, besides ‎what does this have to do with G’d’s glory filling the universe? It ‎almost sounds as if the people who were going to die in the desert ‎would thereby become the instrument of demonstrating G’d’s ‎glory? In order to understand verses 21-23, we need to ‎preface our remarks with a well known fact about the subject of ‎man’s free choice, i.e. having the choice of obeying the Creator or ‎not. G’d has equipped each one of us with the power to overcome ‎the temptation to do evil and to instead choose to do good and ‎thereby to assure ourselves of life. We must always remember ‎that were it not for the evil urge which constantly lies in wait to ‎deceive us about our true interests, the fact that a human being ‎serves the Creator would not arouse the slightest attention, as it ‎is something that would be taken for granted. Also, as far as G’d is ‎concerned, if man did not have an urge to do evil, how could G’d ‎experience joy and satisfaction that he had not chosen to do so ‎but serves Him instead? A slave-owner does not derive special ‎pleasure when the slave performs his duties satisfactorily, ‎whereas the father whose son does his bidding without ‎questioning it, causes his father joy precisely because he had the ‎option to refuse to carry out his father’s bidding. We know from ‎experience that many children have friends and companions who ‎try to convince them to disobey their parents. In spite of ‎this, a clever son disregards the temptation to disobey his father’s ‎wishes and instead goes out of his way to comply with his father’s ‎wishes, as he realizes that by so doing he is adding joy to his ‎father’s life as his father has reason to be proud of him. ‎Something very similar occurs in our relations with our Creator, ‎Who has told us specifically that He considers us, the Jewish ‎people, as His children. (Deut. 14,1) His joy is reinforced as he ‎realizes that by having given us free choice of how we arrange our ‎lives His glory throughout the universe is enhanced. ‎‎

This is the true meaning of what the Mishnah in ‎‎Avot 6,11 tells us when the author states that everything ‎the Lord has created has as its objective the enhancing of His ‎glory. Maimonides in the Moreh Nevuchim when explaining ‎the line in our prayers about G’d being ‎יוצר אור ובורא חושך‎, ‎‎“fashioning light, while having created the element of darkness,” ‎explains the word ‎ברא‎, as related to the word ‎בור‎, as in Genesis ‎‎37,24 ‎והבור רק אין בו מים‎, “the pit was empty and did not contain ‎any water;” in other words, by withdrawing light there remains ‎darkness. This “darkness” would be what is left from the original ‎chaos, ‎תהו ובוהו‎, of which the Torah speaks in the first verse of ‎Genesis prior to G’d creating light. In spite of this ‎commentary by Maimonides, what the Mishnah meant refers ‎only to the creatures. i.e. man, to whom G’d had given ‎בחירה‎, the ‎ability to make their own decisions as to whether they would live ‎their lives in accordance with the wishes of the Creator or not. ‎When man rises above the temptations offered in this world and ‎chooses to serve his Creator this adds to G’d’s glory. We know that by carrying out G’d’s will as expressed by the ‎commandments He gave us in the Torah, we establish a “lifeline” ‎to Him, and as the Talmud says in B’rachot 18, the ‎righteous are considered as “great,” because they are called ‎‎“alive” even after their bodies have already been interred. The ‎same is not true for the wicked, who our sages describe as “dead” ‎even while still walking around on earth. The wicked, by choosing ‎a path which eventually results in their forfeiting their afterlife, ‎have already identified themselves with “death,” even while ‎onlookers do not yet realize this. [We hardly need any ‎proof for his after reminding ourselves that Esau declined the ‎benefits of birthright for precisely this consideration (Genesis ‎‎25,32). Ed.]‎

These considerations also help us understand why Moses ‎when confronted with the rebellion of Korach, Datan and Aviram ‎and their fellow travelers, prayed that the death, i.e. punishment ‎of the guilty in that rebellion should not be death from natural ‎causes, but through a creative act of G’d, so that it would be clear ‎to everyone for what sin these people were being punished. ‎‎(Numbers 16,29) It should be clear to the onlookers that the fact ‎that these people descended beneath the earth while still ‎breathing, that their souls would not have had time to return to ‎heaven before being absorbed in the bowels of the earth.‎ We need to understand why only this type of death could ‎bring home to the people the message that they lost their ‎afterlife. On the face of it, what was so objectionable in Korach’s ‎wanting to perform the same commandments as the ones only ‎allowed for Aaron to perform? Did he not thereby ally himself ‎with tzaddikim, i.e. with the forces of “life?”‎ According to our sages, Korach’s challenge to Moses had been ‎based on the facetious question if a tallit, made entirely of ‎blue wool would still require tzitzit, fringes, one of each ‎strands was blue. Korach used Moses’ ruling that even such a ‎garment required tzitzit as “proof” that he must have made ‎up this halachah as it contradicted logic, and G’d would not ‎demand something illogical from His people.‎ The fact is that Korach’s whole orientation in claiming ‎entitlement to be equal to the priests was not based on his ‎wishing to come closer to G’d by performing such tasks, but he ‎wishes to drape himself in a tallit that did not belong to ‎him. He thereby would be performing a “commandment” ‎through first having committed a transgression, i.e. having ‎stolen, misappropriated something belonging to someone else, ‎since Aaron had been specifically appointed by G’d for this task. ‎He would have had to countermand G’d’s orders before being able ‎to perform this mitzvah, something that is forbidden, ‎inadmissible. In other words, Korach wished to simultaneously ‎anchor himself in life and in death. It was fitting therefore that he ‎took the “life” as he had understood it, to his death with him, ‎descending to the bowels of the earth while still alive. When the ‎Torah not only writes: ‎וירדו חיים שאולה‎, “they descended to the ‎nether regions while still alive,” but adds: ‎ותכס עליהם הארץ ויאבדו ‏מתוך הקהל‎, “the earth completely covered them and they became ‎permanently lost to the community,” this is the Torah’s way of ‎informing us that these people do not enjoy an afterlife.‎

Numbers 15,41. “I am the Lord your G’d who has taken ‎you out of Egypt in order to be your G’d; I am the Lord your ‎G’d.” Why did the Torah have to repeat the words:‎אני ה' ‏אלוקיכם‎? We have a rule that whatever man does or even only ‎thinks, finds an echo in the celestial spheres and that therefore ‎we must at all times remember this before we think certain ‎thoughts or perform certain acts. By repeating the last three ‎words in what has become the final paragraph of the k’riyat ‎sh’ma, the prayer incorporating our accepting the yoke of the ‎Torah, the Torah states that if we keep constantly aware that we ‎are under constant Divine supervision, this is the greatest ‎safeguard against our deviating from the right path.‎