סוס מוכן ליום מלחמה ולה' התשועה, ”the horse is prepared for the day of battle; but victory comes from G’d” (Proverbs 21,31).

In this verse Solomon warns everybody to do whatever is in his power by using natural means to achieve his success (in a military encounter when such is unavoidable). Beyond that he must leave things to G’d. A miracle occurs only when all the natural means have been exhausted and have proven to be inadequate to produce the desired result. Man was created in such a way that he can cope with most problems by using natural means. If one plans to secure victory over an adversary in a confrontation one must strive to equip oneself with the amount of weapons and the quality of weapons needed to give one an advantage. In other words, in the days of Solomon one needed horses and chariots. If one left everything to heaven one will find that heaven does not intervene on one’s behalf. If someone is sick and one prays for him to be healed such a prayer is useless unless one has first taken the measures known to help the patient to get well, such as giving him the type of food he needs, Only after one has taken all the measures known to medical science which are capable of curing such a patient does one ask heaven to do its part in curing the sick person at hand. This is the deeper meaning of Psalms 147,3 הרופא לשבורי לב ומחבש לעצבותם, “He heals their broken hearts, and binds up their wounds.” It is also written in verse 10 of that same psalm that “He does not prize the strength of horses, nor value the fleetness of men.” We have a third verse (Psalms 33,17) in which David expressly ridicules those who place their trust in their horses by saying: “horses are a false hope for deliverance, for all their great power they provide no escape.” When we reflect on all these verses we can understand why G’d agreed to the dispatch of the spies in spite of the fact that He Himself would deal the mortal blows to the Canaanites. The Israelites were right in doing what is humanly possible to gird themselves for war against the Canaanites including spying out how best to invade the land of Canaan at minimum risk. Setting ambushes, sending undercover agents, etc., are all legitimate ways for preparing an invasion and maximising the chances of success. Once all these steps had been taken G’d would add whatever measure of supernatural assistance was needed to ensure success. The Torah does not make the performance of miracles the cornerstone of its dealings with mankind or the Jewish people. Miracles are exceptions, not norms. This is why G’d had commanded Noach to build an Ark (Genesis 6,15) although G’d could have let all the people whom He wanted to save walk on water or save them in some other miraculous fashion. All the detailed instructions of what material to use for the Ark, how long and how high it was to be, etc., etc., are proof that G’d wanted Noach to do everything humanly possible to make his salvation appear compatible with natural law. Nonetheless, in spite of man’s best efforts, this most likely would not have been enough for all the inmates of the Ark to endure a whole year inside it without divine input, i.e. some form of miracle. This is what Solomon spoke of when he said that the horse should be prepared. When David asks the Urim and Tumim concerning whether he should attack the Philistines in the valley of Refaim (Samuel II 5,23), G’d told him not to mount a frontal attack but to wait until he would hear the sound of the leaves of the baca trees rustle before taking any action. At that time he was to go into action as G’d would march ahead of him attacking the Philistines. In other words, when David consulted G’d by supernatural means, the response was to proceed as far as posible according to natural means. His victory was supposed to be viewed by the other nations as a natural event. When G’d commanded Joshua to lay an ambush before mounting a renewed attack on the town of Ai, (Joshua 8,2), He also wanted the conquest to proceed along the laws of natural law (not like making the walls of Jericho collapse from the sound of the blasts of the shofar). This then is the reason that the Torah wrote that G’d had commanded Moses to dispatch the spies as we read in this portion.

שלח לך אנשים ויתורו, “send out men on your behalf who shall tour, etc.” The Torah implies that seeing the people had asked that spies be sent as we know from Deut. 1,22: “let us send men ahead to reconnoiter the land,” G’d then said to Moses: “send out men for yourself, etc.” The men were to find out the best routes, which city to attack first, etc.

Rashi explains the words שלח לך, as “in accordance with your judgment.” G’d meant: “I am not commanding you to do this, but I leave it up to you.” What Rashi means is that although the dispatch of the spies took place at G’d’s “instructions,” על פי ה', the commandment did not originate in G’d’s mind but was an accomodation to a desire uttered by the people. It is similar to Deut. 17,15 where the Torah commands שום תשים עליך מלך, “you shall surely appoint a king over you,” and proceeds to describe who is suitable to be king. The Torah, i.e. G’d, was not enthused about the idea of governing the Jewish people by a king of flesh and blood, but concurred knowing there would be political pressure to have such a king, and the alternative would probably be worse. We have the testimony of the prophet Hoseah 13,11 that appointing a king for the Jewish people was something that took place against G’d’s will and that the cessation of the Davidic dynasty when the first Temple was destroyed was also a display of G’d’s anger.

Other commentators understand the word לך as meaning לתועלתך, “for your benefit.” It means something similar to when Moses was told to make himself the trumpets where the word לך, “for your benefit” is also mentioned. A similar word לך is used in connection with עשה לך ארון עץ, “make for yourself an Ark of wood.” According to that view the specific advantage that was to accrue to Moses from all these examples was that Moses would live long enough for all these things to be completed. Had it not been for the sin of the spies and what ensued afterwards, the Israelites would have entered the land of Canaan almost 38 years sooner after which Moses could have died seeing that G’d had hinted to him already in Exodus 6,1 long before he had failed to speak to the rock, that: “now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh,” implying that Moses would not live to see what G’d would do to the 31 kings of the land of Canaan. At the time this had been G’d’s reaction to Moses having said that things had got worse for the Jewish people after his appointment instead of better.

The reason there were 12 spies although we note that later on in Joshua’s time two spies were enough and even these spies were sent in secret (Joshua 2,1) as were two spies when Moses sent them to spy out Yazer, is that G’d wanted that there should be a national consensus on the subject of the conquest of the land of Canaan. It was necessary therefore to have every tribe represented in that first spy mission. If they would fail, all the people would bear an equal share of the responsibility and the penalty.

A Midrashic approach based on Tanchuma Shelach 1: the spies whom Moses sent out were fools. The spies whom Joshua dispatched were righteous people. We know this from Joshua 2,1 where we read: “Joshua sent out from Shittim two spies secretly to say, etc.” What is the meaning of the word חרש, generally understood to mean “deaf,” i.e. something no one heard about?” Those two men pretended to be potters offering their wares cheres, earthenware, for sale, calling for people to come and buy from them. They did all this in order not to arouse suspicion that they had come to spy. The two men in question were Pinchas and Calev. When they came to the house of Rachav the innkeeper and wanted to stay the night the King of Jericho somehow heard about these men and presumed them to be spies. Rachav tried to hide them. Pinchas told her that seeing he was a priest he possessed some faculties similar to those of angels and could make himself invisible. He also claimed to have prophetic stature, which meant that if he wanted to he could become invisible. Although Rachav took both men up to the roof of her house she hid only one of them amongst the flax stalks put out there to dry seeing that Pinchas had made himself invisible. All this is based on the words ותצפנם, “she hid them,” followed by ותצפנו, “she hid him,” in Joshua 2,6. First the Book described Rachav as hiding two people, then as hiding one person. This one person was Calev. The twelve spies whom Moses had sent out were foolish by comparison. We know this because Solomon taught us that he who is מוציא דבה, engages in slander, is a fool (Proverbs 10,18). Thus far the Midrash. The Midrash means that these men who were righteous at the time Moses selected them managed to ruin their reputations, their future, no longer qualifying for the flattering description in Numbers 13,3 כלם אנשים, “all of them men of outstanding character.” When Channah (wife of Elkanah) prayed that G’d grant her a male child she begged for זרע אנשים, “seed who would grow into a worthwhile personality.” She used the word אנשים intentionally to describe the hopes she had for such a baby boy if and when G’d would grant him to her (Judges 2,1). Instead these 12 “men” aborted their mission, caused ruin to themselves and to a whole generation of Israelites; in his parting address to the Jewish people Moses described that whole generation as דור תהפוכות המה, “a generation that reversed itself, children who possess no loyalty” (Deut. 32,20). We learn from the whole passage how even a group of righteous men can turn into wicked people. This is what Solomon meant when he said that “he who engages in slander is foolish,” i.e. as soon as he engages in slander he becomes a fool.

למטה יוסף למטה מנשה, “from the tribe of Joseph, i.e. from the tribe of Menashe.” Above (v. 8) the Torah mentioned the tribe of Ephrayim, seeing he was the more important one. The reason that Joseph’s name was mentioned here, as he too was guilty of slander, when he told his father about the activities of his brothers (Genesis 37:2), and therefore the Torah mentioned him with Menashe, as Gadi ben Sodi (the spy representing Menashe) had been one of those guilty of spreading slander, whereas (Joshua, the spy representing) Ephrayim was innocent. The reason Joshua and Calev are not mentioned successively, so that Calev be “surrounded” by the names of spies, since he spoke as if he was with them (when his heart was not with them). It is not the case for Joshua, therefore he was mentioned separately, as he was not implicated with the rest.

אלה שמות האנשים, “These are the names of the men, etc.” Why did the Torah repeat the introduction “the names,” seeing it had already written the words: “and these are their names” in verse 4? The reason is to tell us that all the other spies did not have their names changed since birth. Only Joshua had his name changed.

ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יחושע “Moses called (renamed) Hoshea son of Nun “Joshua.” Our sages in Sotah 34 comment that Moses added the latter י to Hoshea’s name so that the letters י-ה at the beginning of his name represented a prayer that he should be saved from making common cause with the majority of the spies. Moses foresaw in his Holy Spirit that when the spies would return they would slander the land of Israel. Another reason cited (Tanchuma Shelach 6) for Moses adding the letter י to Hoshea’s name is that Joshua and Calev who remained loyal to G’d received their reward in the Holy Land. Calev was given the city of Chevron as we know from Judges 1,20: “they gave Calev Chevron.” Joshua received the reward which would have been in store for the ten spies who perished because of the slander they spread (Numbers 14,37), a verse which is immediately followed by “and Joshua son of Nun and Calev son of Yefuneh remained alive from among the men who had gone to explore the land.” The verse contrasts what happened to the slanderers and what happened to the loyalists. The addition of the letter י suggests that Joshua inherited the share of the other ten men.

It appears from that Midrash that Joshua’s name prior to his joining the spies had been Hoshea. If so, we are entitled to ask why the Torah introduced this man already with the name Joshua in Exodus 17,9, Exodus 33,11 as well as in Exodus 24,13 and in Numbers 11,28? It may be that when the Torah was written and Joshua had already had the letter י added to his name the Torah did not want to call him by his former name as a compliment to Moses. If, in this instance, the Torah does mention that his name had not always been Joshua this was to tell us that it had been Moses who had changed his name for the sake of this mission, but that in principle his name had been Hoshea even where the Torah spells it as Joshua. We find something similar with Moses’ own name, a name given to him by the daughter of Pharaoh. G’d decided to always call Moses by this name as a compliment to her seeing she had converted to Judaism.

עלו זה בנגב, “ascend here in the south.” According to the Zohar Shelach 160, Moses gave them his staff to act as protection for them. This is based on a [somewhat tenuous Ed.] comparison between the words ואת המטה הזה, in Exodus 4,17 and the words עלו זה in our verse.

According to the commentators Moses revealed the secret of the 12-lettered name of G’d to the spies, the word זה having a numerical value of 12 and being a reminder of when G’d had said to Moses: זה שמי לעולם, “My name is זה forever” (Exodus 3,15). All of this was to help them maintain unity and to protect them against the giants in the land.

ויבא עד חברון, “He arrived at Chevron.” The Torah wrote this in the singular as only Calev went to Chevron where he prostrated himself at the site of the graves of the patriarchs. He engaged in prayer seeking to fortify himself against the advice of his colleagues. Joshua had already been saved from being influenced by the ten spies seeing he had become the recipient of a special blessing from Moses who had told him:, י-ה יושיעך מעצת מרגלים,“may the Lord save you from the advice of the spies.”

I have seen a comment in a Midrash (Zohar) that the words “he arrived at Chevron,” should be understood as “He arrived at Chevron,” i.e. G’d arrived at Chevron. He went there to inform the patriarchs that the time had come for their descendants to take possession of the land He had promised them.

וחברון שבע שנים נבנתה לפני צוען מצרים, “and Chevron had been built seven years prior to Tzoan of Egypt.” According to the plain meaning of the text the Torah merely informs us that Chevron was historically older that the kingdom of Tzoan (Egypt).

A Midrashic approach based on Sotah 34: Chevron was seven times more fertile than Tzoan in Egypt. The Torah wants to contrast the fertility of Chevron which was the worst agricultural land in Canaan, full of rocks, with Tzoan, generally presumed to be the most fertile part of Egypt which the Torah had described as ”like a garden of the Lord” in Genesis 13,10. The entire verse was meant to describe the excellence of the land of Canaan.

וישאוהו במוט בשנים, “they carried it (the cluster of grapes) on a double pole.” The word בשנים is understood to refer to two poles. Eight men were needed to carry the cluster of grapes between them, one carried a pomegranate, one carried a fig; Joshua and Calev did not carry anything. The reason that they did not carry any fruit was that the other spies wanted to use the fruit as an illustration of how different the land of Canaan was from any other country. They planned to argue that just as its produce is different from any other country so its inhabitants are different from people in any other country. They wanted to show that whereas it took eight of them to carry a cluster of grapes, a local inhabitant carried such a cluster by himself. According to Rashi, if we want to get some idea of the weight carried by these spies, look at the stones the Israelites lifted as memorial stones from the river Jordan which, according to our sages, weighed 40 sa-ah each. (33,000 ccm). We are also told that the weight a person can carry when he lifts the load up himself is only a third of what he can carry when others lift the load unto his shoulder. All of this teaches that the weight of the cluster of grapes was extraordinary!

There is a Midrashic approach in the Zohar we already mentioned that the words וישאוהו בשנים במוט, refer to Joshua and Calev. A grape, while still attached to the soil is called זמורה, whereas when it has been cut it is called מוט. The Torah wants to tell us that whereas all the other spies combined were unable to lift this cluster of grapes after it had ben cut, Joshua and Calev managed to lift it and to carry it between them. This feat served as a hint to them that they would be chosen to enter the Holy Land and to receive their inheritance in that land.

וישיבו אותם דבר, “they brought back word to them.” They did not first go to their respective tents upon their return after a forty day absence, but went immediately to the centre of the camp to make their slanderous report. The slander consisted of the words ארץ אוכלת יושביה, “it is a land which consumes its inhabitants” (verse 32). Our sages in Sotah 35 explain that this impression the spies formed was due to G’d at that time having brought a pestilence on the Canaanites so that they would be busy burying their dead and not pay attention to the 12 men who were spying out their country. The very miracles which had been performed on their behalf became the cause of these spies slandering the country. They caused the Israelites to become afraid of the Amalekites whom they reported seeing in the southern part of the country (verse 29). They hinted that there was no way of entering the land from the south as these people were all physically far stronger than the Israelites. Seeing that the powerful Canaanite people occupied the east and the west, this would also not be a good place to start the conquest. The Emorite in the mountain was certainly another reason for not attempting the invasion from that direction. They succeeded in frightening the people hinting that even Moses and Aaron were afraid and that is why they had agreed to their mission. Calev silenced the people by pretending that he shared the views of the other spies before he had his say when he told them עלה נעלה וירשנו אותה, “we can certainly ascend and dispossess these people” (verse 30). He argued that if these people are strong then we are stronger than they. As soon as Calev made his statement the spies exclaimed that there was no chance to ascend as these people “are stronger than we.” This was something that they had not dared spell out previously when they had contented themselves with such hints as “the Amalekite is in the South,” etc. When they said in verse 31 “we cannot go up against these people,” instead of saying: “we cannot go into the cities,” this was a deliberate exaggeration. They meant that they would not even be able to prevail against these people if they left their fortified towns and came out to fight. The reason they used the term עליה in connection with conquest, a most unusual word for that purpose, is that they referred to a military encounter in an open field. The word occurs in this context in reports of pitched battles in the field (Nachmanides). Having first undermined the people’s self confidence by hints and allusions, they proceeded to frighten them further by such statements as that the land (even if conquered) would consume its people (verse 32). Seeing that they had already referred to the inhabitants of that land as being powerful, they then said that these people were more powerful than G’d, i.e. the alternate meaning of the words כי חזק הוא ממנו, “it is more powerful than He.” They implied that the owner of the land would be unable to remove his property from there. They further frightened the people when they reported having seen the nefilim, people whom they had previously described as בני הענקים, “descendants of the giants.” When they now referred to these same people as נפילים, a word related to נופל, “falling,” they implied that at the very sight of these people the onlooker would fall down in sheer fright of them. They implied that these people were the same as the ones described in Genesis 6,4 and variously described as בני האלוהים, “the sons of G’d,” or “fallen angels,” at any rate super-human creatures with great power. As one may faint when beholding an angel, the sight of them would inspire shock and weakness in the beholder. Later they appeared to tone down their description by merely calling these people ענקים, “giants.” In fact, this was a play on words suggesting that the sight of these people inspired fear at the very sight of their height. The word reflects the awe that someone feels when he sees a very high tower. They referred to their experience of being allowed to view such giants with their own eyes. They implied that former generations such as the antediluvian people were of course familiar with such phenomena and were not overawed, whereas the present generation which was physically so inferior could not behold such phenomena without becoming frightened of them. Due to the changed conditions on earth after the deluge, the remnants of these people were actually referred to by Moses as רפאים i.e. the “weakened ones” (giants). Deut. 3,11 describes examples being such giants as Og, King of Bashan. (Compare Tanchuma Chukat 25, and Sotah 34). Most of them had been killed by Amrafel, (Genesis 14,13), Og being the exception. The Talmud describes stunted giants of the caliber of Og as comparable to unripe olives which never attain their growth potential (Baba Batra 17). The reason Og had been saved from the deluge was for the sake of Avraham as well as for the sake of the Jewish people. It was Og who had told Avraham that his nephew Lot had been captured (Niddah 61), and at the time when he opposed the request of the Jewish people to traverse his land and attacked them (Numbers 21,33) he thereby provided the people with the excuse to conquer his territory and to annex it. G’d meant for this piece of land to be populated by morally superior people like the Israelites. This people who had so recently experienced miracles upon miracles at the hand of G’d on their behalf, had forgotten them or they had receded so far into their subconscious that they were once more קטני אמונה, lacking in faith, and even feared the Amalekites whom they had already defeated on the battlefield less than 2 years previously. (Exodus 17,13). Not only that, but they wished themselves to have died in Egypt rather than to have experienced the revelation of G’d at Mount Sinai, etc., when they exclaimed: “wish we had died in Egypt or the desert” (14,3). They actually accused G’d of having redeemed them from Egypt only to let them perish at this time. They preferred returning to slavery in Egypt to their present situation! At this point Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces in a profound feeling of shame that the people had so disgraced themselves that they had become guilty of publicly desecrating the name of the Lord. They could not believe that all the people had accepted the version of the ten spies. Concerning this event Solomon said in Proverbs 26,6: “he who sends a message by a fool, cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.” He meant that if someone pulls back his feet excessively (in the effort to avoid having to go to work), he will reap violence.” The effect will be conterproductive. Similarly, here; Joshua and Calev, who in a psychologically futile effort, tried to calm the people by telling them that with the help of the Lord the land would be conquered, produced the opposite effect so that G’d had to rescue them from the wrath of the people who were about to stone them to death. Their vain attempt, though well-intentioned, resulted only in the people becoming guilty even of attempted murder in addition to their other sins.