Parashat Shelah Lekha relates the story of the twelve tribal representatives that Moses sent to scout the land of Canaan, and gather vital information about the land and the possibility of conquering it.

The men set out on a forty-day journey, and when they return to the people in the desert, ten of the twelve bear disheartening news. It is, indeed, a good land, they report, but traveling through it was terrifying.  The land is fraught with danger, its inhabitants are giants, its cities are fortified, and its conquest would be impossible.

The listeners rend their garments, cry and grieve over the promise of a land that seems ever more remote. Only two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, express the belief that, with God’s help, the land can be captured. They are a visible minority, and in bitter despair, the people, ask to return to Egypt. In His anger, God chooses to annihilate the nation, Moses placates Him, but God decrees that the generation will not live to enter the land. They will die in the desert. They will wander for forty years, one year for every day of the spies’ journey, until the entire generation will perish naturally. Only their children will live to inherit the land.

The story is one of despair, fear and anguish.

What do we think of this crooked, perverse generation that roams and wanders, complaining through this terrible desert, following a hard, visionary leader, a promise of a land they have never visited, and led by an unseen God?  The sages of the Talmud are divided between those who argue that the members of the wilderness generation will merit no part in the world to come and those who forgivingly defend them, asking that they be included in the ideal hereafter.
Of all Jewish books, the Zohar is the most generous in regard to the wilderness generation. The authors of the Zohar, whose mystical desire was to approach and directly experience Divinity, viewed the wilderness generation as one that achieved a unique spiritual existence. Reading the Bible’s verses in search of guidance for their own spiritual lives, they saw the generation of the wilderness as people whose direct encounter with God in the course of the exodus from Egypt surpassed that of the prophets. “Ezekiel the son of Buzi did not see what a bondwoman saw at the sea.” It was a generation that relinquished all reliance on such human traits as planning, growing, storing food, and development. The people of that generation severed their roots to the land, and lived in the desert, rooted only in God. They were carried in God’s bosom, under clouds of glory, their existence entirely dependent upon their faith in God. Their bodies and minds underwent a transformation that allowed them to be nourished by manna, the divine emanation, flakes of light, food of angels. They are a generation that witnesses wondrous signs and miracles. The authors of the Zohar saw this generation as the incomparable Dor De’ah (“the generation of knowledge”). A generation that merited such a singular spiritual existence was worthy of every praise, and it is in reference to that generation that the Zohar expounds the verse “Blessed the people who are so favored” (Psalms 144:15).

A special exposition in the Zohar called Rav Metivta describes a visionary journey of Shimon ben Yohai and his disciples to the world of the wilderness generation. The author of this work made the wilderness generation immortal. It was not lost, but continues to exist in a separate, parallel reality. The visitors experience adventures and surprises in their encounter with that world. They observe its customs and attend the celestial schools of the leaders of that generation like Bezalel, Moses and Aaron, and those of the great women of that generation, Yocheved, Batya daughter of Pharaoh, Miriam and Serah bat Asher. The entire work is a paean to the wilderness generation. As readers acquainted with the psalm describing that generation as “a people who err in heart” (Psalm 95:10), we cannot but be amazed at such an affirmative view of that first generation of redemption – which perished in the desert and did not enter the land – as a generation of giants. We should be receptive to the Zohar’s unique appreciation of the wilderness generation. It is an inspiring testimony to the idea that a culture that allows itself to revisit and reinterpret its foundational texts, opening them up to surprising new readings, ensures a vital, significant relationship with its sources.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelite people; send one man from each of their ancestral tribes, each one a chieftain among them.”

(Numbers 13:1-2)

Rashi poses an interesting question: “Why is the story of the spies adjacent to the story of Miriam?” Is there a connection between the end of the preceding parasha, which tells of Miriam’s punishment for speaking against Moses, and the story of the spies who slander the land of Israel? Rashi’s answer is short and to the point: “Because she was punished over the matter of her slander of her brother, and those wicked men saw, but did not heed the lesson.”

1. Is Rashi’s answer convincing?

2. Was it only the spies who “did not heed the lesson”? Did Moses learn from what happened to his sister? What lesson was he supposed to learn? Was Moses so busy that he was unaware of what his brother and sister were thinking? Was Miriam’s criticism prompted by Moses’ disregard for the jealousy aroused by his conduct and words? Was the divine decree intended to correct this flaw in Moses’ personality? Does Moses lead the people without including them?

3. Why does God say “Shelah lekha” (literally: “send for yourself”)? Does this choice of words indicate that Moses was in need of reassurance? Is it possible that he harbored doubts? Was he himself unsure that the land to which he was leading an entire nation was worthwhile? Did he question whether the effort and sacrifice demanded by this journey through the desert were justified?

4. Rabbi Isaac Abravanel asks: “Why did God order sending the spies? Was it to know the path to take and the cities they would encounter? After all, the pillar of the cloud went before them and led them…and what need was there for spies?” Abravanel argues that God knew that this generation would die in the desert, because it would be unable to contend with the hardships required to conquer the land. Therefore, “God ordered Moses ‘send men’ in order to delay their arrival in the land, and test to see whether or not they were worthy of inheriting it.”

• Does God wish to stop leading the people Himself by means of the cloud?
• Does God think that it is time for the people to become self-reliant?
• Is this the lesson of the failure? Was it that a people that had witnessed the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea could not stop relying upon miracles and assume responsibility for its own destiny?
• Why, according to Abravanel, did God wish to delay the Israelites’ arrival in the land of Israel?
• Why was Israel’s worthiness to inherit the land dependant upon the report of ten spies? Ten righteous men would have sufficed to save Sodom, why do ten spies succeed in delaying the redemption of an entire nation?

In Deuteronomy we encounter a different version of the events:

Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead to reconnoiter the land for us and bring back word on the route we shall follow and the cities we shall come to.” I approved of the plan, and so I selected twelve of your men, one from each tribe.
(Deuteronomy 1:22-23)

1. What are we to make of the difference?

2. Is Moses trying to rewrite history?

3. How is Moses depicted here as opposed to his depiction in Numbers?

4. In what way is the relationship between the Israelites and Moses different in the two accounts?

5. Is it significant that in the account in Deuteronomy it is Moses who decides to send the spies?