Parshat Shelach 5783
Rabbi Jablinowitz
We read in this week’s parsha about the Meraglim, the spies who were sent to scout out Eretz Yisrael and their sin in bringing back a negative report about the Holy Land. The Zohar Hakadosh teaches that the motivating factor behind the sin of the Meraglim, minus Yehoshua and Kalev, was that they were afraid they would lose the stature they had attained in the desert once they moved to Eretz Yisrael. As the Zohar states, דהא אנן זכינן במדברא למהוי רישין, אבל בארעא לא נזכי. In the desert we merited to be “heads”, but in Eretz Yisrael we will not merit such a stature.
As we mentioned last week, the Sfas Emes was very averse to attributing the sins of Bnei Yisrael in the desert to petty considerations like meat (last week’s parsha) or honor. Accordingly, the Sfas Emes has great difficulty in learning the words of the Zohar based on the simple meaning; the leaders of the generation that witnessed Hashem revealing Himself at Har Sinai were ultimately motivated by personal considerations of status and authority. Rather, the Sfas Emes learns that the term רישין refers to the whole generation. The spies saw themselves as leaders and representatives of the generation, and their concern was for the entire generation. And as the generation that stood at Har Sinai and witnessed the Revelation of Hashem, they were the “heads” of all generations. And any generation that came after would always be on a lower level; a תולדה; an offspring and result after the head generation, the אב, the generation of the Midbar.
This is why the Mishnah at the end of Sotah, in discussing the end of galus and the coming of Mashiach, refers to this period as בעקבות דמשיח. This is because the word עקבות means heal. If the generation of the desert was the head, then the last generation before Mashiach is the heal.
The fear of the Meraglim was that by entering Eretz Yisrael, they and the entire generation would lose their status as being the heads, the רישין. They did not want to move to a spiritually lower level. The Medrash Rabbah on Bereishis (3,5) teaches that the word אור appears five times by creation, corresponding to the five books of the Torah. The pasuk (Chapter 1, Pasuk 4) ויבדל אלוקים בין האור ובין החושך refers to sefer Bamidbar. This is because sefer Bamidbar is about the transition from the generation of the desert to the one entering Eretz Yisrael. And the generation of the desert is referred to as light; they had a constant, direct line to Hashem. Their life was one of Torah Shebichsav. But entering Eretz Yisrael meant lowering their status to a life of darkness, and pursuing the light from the dark. And this is exemplified by Torah Shebe’alpeh. And the Meraglim were afraid to make the move.
The Sfas Emes compares this process to a birth. The Neshamah comes from a higher place where it had Divine exposure. It is not interested in coming down to this world and residing in a physical body. This is totally counter to its experience up until this point.
But the Mishnah in Avos teaches (Chapter 4, Mishnah 29), על כרחך אתה נולד; man is born against his will. His job is to subjugate his desires and fulfill the will of Hashem. Though it would be more spiritually satisfying to stay up in the heavens, that’s not his job. The Neshamah is meant to come down to this world and reside in a physical body, and still maintain its purity. And this was the mistake of the Meraglim. Though it would have been more satisfying to continue their idyllic experience as the generation of Rosh and continue to bask in the Divine light, they needed to move on to the next phase of life in Eretz Yisrael.
This idea is the p’shat in the Mishnah in Avos (Chapter 4, Mishnah 22), יפה שעה אחת של תשובה ומעשים טובים בעולם הזה מכל חיי עולם הבא. One moment of Teshuvah and good deeds in this world is preferable to all of life in the world to come. This is a very difficult statement. The whole point of our life in this world is to reach the world to come. How can any aspect of it be better?
The answer is as we said above. Certainly, the world to come is a better place; it’s our ultimate aim and destination. But Chazal are teaching us that since Hashem wants us in this world making it a better place, then in that regard, it is a preferable place. Because then we are fulfilling the will of Hashem. And this was where the Meraglim erred. It’s always best to be a Rosh, but only when it is also the plan and design of Gd.
Good Shabbos
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