Shlach
Rabbi Jablinowitz
We read in this week’s parsha, immediately after the sin of the Meraglim, the Torah teaches the mitzvah of “minchah” and “nesachim”. This is the obligation to bring a meal offering and a wine libation with sacrifices. Why is this the appropriate place for the Torah to teach this mitzvah?
There are a number of statements by Chazal and the commentators on the Torah comparing the sin of the Meraglim with the sin of the Cheit Ha’Egel. One point is the similar way Moshe prayed after the sin of the Golden Calf and the way he prayed after the sin of the spies (see Rashi on Chapter 14, Pasuk 18). However, the Ramban in our parsha says that Moshe really didn’t pray for Bnei Yisrael that they should be forgiven. This point is repeated by the Ramban in parshat Korach where he says that part of the cause of the rebellion was the fact that Moshe didn’t pray for them during this episode. (See the end of the Ramban on the first verse in Korach). The people that sinned deserved to be punished and therefore Moshe didn’t mention the midah of “emes” as he did by the Egel. He didn’t pray that the merit of the Avos should protect them since the Avos loved Eretz Yisrael, and Bnei Yisrael were turning their backs on Eretz Yisrael. Moshe prayed for “Erech Apayim”. He prayed that Hashem shouldn’t kill them all at once, and that Bnei Yisrael would still enter Eretz Yisrael. And to this Gd responded, Salachti Kidvarecha.
This was very different than the sin of Cheit Ha’Egel, Hashem threatened to destroy the entire nation. He wanted to start over again with Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe refused and prayed for the entire nation. This is because the sin of the Cheit Ha’Egel was a sin committed by the whole of Bnei Yisrael. It was a sin of the clal. The only people who are identified are those who were not involved in the sin, i.e. the tribe of Levi.
However, the sin of the Meraglim is more of an individualized sin. The people who caused the sin, the spies who gave a negative report, are identified by name and tribe. And the punishment of not entering Eretz Yisrael was only meted out to the individuals over the age of twenty. The clal of Bnei Yisrael entered. These particular people did not. This is a sin of individuals.
When the mitzvah of minchah and nesachim is given, we read (Chapter 15, Pasuk 4), VeHikriv Hamakriv Karbano, And the one who offers his sacrifice. The mitzvah here of minchah and nesachim is being given to the individual when he brings a sacrifice. The Seforno teaches that prior to the sin of the Cheit Ha’Egel, sacrifices didn’t need a meal offering or wine libations. They automatically had a pleasing smell before Hashem, rayach nichoach. When Noach and Hevel and Avraham brought sacrifices, the Torah teaches they had a rayach nichoach. After the sin of the Cheit Ha’Egel, all public sacrifices needed a meal offering and wine libation. But individual sacrifices didn’t need them. It was only after the sin of the spies, which was not a sin of the whole, or the clal, but rather a sin of individuals, that even individual sacrifices lost their pleasantness before Gd. Bnei Yisrael lost the special quality of the Avos in denying the special qualities of Eretz Yisrael. Their sacrifices were no longer inherently sweet. And in order to achieve the level of sweet smelling before Hashem, from now on all individual sacrifices needed to contain the meal offering and a wine libation.
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