The meaning of the name of today’s Sidra is SEND. The Almighty instructed Moses to send men to the land of Canaan in order that they should travel through it and report to him regarding a number of important matters; how fertile the land was and how well defended. The visit ended up with tragedy. The 10 men, who were the leaders of the tribes, returned with an extremely negative report and caused great panic amongst the entire nation. Much later, In the 40th year of the wandering in the desert, just before his death, Moses told the second generation, what had happened to their parents and why it was decreed that they would die prematurely before the conquest. In his narrative of the events, he said that the spies were not sent at God’s command, but because the people demanded it. This detail is not mentioned here because the purpose of the story, at this stage, is to emphasise the spies’ lack of trust in God and the people’s extreme sinfulness and disloyalty to Him. From the title of this Sidra we learn that God did not object to the mission, although he saw no purpose in it. The word LECHA may suggest that God implied to Moses that if he wanted to send, he could.
No doubt, because this mission was organised in order to satisfy popular demand, it was not carried out correctly. The 12 men were sent publicly, whereas spies have to operate in great secrecy. Secondly, they were, probably, chosen by the tribes themselves, so that no one had investigated whether or not they were the right people for this task. Even more seriously, it seems likely that they had an agenda, even before they left. They had no genuine interest in the conquest of the land. They did not support Moses and Aaron. They still had a slave mentality and they preferred to stay in the wilderness or even return to Egypt.
The reason for the failure of this mission seems to be emphasised, also, by the special Maftir with which the Sidra ends. The question is: Why was the portion of the Tzitzit singled out to conclude our Sidra? The answer is that it includes the warning in Hebrew: “Velo Taturu acharei levavchem ve’acharei einechem,” which means: “Do not stray after your hearts and after your eyes”. The word “TATURU” is the key word. It is rarely used. But it is used in the beginning of the Sidra to describe the task of the spies, which reads: “Send men in order to tour the land, in Hebrew “VEYATURU”. The Torah seems to be hinting to us that the 12 spies were seduced to abandon the correct path by following their hearts and eyes. They paid attention only to what they felt and saw, rather than remain steadfast in their faith and trust in the Almighty. Without faith and trust in God, we cannot succeed in anything, let alone in conquering the Holy Land. The generation of the desert was not able to do it without faith, nor could the Jewish people have done it, in modern times, without faith in God. We learn that the purpose of the Mitzvah of Tzitzit is to inspire us with trust in God. It is an important religious concept which is known in Hebrew asBITACHON. This is one of the reasons why this paragraph was chosen to be recited every single day in the morning and in the evening in the Shema. The spies lacked BITACHON.
The 10 men had the Hebrew title of Nessi’im. This is the title that was chosen, when the state of Israel was established, to designate the head of the new state. Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, is known as the Nasi, and his Jerusalem Residence is called Mishkan Hanasi or Bet Hanasi.
The names of the 12 Nessi’im, leaders, are given in full in the first portion. Most of those names are not in use today, but some are. The leader of the tribe of Issachar, for example, was called Yigal ben Yosef. The name Yigal means: God will redeem. Another name which is still used is Gad, based on the name Gaddiel or Gaddi, which means a God is guarding me like a military force.
According to rabbinic tradition, the 12 Nessi’im left the Israelite camp on the 30th of Sivan, which will occur this week, on Wednesday 20th of June. They entered the land from the South, which was called the Negev, which is still in use today. It comes from the Hebrew word ‘dry’, because that part of the land hardly has any rainfall at all. From the NEGEV, they continued northwards on to the mountainous areas, and they reached the city of Hebron, which is one of the most ancient cities in the land and where Abraham first buried Sarah. Today, it is regarded as one of the holy cities of the land.
When the spies came back, after 40 days of touring, they said extremely negative things about the land. First, they predicted that it was impossible to conquer the land because all its cities were very well defended by strong fortifications. Secondly, they claimed that the land had such a bad climate that only extremely strong people had any chance of survival. The Canaanites were strong and extremely large. But the Israelites, who were not strong, would not be able to survive at all. Their words were: “The land is so bad, that it consumes its inhabitants”.
The ten leaders, who gave this evil report, met with the strenuous opposition of Caleb and Joshua who insisted that the Israelites would be able to conquer the land and settle there. But, Joshua and Caleb were not powerful enough to dissuade the people from listening to the majority. By the evening, the great damage had been done. The whole nation was totally demoralised and wept throughout the night. Since the 12 spies had left 40 days earlier, the night that they returned was the Ninth of Av, which later became the saddest day in the Jewish calendar.
Our Sidra contains two very famous and significant verses, which are recited on Kol Nidre night. They are found in chapter 14, verses 19 and 20. Moses pleaded with God to forgive the people and God responded “I have forgiven, as you said”, “Salachti Kidevarecha.” This story, yet again, emphasises that God’s main quality is to be good, forgiving and kind to us, despite our repeated sinfulness.