Numbers · Chapter 13

And Hashem spoke with Moses, saying:

וידבר ה׳..אל משה לאמור, G'd spoke to Moses to say: Why was the word לאמור needed here, seeing the instructions were given only to Moses? Perhaps the Torah wrote לאמור to indicate that Moses had permission to tell the people that he had received the instructions to despatch spies from G'd. [The author is always at pains to prove that Moses had no right to relay anything G'd had told him unless especially told to do so; he bases himself on Yuma 4. Ed.] The Torah may also have wanted to prevent the impression being created that Moses initiated the idea of sending out spies and that he was of the same mind as the people in this respect. By telling the people that he had been commanded to select the spies he had made it plain that he would not have done so unless G'd had commanded him. The word לאמור was especially necessary in view of our sages' interpretation of the word לך meaning לדעתך, (verse 2) "in accordance with your understanding but not because you have to." In other words, G'd gave permission for the spies to go but He certainly did not command the expedition. It may have been hoped that when Moses told the people how he had been told by G'd to send the spies that they would reconsider and understand that their request to send spies revealed a lack of faith in G'd.

"Send men for yourself to scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; one man each, one man each from the tribe of their fathers shall you send — every one a leader among them."

שלח לך אנשים SEND THOU MEN — Why is the section dealing with the spies put in juxtaposition with the section dealing with Miriam’s punishment? To show the grievousness of the spies’ sin: because she (Miriam) was punished on account of the slander which she uttered against her brother, and these sinners witnessed it and yet they did not take a lesson from her (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 5). שלח לך SEND THEE (more lit., for thyself) — i.e. according to your own judgement: I do not command you, but if you wish to do so send them. — God said this because the Israelites came to Moses and said. “We will send men before us etc.”, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 1:22): “And you approached me, all of you, [saying, We will send men, etc.]”, and Moses took counsel with the Shechinah (the Lord), whereupon He said to them, I have told them long ago that it (the land) is good, as it is said, (Exodus 3:17): “I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt … [unto a land flowing with milk and honey]”. By their lives! I swear that I will give them now an opportunity to fall into error through the statements of the spies, so that they should not come into possession of it (the land) (Sotah 34b; cf. also Rashi on Sotah 34b:8 מדעתך and Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 5).

SEND ‘LECHA’ (THEE) MEN. “As you see fit. I do not command you [to send them], but if you wish [to do so], send them. [G-d said this] because the Israelites came [to Moses] and said, Let us send men before us, as it is said, And ye came near unto me every one of you, and Moses inquired [what to do] of the Divine Presence, whereupon G-d said: ‘I told them [at the time of the exodus] that it is a good [Land], as it is said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt … [unto a Land flowing with milk and honey]. By their lives! I will give them an opportunity to fall into error through the incident of the spies, so that they should not come to possess the Land.” This is Rashi’s language, from the words of Agadah. Here one may ask, if this is so, then Moses himself sinned in this matter, as it is said, And the thing pleased me well! And furthermore why did he tell [the spies] to find out about the Land, whether it is good or bad, since he had already been told at the beginning that it is a good Land, and a large one? Moreover, what did the spies do [wrong], since Moses told them, And see the Land what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and he said to see about the cities [that they dwell in] whether in camps, or in strongholds, and at the least they had to give him an answer to [the questions] that he commanded them [to find out about]! And what was their trespass, and what was their sin when they told Moses, Nevertheless the people that dwell in the Land are fierce, and the cities are fortified, and very great? Did he then send them on the understanding that they would give him a false report! And do not think that their trespass consisted only in their report that it is a Land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, for prior telling this to the people, Caleb already quarrelled with them! And likewise it is written, [that the people said], Our brethren [i.e., the spies] have made our heart to melt, saying: The people is greater and taller than we etc., and here it is written, to fall by the sword; our wives and our little ones will be a prey. And yet Moses our teacher [himself] said similar things to the children [of the generation of the spies], and he emphasized to them the power of the people and the strength of their cities, and the might of the giants to a much greater extent than what the spies had told their fathers, as it is written, Hear O Israel: thou art to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say: ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak!’ Now if the trespass of the spies and their sin consisted of this [discouraging report that they gave about the strength of the people in Canaan], why did he [Moses] dismay the heart of their children in the same way that the spi...

"Send for yourself" — it is written that Hashem told Israel, "Go up and take possession," but they said, "Let us send men ahead." Hashem then said, "Send for yourself men." The reason the text says "men" is that these are known warriors — as in, "all of them are men," and "be strong and be a man" (1 Kgs. 2:2) — for that is what 'man' (אִישׁ) denotes. "That they may scout" — that they may search out, and similarly [the prohibition], "that you do not scout" (Num. 15:39). "Each one a chieftain among them" — each one is a chieftain among them; or the word 'one' (אֶחָד) may draw itself and another word along with it [i.e., functioning as a distributive], as in, "and two men, commanders of raiding bands, were of the son of Saul" (2 Sam. 4:2), and many [passages] are like this.

שלח לך אנשים, do not allow the selection of these men to be made by the people themselves! We know from Deuteronomy 1,22 that the initiative of sending out spies came from the people and that Moses was put under pressure to do this. G’d was cautioning Moses that by allowing the people to select the spies themselves, that if they chose unsuitable candidates and they came back with a faulty report, the people would blame G’d for what was wrong with the country instead of the inadequate ability of the spies to correctly evaluate what they had seen. Once the blame would be laid at G’d’s doorstep it would be impossible to do teshuvah. In the event, the people did teshuvah when they said “we have sinned against You,” as reported in Deuteronomy 1,41 As far as the spies whom Moses sent out were concerned, while it is true that they were guilty in bringing about the refusal of the people to undertake the campaign to conquer the land, and all this was due to a lack of faith in G’d, they did report truthfully on the excellence of the land and they brought back with them proof of it. (compare verse 27) where they are quoted as having said that not only was the land good, but it was a land flowing with milk and honey; In Deuteronomy 1,25 Moses also agrees that they had reported on the excellence of the land. Their fault lay in their asserting that the country could not be conquered by the Jewish people. Once the people realised that the problem had been their own lack of faith and not any shortcoming they had ascribed to G’d, the way was paved for repentance to become acceptable. They immediately reversed themselves, offering to ascend and to participate in the conquest of the land. (compare verse 41 in our chapter) They prayed and cried to G’d regarding their sin, but G’d did not accept their prayer. Their sin had consisted of a desecration of the Lord’s name in public, something that cannot be atoned for except after the death of the guilty party. G’d had already alluded to this in Exodus 32,34 in connection with the sin of the golden calf when He had said וביום פקדי ופקדתי, “on the day when I mete out justice (literally “remember” i.e. review the deceased deeds, etc.) I will also judge, etc.” In other words, this atonement is reserved for people only posthumously. (2) EACH ONE A CHIEFTAIN AMONG THEM. Each one the best among his tribe in recognizing the nature of the land.

שלח לך אנשים, "send out men for yourself, etc." We need to analyse why the word לך was written here. I have already quoted that our sages in Sotah 34 understand the word as indicating permission rather than a command. This leaves us with the puzzle why G'd would consent to an initiative which He knew would result in disaster. Before explaining all this let me begin with an introduction to the problem. Whence did the whole terrible disaster originate? If we were to see the fact that spies were sent out as the root cause of the disaster then Joshua certainly should have learned a lesson and should not have sent out spies before capturing Jericho (compare Joshua 2,1). It follows that the idea of sending spies to help in the conquest of the Holy Land was not objectionable in itself. If the reason the mission failed was due to the calibre of the spies, this too is hard to accept seeing that the Torah testifies that Moses sent out righteous men, men of whom G'd had approved. We may glean a better understanding of the subject when reading the words of the Yalkut Shimoni item 742 that the Israelites came to Moses asking to send spies. Moses said that this was unnecessary seeing G'd had already given His assurance that they would defeat the Canaanites. Thereupon the Israelites countered saying that the local inhabitants were aware of the plans of the Israelites to invade their country and that is why they had hidden all their valuables. As a result the Israelites would be deprived of a great part of what G'd promised them as they would not inherit much more than the mere soil. They convinced Moses that it was in order to make G'd's words come true that they wanted to send out spies. This is why Moses is quoted in Deut. 1,23 as having given his consent to this request. This is also why in Deut. 1,22 the Torah describes the spies' mission as ויחפרו לנו, "that they may dig up for us (hidden treasures)." Moses was trapped by the words of the Israelites. Thus far the Yalkut. Spies may have more than one mission then. 1) They have to find out the best approach to invade a country. They also have to determine if the whole army has to be involved in the campaign or if it suffices to send a relatively small number of troops. We find evidence of this in Joshua 7,3 where the spies told Joshua that 2-3000 soldiers would be enough to capture the town of Ai. This kind of spying, or reconnaissance in our language, would be repeated each time a specific target such as a town was to be captured. 2) The other kind of spying involves something of a more comprehensive nature. The spies' mission is to evaluate whether the target is capable of being captured. This is the kind of spying that the Israelites had in mind when they requested from Moses to send out spies. This kind of mission presupposes a lack of faith in G'd's power or willingness to help the Jewish people attain their objectives. Moses perceived this and that is why the Midrash tells us that Moses reacted nega...

You are to send people. It was revealed and known before him that the Holy One, blessed be He, was not complete in his decision that they should be sent [therefore he emphasized שלח לך]. תשלחו כל נשיא בהם, “send them, each one of these men being a prince in his own right.” Each prince sent one man from his tribe.

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.

Send forth men for yourself. Because the Israelites said (Deuteronomy 1:22), Let us send men ahead of us to explore the land for us. For us, meaning for our pleasure and for our benefit. And the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Moses Send for yourself, and not for them, because the mission would be specifically for Your pleasure and benefit, but for them it would not be for their benefit, because through this mission death was decreed upon them, while for Moses it caused Him to live another forty years. For it had already been decreed that Moses would not see what would happen to the seven nations’ kings, and because of the sin of the spies, they were delayed for forty years. Another explanation of “Send for yourself men.” Specifically, you should envision with divine inspiration whether these men are suitable for this mission, because most people are misled by flatterers who present themselves as virtuous and wear garments of hair [worn by leaders] in order to deceive (Zechariah 13:4). Therefore it says for yourself men — specifically those who in your eyes are important men, not those who are considered important men in the eyes of others, because it is possible that their inside does not match their outside appearance. Another explanation: for yourself men — to you they appear to be important men because you have physical eyes to see only what is revealed in the present moment, as they were indeed virtuous at that time. But in My eyes, they are not virtuous men, because I see two visions — both the present and the future — as they would eventually adopt an evil counsel. And our Sages said (Bamidbar Rabbah 16:6) that the juxtaposition of the spies to [the story of] Miriam is because Miriam was afflicted for speaking slander, yet these wicked individuals saw this and did not learn a lesson. This means that immediately after the incident with Miriam, the spies were sent, because God said, “Lest each of them reconsider and take a lesson from seeing what happened to Miriam.” For this reason, it specifically mentions men here, because it says (Numbers 12:1), And Miriam and Aaron spoke [tidaber, literally she spoke] against Moses. It should have said “they spoke” [yidabru, in plural], since “and she spoke” refers to Miriam. Furthermore, we do not find that Aaron was punished. Rather, the verse is teaching you that slander is more common among women than men, as ten measures of speech descended to the world, and women took nine of them, etc. (Kiddushin 49b). And since women are generally chatty and talkative, therefore the speech is attributed to Miriam, for she initiated this corruption and Aaron was secondary to her. Therefore it says, Send for yourself men, who do not have the ways of women and will not be like Miriam who spoke slander, but rather real men whose way is not to speak slander. Another explanation for why “men” is specified: According to what our Sages said (Yalkut Shimoni, Pinchas 773:27), the men hated the land and said, Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt (Numbers 14:4), while the women loved the land and said, Give us a possession (Numbers 27:4). Therefore, the Holy One, Blessed be He, said: “According to My view, seeing into the future, it would have been better to send women who cherish the land, for they would not speak negatively about it. But for you, according to your understanding — as you believe these men are worthy and you think they cherish the land — send men.” This is the meaning of Send for yourself [lecha — according to your judgment] men. But according to My judgment, it would have been better to send women, as mentioned. “And they shall spy out the land of Canaan.” We find three expressions on this matter: scout [v’yaturu], search [v’yachperu], and spy out [va’yeraglu]. For the Israelites said, Let us send men ahead of us and they shall search the land for us (Deuteronomy 1:22), but the Holy One, blessed be He, said, They shall scout the land of Canaan. And regarding the spies it is written, And they spied it out (Deuteronomy 1:24). This is because there were three different intentions in this plan. The Holy One, blessed be He, said “v’yaturu” [they shall scout], which also implies the language of “yitron” [advantage/benefit], because God wanted to show them the advantage of the land over all other lands, as it is written, And to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land (Exodus 3:8). This goodness refers to the spiritual goodness due to it being “avira d’machkim” [air that makes one wise] (Bava Batra 158b), as this is a preparation for a person to attain true goodness, since a person has no advantage under the sun besides this, and the advantage of the land is in everything (Ecclesiastes 5:8). But the Israelites had a different spirit with them, as they were constantly seeking pretexts to return to Egypt. Therefore, they said “v’yachperu” [they shall search], which implies a sense of “cherpah” [disgrace/shame], because they wanted to see the nakedness of the land in order to have an opportunity to complain and say, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.” Nevertheless, they did not request that the spies fabricate false slander. The spies, however, corrupted and abominated even more than what was asked of them, and fabricated falsehoods from their hearts, in the manner of all talebearers who exaggerate everything to say more than what they saw. Therefore, it says va’yeraglu [and they spied] it, because regel is the language of “rachil” [gossip/slander], as Rashi explained on the verse You shall not go about as a talebearer (Leviticus 19:16). It is also possible to explain what God said: “and they shall scout.” For in truth, that land is superior to all other lands due to many doubled good qualities that it possesses, excelling above all other lands. Similarly, the Yalkut brings in this section (13:1343) regarding the Land of Israel, the verse and the beginning of the dust of the world (Proverbs 8:26). But they [the spies] did the opposite, saying that it is inferior to all lands because it is a land that consumes its inhabitants. They lowered it from the rank of the head to the rank of the foot; therefore it says and they spied it out [vayiraglu]. They made it like the treading of a foot [regel], like the foot which is the lowliest part of the entire body. But in truth it is the head of all lands, and for this reason the term “going up” is used everywhere regarding one who goes to the Land of Israel. And about this they said, Let us appoint a head and return to Egypt. We find that the term “appointment” [netinah] can mean “abandonment,” as in The king of Egypt will not allow you to go (Exodus 3:19), which Targum translates as “will not abandon” [yishbok]. Thus they said here, “Let us abandon the head” — that land which you say is the head of all lands — “and return to Egypt,” even though they say that it is below the rank of the Land of Israel. And regarding the term “spies” used for those whom Joshua sent, even though they were righteous, nevertheless he called them spies because they went to make all the people dwelling in the land as a footstool for Israel, or to make a footpath for Israel in the land. But here it says and they spied it out, implying that they made the land itself into the level of a foot. And regarding what it says about Joshua, for they have come to search [lachpor] all the land (Joshua 2:3), this was because they pretended to be pot sellers, as it says secretly [cheresh, which is the same letters as heres, clay] saying (Joshua 2:1). And the way of pot makers is to dig [lachpor] holes and pits in the earth, and that place was the fertile part of Jericho, an important place. Therefore they said about them, “See, they have come to lachpor the land,” meaning to make holes in the land in order to make pots, and they will ruin the land.

שלח לך אנשים, “Send forth men, on your behalf.” Rashi’s comment on the wording is that G’d did not command Moses to do this, but He did not oppose it if Moses wanted to do it on his own account. Nachmanides questions Rashi’s commentary by saying that if so Moses would have had a part in the sin of the spies seeing that he is on record in Deut. 1,23 as having specifically approved the people’s request to dispatch these spies. Nachmanides therefore resolves this problem by stating that the people like any people who are about to engage in an aggressive war, wanted to prepare themselves and to know what they would be up against, and how they could most easily conquer their objectives. In fact that is precisely what the people represented as their motives as we know from Deut. 1,22 when they are quoted as saying: “we want to know on which road to ascend and the cities to which we will come.” In other words, the request was of a tactical nature. This sounded like a perfectly reasonable request to Moses, and did not indicate that the people did not believe him when he had told them that the land was a good land.

כל נשיא בהם. The principal meaning of the verse is as follows: you should take as the twelve representatives, one of each tribe, men whose heart was set on going on to the Holy Land. You should select volunteers, willing to act as spies. From among all these volunteers you are to select the ones who appear most suitable to you. Seeing that what was required were stout-hearted men, physically strong so that they could carry with them samples of the produce of the land, G’d did not mention them by name, as He had done when he appointed the 12 princes who were to be leaders of each tribe. G’d also appointed by name the next generation of such tribal princes, the ones who would enter the Holy Land together with their respective tribes. כל נשיא בהם, the tone-sign under the word כל spells out its meaning. Each one of these 12 had volunteered for the assignment. In recognition of this he was accorded the title נשיא,“prince.” We encounter a similar meaning of the word כל in Psalms 8,7 כל שתה תחת רגליו, “laying “all” (the world) at his feet.”

'איש אחד, איש אחד וגו, “one man each, etc.” no spy was dispatched from the tribe of Levi, seeing that this tribe would not receive an ancestral portion of land in the Holy Land.

And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the Word of Hashem; all of them were heads of the children of Israel.

'על פי ה With His consent; i.e. that He did not prevent him from doing so. ... כלם אנשים ALL OF THEM WERE MEN — Wherever the term אנשים, “men”, is used in Scripture it is a term denoting worthiness. These men, [though they later sinned] but at that time [when they were appointed] they were worthy men.

כלם אנשים, men of valour. The word איש occurs in the sense of “man of valour” both in Samuel I 26,15 and in Kings I 2,2.

כלם אנשים, “all of them distinguished personalities;” according to Rashi, at the time when they were charged with their mission they were all deserving of having been chosen for this task. They underwent a change of heart only after having been selected. Rashi points this out when commenting on the words: וילכו ויבאו, “they went forth they arrived,” in verse 26. ראשי בני ישראל, “heads of the Children of Israel.” Each one of them was at least a head of a thousand Israelites. [There were 600 like that Ed]

By the command of the Lord. The mission was not by the command of the Lord, for He had said to him “Send for yourself, according to your own judgment, etc.” Rather, it means that the sending [of the spies] from the wilderness of Paran was by the command of the Lord — the first journey from Hazeroth. For according to the word of the Blessed One, He would not have agreed to send [spies] at all, but due to their persistent requests, He did not prevent them. Nevertheless, He should have delayed the timing of the mission, for from the wilderness of Paran there were several journeys until they approached the Land [of Israel], and He should have sent them from another encampment closer to the Land of Israel than the wilderness of Paran. However, since this encampment in the wilderness of Paran was immediately after they came from Hazeroth, where the incident with Miriam had occurred, the Lord thought that the incident was recent, and perhaps the wicked ones would learn a lesson. And perhaps over many days they would forget what happened to Miriam. Thus, the phrase by the command of the Lord refers to from the wilderness of Paran and not to the mission itself. Some say that it was specifically from the wilderness of Paran because from this place His blessed wisdom estimated that they would go and return within 40 days, so that all those who would die in the wilderness would be 60 years old and would come to the grave in a ripe age (Job 5:26) — all those who were 20 years and older, upon whom the decree was issued.

כולם אנשים, “all of them distinguished people.” They were well known for their prowess. The word איש appears in that context in Kings I 2,2 וחזקת והיית לאיש.

These are their names: from the tribe of Reuben — Shammua son of Zaccur.

OF THE TRIBE OF REUBEN etc. The verse [here] lists the tribes neither according to [the pattern of encampment of] their standards, nor according to the order of birth [of the ancestors of each tribe]. It appears that Scripture saw fit to mention them here according to the importance of the delegates [on the mission], for they were heads and princes of the people, as is related, but they were not all of equal standing, some of them being greater than the others in wisdom and honor; therefore Scripture mentioned first those who were most honored, who were first in status, since it named them according to their personal standing, not that of their tribe. Similarly in [citing the names of] the princes who were to divide the Land up amongst the people, He mentioned them according to their personal standing, not according to the order of birth [of the tribal ancestors].

ואלה שמותם, each one was a distinguished person, known as such. They have been listed in order of their seniority, seeing that other than that they were equal in rank, especially in their qualifications for this mission. The reason I believe that this is the reason for the order in which they have been listed is that the list neither corresponds to the seniority of the tribes nor to the order in which the tribes were encamped.

למטה ראובן, “for the tribe of Reuven, etc.” Nachmanides points out that the order in which these men are mentioned here does not follow the order in which their tribes’ respective banners are enumerated, neither does the order correspond to the biological seniority of the original founders of their respective tribes. It appears therefore that the Torah lists these men in the order of their relative merits at the time they had been appointed. We find this pattern repeated when the tribal heads are mentioned at the time when the ancestral lands were apportioned.

From the tribe of Simeon — Shaphat son of Hori.

From the tribe of Judah — Caleb son of Jephunneh.

כלב בן יפונה, “Caleb son of Yefuneh.” He is identical with Caleb son of Chetzron, and the reason he is here called the son of Yefuneh, is because he turned aside (פנה) from all but one of the other spies. [Chetzron had been a grandson of Yehudah, Genesis 46,12, compare also Chronicles I 2,18. Ed.]

From the tribe of Issachar — Igal son of Joseph.

From the tribe of Ephraim — Hoshea son of Nun.

From the tribe of Benjamin — Palti son of Raphu.

From the tribe of Zebulun — Gaddiel son of Sodi.

From the tribe of Joseph, from the tribe of Manasseh — Gaddi son of Susi.

למטה יוסף, למטה מנשה, “of the tribe of Joseph, i.e. the tribe of Menashe.” Even though on numerous occasions the tribe of Joseph is equated with the tribe of Ephrayim (seeing that Yaakov had told Joseph that he outranked Menashe the older), here Joseph and Menashe are paired, seeing that both had become guilty of slander. Joseph had slandered his brothers to his father, and the prince of Menashe had slandered the land of Israel. There are several instances where Joseph and Menashe are equated precisely because the context of the story supports that interpretation. (Compare Numbers 34,23, Joshua 17,1) In Joshua 17, the subject is the distribution of the land to the various tribes, and it was these lands that the prince of Menashe had slandered in joining the majority report of the spies.

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.

למטה יוסף, למטה מנשה, “from the tribe of Joseph, the tribe of M’nashe; here “M’nashe is mentioned first, as the representative of that tribe who would prove to be one who slandered the Holy Land together with the majority of the spies, whereas Joshua, the representative of Ephrayim, the other half of the tribe of Joseph, although the favourite of Yaakov (Genesis 48,19) when he blessed the children of Joseph, was not lumped together with the other spies. (Compare Numbers 1,10, 32, and Numbers 26,28)

From the tribe of Dan — Ammiel son of Gemalli.

From the tribe of Asher — Sethur son of Michael.

From the tribe of Naphtali — Nahbi son of Vophsi.

From the tribe of Gad — Geuel son of Machi.

These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to scout the land. And Moses called Hoshea son of Nun, Joshua.

ויקרא משה להושע וגו׳ AND MOSES CALLED HOSHEA [THE SON OF NUN JEHOSHUA] — By giving him this name יהושע which is a compound of יה and הושע “God may save”, he in effect prayed for him: “May God save you from the evil counsel of the spies” (Sotah 34b).

The reason for "These are the names of the men" — after having already said, "and these are their names" — is to make known that these were their names forever and had not changed, unlike [the name of] Hoshea [which was changed to Joshua].

ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע, the Torah means that this man was known as a man of valour by the name of Hosheah among the members of his tribe. The fact that he has been referred to as “Joshua” already in Numbers 11,28 is because in his capacity as Moses’ personal valet Moses had changed his name in the form of a prayer asking that he be the instrument of his own salvation and that of others.

אלה שמות האנשים, These are the names of the men, etc. Why did the Torah repeat this seeing it had already written: "and these are their names, etc." in verse 4? We may understand this by reference to Sotah 34. Rabbi Yitzchak said: "we have a tradition that the names of the spies recorded in the Torah reflect their deeds;" The name סתור בן מיכאל describes that the man bearing that name contradicted the words of G'd, etc." So far the Talmud on the subject. We have noted that Moses renamed Joshua so as to protect him against the advice of wicked people and we asked why this was necessary. This means that Joshua's name did not reflect the fact that he was wicked. It was necessary to write: "and these are their names" in order to show us why Moses was concerned about the character of these people, i.e. he did not like their names. Whereas I wrote earlier that Moses had the feeling that these men might be wicked because of the word לך, this was not an absolute as the word לך could have other connotations as I have demonstrated. Moses may have been alerted to the potential wickedness of these people when he reflected on their names. Alternatively, Moses did have his suspicions about the enterprise and any men who would be delegated to act as spies; however, had it not been for their names, Moses could not have justified his suspicions. ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע, Moses called Hoshea son of Nun Joshua. We already mentioned that our sages said that Moses prayed concerning Joshua. Why did he have to change his name in addition? Perhaps Moses wanted to give Joshua additional power to resist wicked advice seeing that the first three letters of his name now represented the three letters making up the tetragram. The letter י which Moses added to Hoshea's name has a numerical value of 10 and symbolised that he could resist the advice of ten of his colleagues. It would also eventually enable him to inherit the share of ארץ ישראל that the ten wicked spies would forfeit due to their conduct. This is based on a comment in Chagigah 15 according to which each person has a place allocated to him both in גן עדן and in גיהנם. If he merits it he will occupy his place in גן עדן, whereas a wicked person will occupy both his own place in גיהנם as well as the place left vacant by his pious colleague.

אלה שמות האנשים. “the following are the names of these 12 men: no representative of the tribe of Levi had been included amongst the spies, as the members of that tribe were not going to get fields to work as ancestral lands. ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע, “Moses renamed Hoshea bin Nun as Joshua. The Torah does not mean that Moses renamed Hoshea at this time; we have to understand this verse as follows: Moses had renamed Hoshea from the time he had appointed him as his personal valet. The Torah merely wishes to tell us that the Joshua whom Moses has appointed as one of the spies, was the one whom he had renamed at the time of his previous appointment as Moses’ personal servant, seeing that at that time already he had found favour in his eyes, and he wanted to express this by adding a letter to his name. We know that G-d had renamed Avram after he had found favour in his eyes by adding a letter to his name, just as He had changed a letter in Sarai’s name for a similar reason. Both Yaakov and Joseph experienced name changes, as did Daniel and the last King of Yehudah, Matnaya, whom Nebuchadnezzar renamed Tzedekiah. Also Nechemyah, underwent such a name change as we know from Nechemyah 8,9.

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.

And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua [Yehoshua]. [May] God save you [yoshiecha] from the counsel of the spies. One should consider why specifically the name of God [Yah], and why he did not also pray for Caleb. It seems that because he [Moses] told them Go up through the Negev, and the spies said Amalek dwells in the land of the Negev. Rashi explained that this was because the Israelites had been burned [injured] by them [Amalek]. And Moses thought that most likely Joshua would not join in this counsel [of the spies], because on the contrary, he had weakened Amalek and its people by the sword. And for generations from that battle onwards, he [Joshua] was also secure in what was said for a hand is on the throne of God [Yah]: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation (Exodus 17:16). And with that oath that was made using the name of Yah, he would be confident in defeating Amalek. Therefore, Moses added “Yah” to his name so that he would be reminded of the oath that was made with the name of Yah, and for this reason he would not join the counsel of the spies who frightened Israel with [the threat of] Amalek. And some say that because Joshua was his student, he was concerned that he should not “burn his cooking” and it would be attributed to his teacher. And some say that because he was from the tribe of Joseph, who brought negative reports about his brothers, therefore he was afraid that he would follow in the way of his ancestor. For this reason, he did not mention the tribe of Joseph for him, but for Gaddi son of Susi he did mention the tribe of Joseph. And the reason why he did not pray for Gaddi was perhaps because he thought that if the one who came from the tribe of Ephraim, which is greater than Manasseh, would not change his mission, then certainly the one who is less important than him would not speak against him. And it is already known from Jacob’s blessings that he established a rule to give Ephraim precedence in all matters of holiness. Or because his father was called Manasseh, named for Because God has made me forget all my father’s house, and Moses thought that presumably all his descendants had forgotten the deeds of their forefather [Joseph].

אלה שמות האנשים, “These are the names of the men, etc. ”Ibn Ezra writes that the reason the Torah repeated the line after having already named all these men individually, by introducing the paragraph with the words: “these are their names,” is to inform us that none of the names mentioned were changed except the name of Joshua. ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע, “Moses named Hoseah son of Nun Joshua.” According to the plain meaning of the text his name was changed, as he had been the commander of the army in the battle against Amalek. He had acquired an international reputation as a result of that encounter. Moses changed his name so that he would not be singled out as a target for the Canaanites. After all, they had never seen him, had only heard about him.

ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע, this does not mean that the people from then on called this man Joshua. It means that the man who had been referred to as Hosheah son of Nun in his father’s house was the one whom Moses now referred to as Joshua. The change had occurred already at the time when Moses appointed this man to be his personal valet. It was customary to change the names of people who were promoted in rank. We find this the first time when Pharaoh changed Joseph’s name to Tzofnat Paneach (Genesis 41,45) We find it again in Daniel 1,6 when Nevuchadnezzar’s chief officer changed Daniel’s name to Belteshazzar. This had been a reference to a Babylonian idol so named. The first time Joshua’s name had been changed was in Exodus 24,13.

ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע, “Moses called (changed) the name of Hoshea to Yehoshua son of Nun. The Midrash Tanchuma, section 6 on this portion, in dealing with this change of name, writes as follows: “what prompted Moses to change the name of Hoshea to Y’hoshua by adding the letter י (equivalent the number ten) to his name? Moses foresaw that Calev, another spy who did receive his ancestral share in the Holy Land received one share, as detailed in the Book of Judges 1,20, seeing he had bothered to make a special detour at Chevron (Numbers 13,22) (“he,” sing. came to Chevron) whereas Joshua, who would lead the people to the Land and conquer it, received ten shares, this was hinted at by the change of his name. [Seeing that Joshua personally did not have any children, looking at the matter technically, although his tribe of Ephrayim, did of course receive their share, perhaps Moses wanted to indicate that he in fact, at least, in the spiritual sense of the word, “inherited” the 10 shares of the Holy Land, that would have become the shares of the other ten spies had they not slandered the land. Ed.] According to the Talmud Yerushalmi tractate Sanhedrin, chapter 2, halachah 6, by adding the letter י at the beginning of his name, so that it began with the two letters spelling the name of G–d, Moses hoped to arm him spiritually against becoming spiritually contaminated by the other ten spies. When Sarah’s name שרי had been changed to שרה, she had lost a letter, i.e. the letter י. Joshua now received this letter. Avraham had the letter ה she had lost, added to his name when that was changed from אברם to אברהם. [Seeing that they both no longer needed these two letters, having died long ago, they were used by Moses as helping Joshua to withstand the brainwashing by the ten spies. Ed.]

And Moses sent them to scout the land of Canaan, and said to them: "Go up here through the south, and ascend to the mountain."

עלו זה בנגב GO UP THIS WAY SOUTHWARD — It (the South) was the worst part of the Land of Israel. He bid them spy this out first because such is the way of merchants: they show a prospective purchaser the inferior goods first, and afterwards they show the best (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 6).

"Go up this way through the Negeb" — go up by this route through the Negeb. It is well known that Egypt lies to the south (Negeb) of the Land of Israel, as I explained in my commentary on Daniel. The proof is that the latitude of Egypt is less than thirty degrees, while the latitude of Jerusalem is thirty-three degrees; and the wilderness of Paran is to the south of Egypt. The meaning of "through the Negeb" here is therefore not the south of the camp, but rather the south of the Land of Canaan — the proof being Hebron, which belongs to Judah, and the verse states, "Judah shall stand on its border to the south" (Josh. 15:1).

!עלו זה בנגב. Moses wanted them to commence their mission from the very spot the Israelites found themselves in at this time, i.e. in the south of the land of Canaan. He considered that at this point entry into the land of Canaan would not present any difficulty and they would not have to travel around the country inn order to enter from a more distant location.

וישלח אותם משה, Moses sent them on their way, etc. Why did the Torah need to write the first half of this verse; we have heard about this both in verse 3 and in verse 16? Perhaps the verse was meant to tell us that Moses accompanied them a short distance when they departed as this is a halachic requirement. The Torah speaks about לתור to indicate that Moses warned the spies that they were engaged in a dangerous mission.

עלו זה בנגב, “ascend from this point in the south!” Kadesh was at the southernmost part of the land of Israel. (Ibn Ezra) ועליתם את ההר, “and climb up into the mountains.” Once you have seen the land from the mountains, it will be easier to conquer its lowlands. (B’chor shor)

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.

"And you shall see the land — what it is; and the people who dwell upon it, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many."

את הארץ מה הוא AND SEE THE LAND; WHAT IT IS — There are countries which rear strong people and there are countries which rear weak people; there are such as produce a large population and there are such as produce a small population (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 6). החזק הוא הרפה WHETHER THEY ARE STRONG OR WEAK — He gave them a sign: if they live in open cities they are strong, since they evidently rely on their own strength, but if they live in fortified cities they are weak (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 6).

"And you shall see what the land is, and what the people" — that is, and what the people are like. "Strong" — for battle. After this [Moses] explains what the land is like: is its air and its water good?

וראיתם את הארץ מה היא. If it is mostly populated in open cities or walled cities, like fortresses. ואת העם היושב עליה, to find out if the ecological conditions favoured successful settlement in cities. In other words, if sick people would be referred by their physicians to such cities and to such a climate to help them regain their health. They would judge this by the appearance of the inhabitants of such cities; if they appeared healthy, strong, of good posture, etc. They would also observe if the people were numerous, had large families, or if somehow they were few in numbers. Large numbers of people, and people looking strong and fit, would indicate that the climate was good and favoured large-scale settlement.

וראיתם את הארץ מה היא, "and you will observe the nature of the land." This was a reference to the climate of the land, the topography of the land such as whether it had many natural sources of water, and if such sources of water were pure or contaminated, etc. Moses referred to those aspects of the land which anyone traversing it can determine with ease. When he told the spies to evaluate the people, i.e. ואת העם היושב עליה, he asked them to evaluate if the nature of the people, their health, their strength, etc. reflected that the land they lived on had contributed to these people's being healthy, etc. Moses suggested that the health of its inhabitants was proof of the goodness of the land these people dwelled on. Seeing that it could be argued that if the people were extremely robust this might be due to such factors as healthy living habits, in particular not overindulging in sex, he asked the spies to find out if the people were numerous or relatively few in numbers. If the people were numerous this too would be testimony to the topographical and climatic conditions being favourable. Why did the Torah always mention the positive alternative first whereas when describing the size of the population Moses chose to mention the negative aspect, i.e. an underpopulated country first? In view of the manner in which Moses phrased his instructions we must conclude that he considered it a positive factor if the spies would find the land underpopulated, i.e. if its population was מעט. Perhaps Moses connected the number of people in the land to the strength of these people. If the people were exceptionally strong this would be proof of the quality of the land as only in very few places on the globe does the land produce such powerful people. If, on the other hand, the population would be found to be numerous, there are many countries which are fully populated. Moses remained consistent in always naming the positive alternative first. This also explains why Moses spoke about "the land" first and about "the people" next only to revert again to "the land."

“Is it strong or weak.” Rashi explains that [Moses] gave them a sign, etc. This is difficult — from where did Rashi derive this interpretation? If it’s because he found it problematic how they would know whether they [the inhabitants] were strong or not, since they weren’t going to fight them, then the same question should apply to the spies’ statement: However, the people who inhabit the land are strong, and the cities are fortified (Numbers 13:28), etc. Since they saw fortified cities, they should have assumed that the inhabitants were weak, which is why they lived in fortified cities. But clearly they said that they observed with their senses that the sign was invalid, because despite the fortified cities, the people were still strong. How did they know this? Certainly, they said this because they saw them physically as tall giants and people of great stature. If so, perhaps Is it strong should be understood literally, even though it should have said “Are there camps or fortifications?” But from the fact that it says with the letter bet [in] Are they in camps, it suggests that it’s referring to the inhabitants. Nevertheless, Rashi explains this sign on the verse Is it strong or weak? It appears that Rashi has a difficulty, for Moses should have begun with a positive note, so why did he start with a negative one? For the Holy One, blessed be He, had already said that [the land] was good, and it would have been proper to begin each particular aspect according to God’s word, as it is written regarding all the [other] particulars: Is it good or bad? Is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? (Numbers 13:19-20). In all of these, he began with praise, but here he began with disparagement, because is it strong implies something bad for Israel and causes them harm. Therefore, Rashi explained that Moses gave them a sign, and each [aspect] is easy from one perspective and difficult from another. For the statement is it strong is difficult for Israel from the perspective that the people are fierce, but it is good for Israel because presumably they dwell in unwalled cities, and it would be easy to approach them. And the statement or weak — if it is good from the perspective of their weakness, nevertheless it is not good in that they dwell in fortified cities. Thus, these [considerations] are balanced, and likewise in camps or in strongholds — each is easy from one perspective and difficult from another, so they are balanced.

וראיתם את הארץ מה היא, if, the first part of the country you encounter is wooded, mountainous, flat, cultivated, etc. This was necessary so that the army could plan what equipment was needed for the opening stages of the campaign. The people were convinced that G’d would give them the land of Canaan, but they anticipated that this would not be without efforts on their part. Even if there would not be actual fighting and casualties, at least they would have to prepare for this eventuality.

"And what is the land in which they dwell — whether it is good or bad; and what are the cities in which they dwell — whether they are unwalled or fortified."

הבמחנים — The Targum rendering is: “whether in open places” i.e. in cities open and exposed — without a wall. הטובה הוא WHETHER IT IS GOOD, through possessing springs and other good and healthy supplies of water.

WHETHER IT IS GOOD OR BAD. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented [that the meaning thereof is that they are to see] “if the Land is good, namely that its air is good, and its waters are good.” Then Moses continued, whether it is fat, meaning “capable of producing wheat” and many fruits. The correct interpretation is that whether it is ‘good’ includes all good things, and in the word ra’ah [or ‘bad’] are included all evils. [If so, the question arises why Moses continued with the apparently superfluous command to find out whether the Land is fat or lean, since it is already included in the phrases good and bad?] It is possible, however, that a good land is fruitful and its fruits are fat, and it produces fat products such as balsam and oil, dates and figs and similar things. But [it is also possible] that it is good and yet lean, and always needs rain, and must be hoed and fertilized very much, and its fruits have a tendency to be dry although they are better and last longer than the fat ones. In such a land are to be found very many “lean” fruits, such as nuts, almonds, apples, carobs and fruits of the forests. Thus [by saying that the spies are to ascertain whether the Land is fat or lean Moses] meant “whether it is a fat land, as valleys are, or a lean land like the mountains.” Onkelos, however, translated [whether it is fat or lean as] “whether it is rich or poor,” for there are countries whose inhabitants are rich because of the low prices prevalent among them, and their neighbors trade with them in all the good things found among them, and there are some countries whose inhabitants are dependent upon their neighbors and their inhabitants are of small power, although they are good [lands] and not at all bad.‘And be ye of good courage’, and bring [of the fruit of the Land]. This means that they are not to be afraid when taking of the fruit of the Land that they might be recognized by the people as spies.

"In encampments" — like the Kedarites, who encamp in tents.

הטובה היא, was the water supply plentiful and not contaminated. Moses had stressed in Deuteronomy 8,7 that G’d was bringing the people to a location which was “good” in the sense that it possessed brooks and rivers with pure water. הבמחנים, if they lived in open cities, a sign that they felt secure, not expecting any war, אם במבצרים, or in walled, fortified towns, suggesting that the inhabitants were afraid of being invaded. Compare Devorah’s song in Judges 5,7 where she bemoans the fact that her people had ceased to live in open cities.

ומה הארץ אשר הוא יושב בה, "and what is the earth like that the people dwell on." In this verse Moses referred to the infrastructure and standard of living that the spies would find in the land of Canaan. Were the houses the people lived in of sound construction? Were their chattels of good quality, etc? We will find in Deut. 6,10 that Moses describes the towns and houses the Israelites would inherit in the land of Canaan as of good quality. Moses asked the spies also to find out whether the towns were planned defensively, i.e. as fortresses surrounded by walls or whether they were open cities, as these factors had great bearing on the beauty of the respective towns. Bamidbar Rabbah 17 claims that Moses gave the spies a sign suggesting that fortified cities were an indication that its inhabitants felt insecure, etc. whereas open cities testified to the people's confidence in their ability to repel any potential intruder. This is pure homiletics. The plain meaning of the words is that the questions all related to the quality of the land and that Moses took it for granted that the people were of exceptionally great physique and included giants. One did not have to send out spies to find out this well known fact. The only reason Moses referred to the physical prowess of the people was to emphasise the miracle G'd would perform in disinheriting these people of their land.

אם רעה, “or if it is bad;” if the land is pleasant (climatewise). or if its waters are bad and cause bereavement. In reply to these questions the spies upon returning, answered Moses that the land devoured its inhabitants. (verse 32).

הטובה היא אם רעה, “if it is good or bad, etc.” Nachmanides quotes Ibn Ezra as interpreting the word טובה as referring to the climate in the land of Canaan, and as describing the country’s water supply as offering clear and unpolluted water for its inhabitants. When asking the spies to determine if the land was שמנה, fat, Moses referred to the quality of its produce, in particular the quality of its wheat. Nachmanides holds that the word טובה is an all encompassing word describing the sum total of what the land had to offer, whereas the word רעה refers to any negative aspects that this land presented to potential conquerors. It is possible that the expression ארץ טובה referred to the land and its produce being שמנה, good, yielding especially rich flour and its figs and dates being especially rich in flavour. Another possible meaning of the words טובה and רעה may refer to the rainfall, i.e. if the land enjoyed adequate natural rains or if the soil needed to be supplemented with water from rivers of cisterns. It is also possible that both the word טובה and רזה referred to “lean” fruit such as walnuts, carobs, etc, as opposed to the seven types of fruit for which the land was famous, including grapes, olives, pomegranates dates, etc. However, Onkelos translates the words as עתירא and מסכנא respectively, which would mean “wealthy” and “poor,” respectively. Onkelos understands Moses as referring to the inhabitants of the land rather than to the land itself. These countries are self sufficient, their soil supplying all their needs so that they do not need to import any necessities, whereas their neighbours may be relatively poor because they have to import necessities, which is far more costly.

ומה הארץ אשר הוא יושב, seeing that the words ומה הארץ of which we said that they referred to the parts of the country which the invaders would face immediately, an area not populated, now the Torah refers to other parts of the land of Canaan which were fully populated. Hence the words: בארץ אשר הם יושבים בה הטובה היא אם רעה, if the land produces ample harvests so that the invaders would be able to supply themselves with locally grown produce instead of bringing the food supply with them. הבמחנים, whether the inhabitants live in open cities or in fortresses. All this kind of information was needed so that they would know to take with them the tools needed to lay siege to fortresses, for instance.

"And what is the land — whether it is rich or poor; whether there are trees in it or not. And be strong, and take of the fruit of the land." Now the days were the days of the first-ripened grapes.

היש בה עץ WHETHER THERE ARE TREES IN IT [OR NOT] — i.e. whether there is a righteous man amongst them who will protect them by his merits (cf. Bava Batra 15a). בכורי ענבים — [AND THE DAYS WERE THE DAYS OF] THE FIRSTLING OF THE GRAPES — i.e. the days when the grapes were ripening at its early stage of growth.

"Is it fat" — so as to produce wheat.

השמנה היא, does it possess riches, surpluses, as Moses said in Deuteronomy 8,9 לא במסכנות תאכל בה לחם, “where you will eat bread without having to stint.” היש בה עץ, are there fruit trees, such as grape vines, fig trees, pomegranate trees and olive trees. והתחזקתם ולקחתם מפרי הארץ, do not be afraid that the local inhabitants will notice your taking some produce and will attack you on account of that. והימים ימי בכורי ענבים, the fruit for which the land is famous had not even fully ripened as yet as it was still early in the season. Even so, what they would see would be enough to convince them of the excellence of the land.

ומה הארץ השמנה היא, and what about the land, is it fat, etc.? Did this land impart its fat to the fruit it produced without becoming impoverished, or was it such that after each harvest it became impoverished, רזה, so that it had to be given a year's rest before being sown again? היש בה עץ, is it wooded, etc.? The word עץ refers to the variety of trees to be found there. The words אם אין mean if there is any known kind of tree that cannot be found in that land? This is what Moses had in mind when he said in Deut. 8,9 that the land of Canaan was a land that lacked nothing (good).

והתחזקתם, “be of good courage.” They needed to be on their guard, seeing that it was the beginning of the harvest season and the farmers would watch their crops against thieves.

Is there a tree in it or not, Our Rabbis of blessed memory (Bava Batra 15) explained: [Moses asked] if there is a righteous person there who would protect them like a tree that provides shade and protects all who gather under its shadow. And about this it is said, Their shade [tzilam] has departed from them, because Job had already died. A hint to this is that the numerical value of tzilam equals that of etz [tree]. And some say tree [etz] refers to Utz, which is Job who was from the land of Utz. And according to the hidden interpretation, when he said Is there a tree in it or not, it is similar to what Israel said, Is the Lord in our midst or not? For Israel was not doubtful about the existence of the Blessed Holy One, as it does not say “Is there God or not,” but rather they knew that God exists but were uncertain whether He was in their midst watching over them, or if He had placed them under the rule of the natural order. Similarly, Moses wanted to investigate whether that land dwells under the shadow of the Almighty and is a land that the eyes of the Lord seek constantly, or if it is under the natural order like other lands. He hinted with the word tree to the “shadow of the Almighty,” and the four-letter Name is alluded to in the word tree. How so? Yod-heh: yod times heh and heh times yod equals 100. Vav-heh: vav times heh and heh times vav equals 60. In total, 160, which is the numerical value of etz [tree] and tzilam [shadow]. And this is what is meant by Their shadow has departed from them, leaving them to chance occurrences, whereas “the Lord is with us, our guardian and our shade.” And from the statement from them, we can learn that His shade was over that land, except that it departed from above them due to the wickedness of its inhabitants. But the land itself is inherently a land that the eyes of the Lord seek. And he said, “Strengthen yourselves and take from the fruit of the land.” Since it was the time of the first ripe grapes and the owners are particular about taking [their fruit], nevertheless strengthen yourselves and be as men, for the Lord is with you. And by way of allusion, he said that Israel is compared to grapes, as it is written, Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel (Hosea 9:10). And in the Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni, Vayeshev 40:146, see there), they said, Its clusters ripened into grapes — the time has come for Israel to be redeemed. About this it says here, And the days were the days of the first ripe grapes — the time has come for them to enter the land, for they have already ripened and matured, and all their perfection has been completed through the Torah that they received.

והתחזקתם ולקחתם מפרי הארץ, “strengthen yourselves, and take from the fruit of the land.” Moses encourages the spies not to be afraid of “stealing” from the produce and thereby drawing attention to themselves as spies.

השמנה היא, to inform the Israelites on their return if the land was indeed “flowing with milk and honey,” as G’d had led them to believe. והתחזקתם, give yourselves the appearance of self confident men, men who are not afraid of anything. והימים ימי בכורי הענבים, the reason the Torah mentions this is because the spies brought with them a cluster of locally grown grapes.

So they went up and scouted the land, from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob at the approach to Hamath.

ממדבר צן עד רחב לבא חמת [SO THEY WENT UP AND SEARCHED THE LAND] FROM THE DESERT OF ZIN UNTO REHOB, AS MEN COME TO HAMATH — They went along its (the Land’s) boundaries lengthwise and broadwise in the form of a gamma (the third letter of the Greek alphabet, Γ), viz., they went along the side which forms the southern boundary from its eastern corner to the western corner, just as Moses had bidden them, (v. 17) “Go up this way southwards”, i.e. the way of the south border from its eastern Point up to the Mediterranean Sea, for the Sea is the western boundary of the Land. From there they turned and went along the entire western boundary on the sea-coast up to the point whence one goes on to Hamath which is situated near Mount Hor in the North-western corner, as is set forth in the section dealing with the “boundaries of the Land” in the Sedrah אלה מסעי (Numbers 34:7—8).

ממדבר צין עד רחוב לבא חמת, “from the desert of Tzin in the south, as far north as the approaches to Chamat.” They crossed the country diagonally from south to North, and from North to South. The verses that we read in Parshat Massey confirms this.

They went up, therefore, and explored the country, from the wilderness of Zin, unto the roads by which thou comest unto Antiochia.

They went up through the south and came to Hebron, and there were Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the sons of the mighty men. Now Hebron was built seven years before Tanis of Egypt.

ויבא עד חברון [AND THEY WENT UP BY THE SOUTH] AND HE CAME UNTO HEBRON — Caleb alone went there and prostrated himself on the graves of the Patriarchs, offering prayer that he might be helped not to give way to the enticement of his colleagues and join them in their counsel. You may see that it was Caleb who went there, for so indeed it (Scripture) states, (Deuteronomy 1:36) “[Save Caleb the son of Jephunnch, he shall see it] and unto him will I give the land upon which he hath trodden!” and it is written, (Judges 1:20) “And they gave Hebron unto Caleb” (Sotah 34b) שבע שנים נבנתה [NOW HEBRON] WAS BUILT SEVEN YEARS [BEFORE ZOAN IN EGYPT] — Is it possible that Ham (who was the father of both Canaan and Mizraim; cf. Genesis 10:6) would have built Hebron for Canaan, his younger son, before he built Zoan for Mizraim, his elder son? But the meaning is that it was furnished (lit., built up) with all excellencies seven times better than Zoan. It (Scripture), by mentioning this, means to tell you the excellency of the Land of Israel. For you have no rockier ground in the Land of Israel than Hebron, — for this reason, indeed, they set it apart for a place of burial — and there is, on the other hand, no soil in any country as good as that of Egypt, for it states, (Genesis 13:10) “like the garden of the Lord, viz., like the Land of Egypt”. Now Zoan must have been the best part in the land Egypt since the residence of the kings was there, as it is said, (Jes. 30:4) “For in Zoan were its princes”, and yet Hebron was seven times better than it (Sotah 34b; Ketuvot 112a).

AND HEBRON ‘NIVNETHAH’ (WAS BUILT) SEVEN YEARS BEFORE ZOAN IN EGYPT. “Is it possible that Ham [Noah’s son, the father of both Canaan and Mitzraim], built Hebron for Canaan, his younger son, before he built Zoan for Mitzraim, his elder son? Rather, you must say that [the meaning of the word nivnethah] is m’vunah (“built up” — i.e., furnished, supplied) with all excellent qualities, seven times more than Zoan [in Egypt]. The verse thus comes to tell you of the wonderful quality of the Land of Israel.” This is Rashi’s language. It appears to me according to the plain meaning [of Scripture] that Hebron is Kiryath-arba, the greatest man of the Anakim having the name Arba, and it was he who built it [Hebron], therefore it was called by his name; just as it is said, Now the name of Hebron beforetime was Kiryath-arba, which Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim. This man begot a son whom he named Anak, and it was after him that they [the inhabitants of Hebron] were called Anakim. Therefore Scripture states [here in our verse] that there in Hebron were Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, and Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt, meaning to say that Arba built it for his son Anak seven years before the building of Zoan in Egypt, which was an ancient city. [Scripture thereby] tells of the longevity of these people, for just as they were exceptional in their height so also they lived longer than other peoples; since Hebron was built [by Arba] for their father [i.e., Anak, the father of these giants Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai] before Zoan in Egypt, and many generations had elapsed since then [the founding of Zoan] until now. It is possible that [in saying that Hebron was built seven years before Zoan Scripture] is alluding to that which it said, whether it is fat or lean, [implying] that Hebron was very ancient and nonetheless still produced fat and large fruits, as Scripture tells about the bunch of grapes, and how much more so the newer [parts of the] Land, which was more fertile. It may be that Arba [and not, as explained above, a son of his, called Anak], was the father of Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, and he was called Arba [literally “four”] because there were [altogether] four Anakim [“giants” — the three sons, Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, and their father. According to this we would not have to postulate, as explained above, the existence of a son of Arba whom he named Anak, and who was the ancestor of the people called Anakim]. And the verse which states even Kiryath-arba, which Arba was the father of ‘Anak’ — the same is Hebron [from which you might deduce that Arba indeed had a son, called Anak, uses the singular as a generic term and] means “the father of Anakim.” Therefore Scripture speaks of [Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai as the sons of] Anak and as the children ‘ha’anak’ (of Anak), that is, the children of the greatest [giant] of them all [Arba], just as it says, which Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim;...

The Sages said that the meaning of "he came" refers to Caleb son of Jephunneh, for each [of the spies] went in a different direction. "Zoan of Egypt" — the name of a region near Egypt. Similarly [the verse], "from Bethlehem of Judah" (Judg. 17:7 etc.). Some say its meaning derives from the root of "a tent that will not be struck" (אֹהֶל בַּל יִצְעַן, Isa. 33:20), referring to a distant journey. The reason the text mentions Hebron is to make known that it is very ancient.

ויבא עד חברון, “he came as far as Chevron;” we have a sudden switch from the plural mode to the singular mode, which raises the question of who it was that the Torah speaks of in this verse. Our sages understand this to be a reference to Caleb whom they credit with the urge to pay his respects to the graves of the patriarchs and his desire to get moral support against the negative attitude of most of his companions. This is Rashi’s interpretation. He felt the need to do this as Moses had not prayed for him especially, as he had done for his colleague Joshua. An alternate interpretation of the line: “he came to Chevron:” it is customary for the Torah to apply the singular mode even when speaking about a number of spies or members of an ambush, as we know from Joshua 8,19 where we read: והאורב קם ממקומו, “and the ambush (the men comprising it) arose from where it had been hiding.” ושם אחימן, the Torah mentions this giant by name as the spies later on in their report refer to descendants of a race of giants whom they had encountered, i.e. in verse 28, where we read: “we also saw a race of giants there.” The Torah wanted us to know where precisely the spies had come face to face with such people. (B’chor shor)[All this is part of the peculiar fact that although the spies reported faithfully what they had seen and where, they drew the wrong conclusions from their observations. Ed.] וחברון שבע שנים נבנתה לפני צוען מצרים, “and the town Chevron had been built seven years earlier than the capital of Egypt, Tzoan.” The race of giants had not yet died out, as they had survived from earlier generations. The reason why this is of importance is to tell us that the conclusion drawn by the spies that the land of Canaan “consumes its inhabitants,” (verse 32) was contradicted by what they themselves reported as having seen. לפני צוען מצרים, “prior to Tzoan in Egypt.” The Torah reminds you of the importance of the land of Canaan, compared to the land of Egypt before they had emigrated from it. The spies had been aware of these historical facts, [and they should have concluded from this that the land of Canaan certainly does not “consume its inhabitants.” Ed.].

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.

And Hebron was built seven years before Zoan of Egypt. The Rabbis of blessed memory explained (Sotah 34b) that it [Hebron] was built to be seven times as good as Zoan in all respects. However, the phrase seven years before does not seem to indicate this meaning, because even if we say that the word before refers to superiority in quality rather than precedence in time, nevertheless seven years specifically speaks about temporal precedence. Many commentators have attempted to resolve this issue but have not found a satisfactory explanation. And I say that the matter is literally as its simple meaning, because since it is established that the language of “building” can apply to fruits, then if Zoan produced a thousand measures every year, in seven years it would reach seven thousand measures. And since Hebron is seven times superior to Zoan, it naturally produced seven thousand measures in the first year. So it turns out that the storehouses of produce that were “built up” with fruits in Zoan over seven years were “built up” in Hebron in just the first year. Therefore, it is correctly stated that Hebron was built seven years before Zoan of Egypt — literally preceding it in time. And the language of “building” is literally appropriate here because where there is much produce, many storehouses are built, and then the place is literally built with buildings. Or, since the inhabitants of the place have much produce to sell, they accumulate silver and gold and build for themselves fine and important houses. So Hebron was built with all kinds of beauty seven years before Zoan of Egypt, as this testifies to the wealth of the place and the abundance of their produce, for the profit of the land is in all things. And it mentioned the praise of the land over the land of Egypt because they would eventually say Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt. For this reason it says he came to Hebron and not they came, because when they came to Hebron and saw there the superiority of the land over Egypt, they were all of one heart, as one man, to tell of the praise of the land. And afterward they were corrupted, but at that moment they were righteous.

וחברון שבע שנים נבנתה לפני צוען מצרים, “and Chevron had been founded seven years earlier that Tzoan in Egypt.” Nachmanides writes that following the plain meaning of the text Chevron is identical with the town קרית ארבע that is familiar to us from the time of Avraham. That town had been named after the tallest of a race of giants whose name had been ארבע, and he had built that town. This is why it was named after him. Not only that, but the giants were also named after him. When we are told that in Chevron there used to live Achiman, Sheyshay and Talmay descendents of Anak, the Torah means that Arba had built that town already seven years earlier than Tzoan, a famous ancient town in Egypt had been founded. The point of all this is to inform us of the extraordinary long lifespan of this race of giants. They were not only of extraordinary physical proportions, but they also lived extraordinarily long lives. Their life spans made them parts of a number of generations, all of whom were born and buried while these people continued alive. It is possible that the word השמנה היא used by Moses as something worth investigating, was intended to show that Chevron, in spite of its being ancient, still produced such outstandingly good grapes. How much better must be the fruit in the parts of the country that had been under cultivation for far less time so that its soil had not yet become weakened.

ויבא עד חברון. The well known aggadic comment is widely perceived as the plain meaning of this verse, i.e. that the verse (in the singular, “he came”) refers to Calev of whom the Torah reports “to him I will give the land which he crossed on foot.” (Deuteronomy 1,36) (2) BEFORE TZO'AN OF EGYPT. According to the plain sense, it was built before Tzo'an, and also, the older city is more important than the new city. For Israel were familiar with the importance of Tzo'an; it was necessary to say that the cities of Israel were more important. And also, because of its age, there giants there who were from the early generations.

They came to the Valley of the Cluster and cut from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two men; and they also took of the pomegranates and of the figs.

זמורה (lit., AND THEY CUT DOWN FROM THENCE) A BRANCH [AND ONE CLUSTER OF GRAPES] — i.e. a vine branch with a cluster of grapes hanging from it (not as the text might suggest, that they cut a branch and they cut also a cluster of grapes), וישאהו במוט בשנים AND THEY BARE IT UPON A POLE BETWEEN TWO — From what is implied in the statement “And they bare it upon a pole”, do I not know that it was carried by two men”? why then does it add the word בשנים? It means, not as you assume, “by two men” but “upon two poles”. How was that done? Eight of the spies bore the cluster of grapes. Besides these, one spy took the fig and one the pomegranate, but Joshua and Caleb did not take anything (although all of them were bidden to do so; cf. v. 20), because the very essence of their (the other spies’) intention was only to bring an evil report: “Just as its fruit is extraordinary in size, so is its people extraordinary in size”. — Now if you wish to know how much was the burden of each of them, go and learn from the weight of the stones which they erected at Gilgal; for it is related (Joshua 4:5 and 20) that each man lifted by himself one stone from out of the Jordan on to his shoulder, and set it up at Gilgal; — and our Rabbis ascertained the weight of each stone to be forty Seahs, and it is an accepted fact that a load which a person can by himself lift up on to his shoulder is only the third of the load he can carry if people assist him in lifting it up (Sotah 34b).

"To the valley of Eshcol" — these are the words of Moses [i.e., the narrator]. It is possible that this is like "he pursued as far as Dan" (Gen. 14:14), in that it is a later name [applied retrospectively].

ויכרתו משם זמורה ואשכול, “they cut from there a branch with a cluster of grapes.” From this little detail we are to learn two lessons, (i.e. from the letter ו at the beginning of the word אשכול). From the branch they made a pole to carry the cluster by. וישאוהו במוט בשנים, “they bore it on a pole between the two of them. The pomegranates and the cluster of grapes were carried separately by different men.

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.

That place was called the Valley of the Cluster, on account of the cluster which the children of Israel cut from there.

"He called" — [the subject is] the one who called [i.e., an unnamed caller], as in, "whom she bore to Levi" (Num. 26:59), where the subject is likewise unspecified.

על אודות האשכול אשר כרתו משם בני ישראל. The Canaanites were surprised about these Israelites who considered this cluster of grapes as something so extraordinary that they cut it off the vine and transported it all the way to their people without bothering to eat it. They were well aware that their country produced far bigger clusters of grapes than the one the spies had taken. The name נחל אשכול reflects the Canaanites’ amazement and who named the location thus.

למקום ההוא קרא נחל אשכול, he called that place: "the valley of the cluster." The subject in the verse is G'd who had named this place in anticipation of its significance in the future. We know this because the Torah described the spies at arriving at נחל אשכול before any mention was made about their having cut off a cluster of grapes. [Besides, the word קרא as opposed to ויקרא shows that the place had already been known by that name. Ed.] The Torah writes: אשר כרתו משם בני ישראל, "which the Israelites had cut from there." You may well ask that many people on many occasions have cut clusters of grapes in that valley. Why would the cluster the Israelites had cut there be singled out? The remarkable thing was that though only 12 Israelites had come there at the time, the Torah describes them as if they were the whole Jewish people, i.e. בני ישראל. Seeing that these 12 men were the representatives of the people the Torah describes them as the people, i.e. בני ישראל. We find something parallel in Exodus 12,6 where the Torah writes: ושחטו כל עדת ישראל "and the whole community of Israel will slaughter." As a rule the priest slaughtered the Passover; seeing he was the delegate of the people the act of slaughtering is attributed to the people themselves.

That place was called Nachal Eshkol [the Valley of the Cluster]. Because for many days this place was called Eshkol, as explained in Yalkut [Midrash] Parshat Chayei Sarah (102:23) and in this Parsha (743:13). And because of this incident they called it Nachal Eshkol — they added the name “Nachal” [valley/stream] to it. This was to praise the Land of Israel, because the best vines typically grow in mountains, as they ripen better due to the sun having greater impact on mountains than in valleys. Yet they took a cluster from the valley in the lowland, and nevertheless it was large and superior — all the more so for the clusters from the mountains. This explains why they didn’t simply call it “Eshkol.”And earlier in Parshat Nasso (5:17) regarding the bitter waters, I explained that the waters of Marah were actually sweet, but in the mouths of the Israelites they became bitter. Therefore, it needed to say there therefore it was called Marah — so that we wouldn’t understand from the name Marah that they were bitter beforehand. Similarly, the Akeidah explains that it was necessary to inform us that it was called Eshkol because of this cluster that they cut from there, so you wouldn’t say that it was always called Eshkol because superior clusters were found there, which would actually be evidence of the land’s disgrace, suggesting that there were no clusters like these in the rest of the land. Therefore it says that throughout the land it was the same, and they just happened to take what came to hand. And the reason it was called Nachal Eshkol was because of [this specific] cluster. It can also be interpreted that it was called “Eshkol” related to lamah eshkal shneihem yom echad (“why should I be bereaved of both of you in one day” — Genesis 27:45), because this place caused them to become bereaved, as they said, “Just as its fruit is unusual, so are its people.” Because of this, the children of Israel were “cut off” from there, as they all were cut off and perished completely. Therefore it says which the children of Israel cut from there.

And they returned from scouting the land at the end of forty days.

וישבו מתור הארץ מקץ ארבעים יום AND THEY RETURNED FROM THE SEARCHING OF THE LAND AT THE END OF FORTY DAYS — But surely it was four hundred Parsangs (Persian miles) by four hundred Parsangs (Megillah 3a). And the journey of an average man is ten Parsangs a day (Pesachim 94a) and consequently it was a distance of forty days from east to west alone, whilst they traveled during that period along its length and breadth! But the fact is that it was manifest before the Holy One, blessed be He, that He would make a decree against them, "a day for a year" (cf. Numbers 14:34), therefore He shortened the road for them (i. e. He made them cover ground rapidly) (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 8).

Sometimes מִקֵּץ means 'from the beginning,' and sometimes it means 'from the end.' Here it is possible that it means the beginning of the forty [days].

מקץ ארבעים יום, “at the end of forty days;” they had commenced their mission on the 29th day of Sivan, and concluded it on the 8th day of the month of Av close to evening. The month of Tammuz in that year had thirty days. (Talmud, tractate Taanit folio 29)

They went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to the entire assembly of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Rekam; and they brought back a report to them and to the entire assembly, and showed them the fruit of the land.

וילכו ויבאו AND THEY WENT AND CAME [TO MOSES] — What is the force of “they went” (we have been informed that they had returned; why afterwards make any reference to their going on the journey)? It is intended to compare their “going” with their “coming" to Moses! How was their coming to Moses? With an evil plan! So, too, was their “going” on the journey with an evil plan (i.e. that when they were travelling they had already resolved to bring back an evil report)! (Sotah 35a). וישיבו אתם דבר AND THEY BROUGHT BACK WORD UNTO THEM — unto Moses and Aaron (for the Congregation is mentioned separately).

"And they went" — to inform us that they did not go to their own tents in the camp, but went directly [to Moses and Aaron]. "And they brought back word to them" — to Moses and Aaron.

אל מדבר פארן קדשה, to the part of the desert of Paran facing Kadesh Barnea.

וילכו ויבאו, they went and they came, etc. Why did the Torah have to tell us that the spies "went" when we have already been informed of their going on their way in at least three verses? Our sages in Sotah 35 say that the Torah wanted to compare their return to their departure. Just as they returned with wicked advice their departure had already been marked by with evil intent." Why was the Torah interested in informing us of this detail? All that mattered was the advice they came back with! We may understand the verse better when we keep in mind something we learned in Kidushin 39. The Talmud quotes Rabbi Yaakov as saying that when we find a מצוה written in the Torah and its reward is spelled out, the reward is paid only after the resurrection, i.e. a considerable period of time even after one's death. This explained the famous incident when a father ordered his son to climb a tree and take the young chicks and the son fell off the ladder and was killed. This occurred in spite of the fact that he had been in the process of fulfilling both the commandment of שלוח הקן and the commandment of honouring his father at one and the same time. In both instances the Torah promised long life for the fulfilment of this commandment (Deut. 5,16, Deut. 7,22) To the question of what happened to the fulfilment of the Torah's promise of longevity, Rabbi Yaakov answered that the Torah referred to a life which by itself was long, i.e. that the fulfilment of that commandment assured one that one would be resurrected in due course. The Talmud adds that Rabbi Yaakov was an eye witness to the occurrence mentioned. To the question that perhaps the son who climbed the ladder had sinful intentions at that moment, the answer given is that G'd does not punish someone for mere sinful intentions when these intentions have not yet been translated into practice. The Talmud then questions that idolatrous intentions are punishable even if they had not been carried out. The Talmud answers that Rabbi Yaakov also made the following statement: "should you believe that there is a reward in this life for מצות performed, then why did the fact that the son was involved on a sacred mission not at least protect him against this mishap? Do we not have a rule enunciated by Rabbi Eleazar that people engaged in the execution of a sacred duty do not suffer mishaps either on the way out or on the way home from such a מצוה?" The Talmud answers that the ladder in question was not stable and under conditions of obvious hazard Rabbi Eleazar's dictum does not apply. There is another difficulty here and that is that the Talmud in Sotah 21 comes to the conclusion that being involved in the performance of a מצוה does protect the person involved against a new hazard though it does not save him from an existing hazard which he had been aware of at that time. In view of all this, what proof does Rabbi Yaakov have to offer that the מצוה did not protect the son in the example he witnessed against idolatr...

אל מדבר פארן קדשה, to the desert of Paran, toward Kadesh.” The desert of Paran, the desert of Tzin, Kadesh Barnea, and Ritma, were all very near one another. All this is clear from Numbers 33,18, as well as verse 36 there. Compare also Numbers 32,8.

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.

They told him and said: "We came to the land to which you sent us, and it does indeed produce milk and honey — and this is its fruit."

זבת חלב ודבש [WE CAME INTO THE LAND … AND SURELY] IT FLOWETH WITH MILK AND HONEY — They stated this because no fabricated statement in which one does not say at least some true words at first can in the end be maintained (Sotah 35a).

AND SURELY IT FLOWETH WITH MILK AND HONEY. Since Moses had commanded them to see what the Land is, whether it is fat or lean the spies reported to him that it is fat, and surely it floweth with milk and honey. And in answer to his question whether there are trees therein or not they reported to him, and this is its fruit for so he had commanded them, to show it to him. Now in all this they said the truth, and gave a report about those matters which they had been commanded [to find out], therefore they should [indeed] have said [as in fact they did] that the people that dwell in the Land are fierce and the cities are fortified; for it was their duty to bring back words of truth to them that sent them, and Moses had commanded them [to see] whether they are strong or weak, [and what cities they are that they dwell in], whether in camps, or in strongholds. But the wickedness of the spies consisted in saying the word ephes [“nevertheless” — ‘Nevertheless’ the people that dwell in the Land are fierce], which signifies something negative and beyond human capability, something impossible of achievement, under any circumstances, similar to the expressions: ‘Ha’aphes’ lanetzach chasdo (Is His mercy ‘clean gone’ for ever?); and there is none else; ‘ephes’ (there is no other) G-d. Thus the spies told Moses that the Land is fertile and surely it floweth with milk and honey and the fruits are good, but it is impossible to fight against the people because they are fierce, and the cities are fortified, and very great; and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

"And they told him" — Moses, who is the principal one [addressed].

וגם זבת חלב ודבש היא; not only is it a good land, but it deserves the superlative “a land flowing with milk and honey.” The land yields its bounty without man having to engage in backbreaking labour. It produces abundantly in all areas of agriculture and cattle breeding.

ויספרו לו, They told him, etc. The Torah specifies: "to him" instead of to them, i.e. Moses and Aaron. The trick the spies played on Moses was that whereas ostensibly they addressed their words to Moses, they ensured that the whole community could hear them at the same time. The Torah teaches us this nuance by adding ויאמרו without the suffix "to him"; in this way we would understand that they made sure the people would hear what they had to say. באנו אל הארץ, "we have come to the land, etc." They meant that they arrived there without mishap. They added the words: "to which you have sent us," to make dear that they attributed their safe return from the land of Canaan to the fact that they had carried out Moses' commandment faithfully. Alternatively, they may have referred to the fact that 40 days earlier Moses had accompanied them on the commencement of their mission. They now acknowledged that Moses' merit then had assisted them in traversing the land and returning safely. Perhaps the words ויספרו לו were a reference by the Torah to the spies acknowledging that Moses' merit had assisted them. When the Torah failed to use the word לו after ויאמרו, the reason is that what followed applied to the Israelites as a whole and not to Moses in particular. וגם זבת חלב ודבש, "and it does indeed flow with milk and honey." The word וגם, "and also," is justified as it is a continuation of a previous comment the spies made, namely that they experienced G'd's protective hand while traversing the land. The goodness of the land was an additional positive element they were able to comment upon.

And it is indeed a land flowing with milk and honey. They said to Moses, “All the good things that you spoke in the name of God, not one of them has fallen to the ground unfulfilled, and as we heard, so we have seen.” This is what they meant when they said, We came to the land to which you sent us, for if there had been any difference in any aspect, it would have seemed as if this were not the land to which you sent us, since those characteristics would have been lacking. And in addition to your words, it is also a land flowing with milk and honey. However, in one matter we did not find things as you said, for you stated that it is a tested and proven sign that in a place where the people are strong, they dwell in unwalled cities. To this they said, However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are very large and fortified. For the term “efes” [however] is used like “ach” [but] and “rak” [only]. And look to the right and see that they said “cities that are very large and fortified.” And in the portion of Deuteronomy (1:28), Moses said that the spies said cities that are large and fortified up to the heavens. But we do not find that they said up to the heavens, rather Moses understood from their words a denial of the Holy One, blessed be He, because they said [the canaanite nation] is stronger than us/Him — as if even the master of the house cannot remove his vessels from there (Sotah 35a). And they said that this strength came to them from the stars of the heavens and their constellations, and this is what is meant by fortified up to the heavens — that their zodiac sign in the heavens is stronger than Him, as it were. Initially, they did not explicitly state this heresy and simply said very large fortifications, but when Caleb came and contradicted their words, they explicitly stated the heresy by saying for it is stronger than Him. And from the end of their words, it is evident that the beginning of their words was also heresy, as if they had said fortified up to the heavens.

וגם זבת חלב ודבש, “and it does flow with milk and honey.” Nachmaides writes that the word וגם “and also,” is in response to Moses having instructed the spies to find out if the land was “fat” or “lean” as well as to the question “does the country have trees or not?” The answer to the latter question was: “and this is its fruit.” Up until this point the spies reported the truth, replying to the questions that they had been asked to find out about. They should have continued to report that the people dwelling on the land were indeed stout hearted, and that they lived in fortified towns as Moses had also wanted to find out if the people were stout -hearted or weak willed. Their wickedness was displayed when they added the gratuitous word אפס, which is a term that introduces a contrary diminutive element, nullifying something that had been said before. It is a word that describes man’s impotence to carry out his plans; we find this word in Psalms 77,9 האפס לנצח חסדו, גמר אומר לדור ודור, “Has His faithfulness disappeared forever?” Will His promise be unfulfilled for all times?” By the use of this word they negated their previous statements about the excellence of the land into the reverse by proclaiming that their chances to conquer that land were nil,אפס .

"However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are exceedingly great and fortified, and moreover we saw the sons of the giants there."

בצרות is an expression for strength. Its rendering in the Targum is כריכן, a term for circular fortresses, for in the Aramaic language כריך means round.

אפס כי עז העם, it is impossible to conquer the land since we cannot defeat its people. Not only are the people tough, but the cities are fortified. The inhabitants of the land, the Amelakites hate us fiercely. They will engage in a preemptive war against us so that we should not even get near their borders.

אפס כי עז העם, "However the people are tough, etc." Seeing that Moses had specifically asked them to determine if the people who inhabited that land were strong or weak, they now had to report that the people were indeed formidable. Not only that but they dwelled in heavily fortified towns. They concluded that part of their report by mentioning that they had observed giants in the land. They stated this so that the Israelites should not think that the fact that the towns were fortified revealed weakness and lack of self confidence by the inhabitants. The words העם היושב עליה also mean that the people do not only dwell in towns but are scattered all over the land, i.e. they are not afraid of being attacked. You will find that Bamidbar Rabbah on verse 29 interprets the fact that the Amalekites dwelled in the South of the land as proof that they did not live in townships. The words היושב בה are a hint that only people of extraordinary physique are able to live on that land successfully.

אפס כי עז העם היושב בארץ והערים בצורות גדולותת however “the people are very fierce, and the cities are fortified and great;” they described two major drawbacks to the assumptions that these people were easy to dislodge. In addition to this, they spoke of the giants they had seen, וגם ילידי ענק ראינו שם, “and we have also seen the children of Anak (a giant) there.” We have read in Deuteronomy 9,2, that Moses reminded the new generation of Israelites that they had heard about the awesome reputation of these giants already from their parents who had described them as invincible

אפס כי עז העם...והערים וגו', “But…the people are powerful,… and the cities greatly fortified.” Even though by saying this they contradicted what they had said previously, as Rashi had pointed out, by reporting that the people lived in fortified cities they had indicated that they were afraid of invaders, only if they lived in open, unwalled cities, did this signify their confidence in their ability to repel attackers. Perhaps the spies did not even realize that their factual report contradicted the conclusions they had drawn. והערים בצורות גדולות מאד וגם בני ענקים ראינו שם, “and the cities are greatly fortified, and we even saw descendants of the dreaded giants there.” They added further:

"The Amalekite dwells in the land of the south; the Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Amorite dwell in the mountain; and the Canaanite dwells by the sea and along the bank of the Jordan."

עמלק יושב וגו׳ THE AMALEKITES ABIDE [IN THE LAND OF THE SOUTH] — Because they had already been “burnt” by Amalek, the spies mentioned him first in order to terrify them (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 9). ועל ידי הירדן AND BY THE יד OF THE JORDAN — יד means what it literally implies: beside the Jordan. They meant: the Canaanites live on the bank of the Jordan and therefore you will be unable to cross it.

They also said, Amalek dwelleth in the land of the south by which they intended to allege that there was no direction from which they could enter the Land, as all [its inhabitants] are strong men, for Amalek dwells in the south, and the Canaanite in the west and in the east, and the Amorite in the mountains. Thus they reported that which they had been sent [to find out], in such a way as to discourage the people’s confidence by means of allusion [and not openly], because they were afraid of Moses and Aaron. Thus they gave an answer to all that Moses commanded them [to ascertain], except for his statement [that they were to see] whether they are few or many, to which they gave no reply at all, nor did they report back [whether it is] good. This is because they intended to tell the people afterwards by way of an evil report, it is a Land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, [thus implying] that its people are few but very strong. Now the people understood their intention and so all the congregation which was present began to murmur, this being the sense of the expression, And Caleb stilled the people, for he silenced them and said, We should go up at once, for we are well able to overcome it, meaning: “It is true that the people are strong, but we shall be stronger than them and their fortified cities.” Therefore Caleb said lah [“it” — we are well able to overcome ‘it,’ the word ‘it’ referring to the Land, and including the people and their fortifications]. Then the spies spoke up again, explaining their words clearly, and said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we, meaning: “Even if the people came out unto us into the field we are not able to contest them in battle, and we surely cannot capture any of their great and fortified cities.” For the meaning of the expression to go up ‘against the people’ is similar to [what Goliath said]: choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me, which is an expression for those fighting in battle formation.

עמלק יושב בארץ הנגב, “the Amalekites reside in the southern region of that land.” The spies implied that before asking about the fierceness of the inhabitants of that land further north, they should first ask about the Amalekites who live near the southern border, the area slated for invasion first. This was the same Amalek whom their fathers had not been able to completely defeat when they had just come out of Egypt. והאמורי יושב בהר, “and the Emorites dwell in the mountainous regions. The Canaanites dwell along the shores of the Sea, as well as along the river Jordan. They meant that there was no unpopulated region through which to enter this land.

עמלק יושב בארץ הנגב, “Amalek lives in the southern part of the land.” Although this nation was not at risk from invasion by the Israelites, the spies added this comment to illustrate that invading the land from any direction would pose insurmountable obstacles. They began to indirectly shake the confidence of the people, as at this moment they still were afraid to confront Moses directly. They answered on all the points Moses had asked them to report except if the population was large or small. They also did not give a direct answer to Moses’ question if the land was טובה, “good,” as they intended to mention later that the land consumed its inhabitants, planning to frighten the people who even if they were to conquer the land, would not survive in it for long. Their approach to the subject was: there are not too many people there, but the ones that are there are overpoweringly strong. The people understood what the spies were hinting at, and began to complain about the whole prospect they were facing. This is why Calev intervened with his attempt to silence the majority as we read in verse 30:

And Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said: "We shall surely go up and take possession of it, for we are surely able to prevail over it."

ויהס כלב AND CALEB STILLED [THE PEOPLE] — he caused all of them to be silent. אל משה means he silenced them that they should hear what he was going to say about Moses. He cried aloud saying: “Is this the only thing the son of Amram has done to us?!" — One who heard him thus speaking believed that he was about to speak to his disparagement, and because they had something in their mind against Moses through the spies’ statements, all of them kept silent to hear his disparagement. He, however, said: “Did he not divide the Red Sea for us, and bring down the Manna for us, and collect the quails for us?!” (Sotah 35a). עלה נעלה WE CAN INDEED GO UP — even to heaven, if he were to say “Make ladders and go up there”, we should listen to him because we would be successful in all his words (in all he bids us do) (Sotah 35a). ויהס is an expression denoting silence. Similar is, (Zechariah 2:17) “Be silent, (הס) O all flesh”; (Amos 6:10) “Be silent (הס): for we may not mention [the name of the Lord]”. So is the manner of people: he who wishes to silence a group of men says “sst” (This sibilant sound is therefore used to command silence).

"And Caleb silenced" — Rabbi Jonah the grammarian said that its meaning is that he said, "Silence!"

ויהס כלב את העם, he silenced the people who had begun to raise their voices, as they did afterwards when the Torah reports in 14,1 “all the people raised their voices and the cried the whole night.” אל משה, so that Moses would have a chance to reply. Perhaps Moses replied with the words he referred to in Deuteronomy 1,29: “I told you not to be scared and not to be afraid of the inhabitants of that land, etc.” Calev reinforced Moses’ words by saying: עלה נעלה, it is appropriate for us to ascend for they will not be able to stand up against us to prevent us from progressing; וירשנו אותו כי יכול נוכל לו, for as soon as we shall ascend in that direction they will flee from us seeing that these inhabitants of Canaan have already a defeatist attitude toward us.

ויהס כלב את העם, Caleb silenced the people, etc. Seeing that an ordinary individual is not capable of silencing a people numbering hundreds of thousands, the Torah adds the words אל משה, to tell us that he silenced them in order to make them listen to Moses, not to himself. We know from Deut. 33,5 that Moses' rank was equivalent to the rank of a king. Caleb invoked the awe and respect due to a king in order to silence the people. Having invoked Moses' authority, he said: "we most certainly are able to to go up and take possession of the land." He meant that in spite of the other spies' having said: "we cannot overcome this people," he felt that the Israelites would be able to prevail.

ויהס כלב את העם אל משה, “Caleb silenced the people toward Moses;” From this line you can glean what must have been left out here, i.e. that Moses was trying unsuccessfully to interrupt the report of the spies, until Caleb succeeded to silence them, even if only briefly. 38 years later in Deuteronomy 1,29, Moses reminds the people that he had tried to give them encouragement to proceed with carrying out G-d’s command to mount an attack against the inhabitants of that land.

“Let us go up and we will possess it for we surely can overcome it.” The repetition of terms can be interpreted in two ways. The first approach is that go up refers to ascension, as it says and I will also surely bring you up again (Genesis 46:4). Our sages explained that I will also surely bring you up refers to the Divine Presence (Mekhilta Beshalach, Ch. 3), meaning that alongside It, he too would ascend. Similarly, the interpretation here is: go up — don’t you agree with me that the Divine Presence will ascend to its lodging place? For that land has been a lodging place for the Divine Presence since ancient times, as our sages said (Chullin 91b), “This righteous one has come to My lodging place.” Just as the Divine Presence will ascend, so too we will go up — we who cling to God. For we surely can — don’t you agree with me that the Holy One, blessed be He, can overcome them? And just as He can overcome them, so too we can overcome them through the power of God who is with us. The spies, however, rejected the fundamental premise from the outset, as it were, We cannot go up [against the people] for it is stronger than us/Him, seemingly directing their words upward [toward God], and this is how Rashi interpreted it. The second approach is, that he said Go up — it is true that the ascent is possible, but we will ascend with this condition: if we improve our deeds, because success depends on merit, and we are obligated to prepare for the ascent through repentance and good deeds. And so He is able. The Holy One, Blessed be He, is certainly able to overcome them, but with this condition that we too must be able by removing the heart of stone from within us. The spies responded: “If the matter depends on us, then it has no substance, because if God does not bring us up from here with His mercy, from our side it will be impossible and prevented, because it is stronger than us.” [This refers to] the evil inclination, as our Sages said (Sukkah 52a): “A person’s evil inclination is greater than he is,” and as concluded in the Yalkut on Psalms (35:10, 723) on the verse saving the poor from one stronger than he — meaning, from the evil inclination, see there.

ויהס כלב את העם, “Calev silenced the people.” He did so by proclaiming loudly: עלה נעלה וירשנו אותה כי יכול נוכל בה, “We shall surely ascend and conquer it, for we can surely do it.” Calev did not contradict the facts his colleagues had cited, but he contradicted the conclusions they had drawn from these facts. This is why he used the pronoun לה, which referred to the cities of these people. When his colleagues heard this they became more outspoken, contradicting Calev outright by stating:

ויהס, he silenced them by using his psychological insights.

But the men who had gone up with him said: "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we."

חזק הוא ממנו [FOR] THEY ARE STRONGER ממנו — They said this, — if this were at all possible (i.e. if one may be permitted to say so of God) — with reference to the Omnipresent (ממנו, stronger than “He”, they thus uttered blasphemy) (Sotah 35a; Arakhin 15a).

לא נוכל לעלות, for they will stand up against us and will prevent us from making progress just as happened after the sin when the Torah describes the Amalekites (described as Canaanites) descending and inflicting casualties in 14,45.

The spies retorted by bad-mouthing the land of Canaan saying that even supposing that the Israelites were able to overcome the local inhabitants, the land was not worth having as it consumed its inhabitants.

לא נוכל לעלות אל העם כי חזק הוא ממנו, “we cannot ascend to that people for they are stronger than we.” The meaning of the expression is not limited to a war of aggression. The majority of the spies meant that even if the Canaanites would leave their fortified towns and wage war against the Israelites in open territory the Israelites would not be a match for them. The wording is parallel to that used by Goliath when he challenged the Israelites to a duel. (Samuel I 17,8)

And they spread an evil report of the land that they had scouted to the children of Israel, saying: "The land through which we passed to scout it is a land that slays its inhabitants; and all the people we saw within it are men of great stature."

אכלת יושביה [A LAND] THAT EATETH UP THE INHABITANTS THEREOF — “In every place which we passed we found them (the inhabitants) burying their dead". — But, as a matter of fact, the Holy One, blessed be He, did this (caused many deaths amongst them at that time, and so the Canaanites were engaged in burying their dead) for the best, in order to occupy them busily with their mourning so that they should pay no attention to these (the spies) (Sotah 35a). אנשי מדות MEN OF GREAT STATURE (lit., of measure) — tall and high men, in speaking of whom one feels compelled to give their size, as is stated, for instance, with reference to Goliath (I Samuel 17:4): “his height was six cubits and a span” . Similar to this phrase are: (II Samuel 21:20) “a man of great stature"; (I Chronicles 11:23) “a man of great stature.

AND THEY BROUGHT FORTH ‘DIBATH’ (AN EVIL REPORT OF) THE LAND WHICH THEY HAD SPIED OUT UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. The meaning of this is that the spies left Moses and Aaron and [went around] saying in the [people’s] tents that it is a Land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. For at first when they spoke to the people in front of Moses and Aaron [saying] that the Land … floweth with milk and honey but that the people are fierce, and Caleb said, for we are well able to overcome it, the people hesitated [between these two opinions], and there were some of them who [still] trusted in their power and strength, and some of them [who trusted] in the help of the Eternal against the mighty. Then the spies spread the evil report in front of the people themselves, as it is written, the Land through which we have passed to spy it out, is a Land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, etc., until they caused the whole congregation to complain, this being the sense of the verse stating, and they returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the Land. This happened because when the spies saw the [Amorite] people whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks, the fear of them was fallen upon them and they made the hearts of their brothers melt. And when they saw that the Israelites were still considering going up [to the Land], and that Joshua and Caleb were encouraging them to do so, they invented a false report in order to frustrate their [intention of] going up by all possible means. Know that he who “bringeth forth ‘dibah’” is a fool who speaks falsely, but he who tells a truthful [bad report] is called “one who ‘brings’ dibah,” as it is said, and Joseph brought ‘dibatham ra’ah’ (evil report of them) unto their father. It was for this [false report] that they were punished by death through a plague, as it is said, And those men that ‘brought forth’ an evil report of the Land, died by the plague before the Eternal. IT IS A LAND THAT EATETH UP THE INHABITANTS THEREOF; AND ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WE SAW IN IT ARE MEN OF GREAT STATURE. If a land is bad and has scanty and poor water so that the Land miscarrieth, it does not sustain men of great [physical] stature, and its inhabitants are weak and flabby, small in size and lacking in strength! [So the question appears in what way is the spies’ statement that the Land produces men of great stature an evil report?] But the evil report of the spies consisted in saying that the Land has an overpowering atmosphere and a heavy nature, and its water and fruits are thick and heavy, so that [the fruits] grow to a very large size, such that people of an average temperament cannot take them, unless they are giants and men of powerful build who are naturally strong and exceptional in their height and stature. Therefore the Land supports very tall men but brings [premature] death to the rest of the people, as is the nature of coarse food...

"And they spread an evil report of the land" — a matter that was not true. This is not comparable to "and Joseph brought an evil report of them" (Gen. 37:2), for 'brought' is the opposite of 'spread.' The word דִּבָּה is of the doubled-root class, from the root of "making the lips of the sleeping speak" (דּוֹבֵב שִׂפְתֵי יְשֵׁנִים, Song. 7:10), and I have explained it in its place. "It devours its inhabitants" — its air is unwholesome. "Men of [great] measure" — every man is a man of measure, but the meaning is: of measures far exceeding all others. Similarly [the phrase] "men of heart" (Job 34:34), and many like them.

ארץ אוכלת יושביה, even though the people living there are strong, this is not a compliment to the land; rather it means that it is only due to their exceptionally hardy constitution that they were able to survive in that land. Ordinary people would die there because the climate is so hard to take.

וכל העם אשר ראינו בתוכה, "and all the people we have seen within it, etc." This may either mean that the country devours its people in spite of their outstanding physical prowess, or it may mean that the only people who are able to survive in that country, i.e. בתוכה, are the אנשי מדות, the men of especially great stature.

It is a land that devours its inhabitants. They saw people burying the dead, and God meant it for good, etc. But this is difficult to understand: Why were they called spreaders of slander? After all, they merely reported the truth of what they saw. And just because they didn’t realize that God did this for their benefit, should they be called spreaders of slander? “Fools” would be a more appropriate term to call them, as the Midrash concludes (Bamidbar Rabbah 16:2): “The spies that Moses sent were fools, etc.” At the very least, one could say that their foolishness served them in that they neither sensed nor were aware of the benefit intended for them. It seems that they should have, at the very least, attributed the burials to their sin, since it was already known to them that the practices of the land of Canaan were more corrupt than all other nations. Yet they said the opposite — that all the people whom they saw there were people of good qualities and righteous, attributing the matter to the bad climate of the land which consumes and destroys even its inhabitants who are accustomed to it. How much more would it harm those who do not dwell in it but came from afar and are not accustomed to the air of the land. When they said people of good qualities [anshei midot, which is usually understood as people of people of great size], several things were included: their righteousness and the uprightness of their actions in measure [midot] and weight, not deviating from the line of exactitude; also the manner of their conduct in their food and drink, that they were not among those who indulge excessively in food, drink, and intimacy, but rather managed their affairs with judgment, in proper measure [midah] and at the appropriate time. If so, surely everything depended on the heat of the air which ruins health. And this is its fruit — because in a place where the heat is intense, the fruit is extraordinarily large, but along with this comes the extraordinary negative effect, for one depends on the other. And there we saw the Nephilim — referring to those who fell [naflu] and died, who were cut off before their time. The sons of Anak from the Nephilim — the ancient ones. This explains the repetition of Nephilim — one as a descriptor for the Anakim and one literally meaning “those who fell.” They said that if the climate harms even those of coarse constitution, the strong and healthy ones, how much more would it harm us who are weak and small in comparison to them. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. For we heard them saying, “There are ants in the vineyard.” This is because seeing from a distance is not the same as seeing up close, as from a distance everything appears smaller than it does up close. Grasshoppers are larger than ants, and if we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, then presumably we were like ants in their sight from a distance, for both are of the same measure. And Joshua and Caleb said to them, “The land is very, very good.” Both in terms of its fruit and in terms of the climate. The quality of the fruits does not depend on the heat of the air but on the richness of the land that gives sweetness to the fruits. And this is what is meant by a land flowing with milk and honey — for livestock are considered products of the land, and honey is a reference to the sweetness that comes from the land’s richness. And the air is only harmful to sinners, but do not rebel against the Lord. And then the air of the land will not harm you, and you should not fear the people of the land. For they were burying their dead, because they are our bread. They certainly died because of their sins, as it is said, And you shall consume all the peoples (Deuteronomy 7:16). And our Sages said (Bava Kamma 38a): What is meant by the verse He looked and released the nations (Habakkuk 3:6)? The Holy One, blessed be He, saw that they did not even fulfill the seven Noahide laws, so He stood and permitted their property to Israel. And if He permitted their property because they did not fulfill the seven commandments, then He also permitted [taking] their bodies for all the great abominations they committed. So certainly they died because of their sin, for otherwise, why would He permit us to consume them like bread? And the proof of their sin is that even a single righteous person who was among them died because of their sin, so that he would not protect them like shade. This is what is meant by their shade has departed from them. But our shade remains, and that is the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, The Lord is your guardian; the Lord is your shade (Psalms 121:5). And it is reasonable to interpret, that lachmeinu [our bread] with the lamed vowelized with a cholam is like lochameinu [our warriors] because they are our warriors/combatants. And perhaps they were aware of you and would wage war with you. Therefore, the Holy One, Blessed be He made it so they were burying their dead so they would not pay attention to you. And Toldot Yitzchak wrote that lachmeinu is like the manna, for if its shade is removed from it and the sun shines upon it, it melts. So too, the shade of the Holy One, Blessed be He has departed from them, and they will melt like wax before fire, as it is written All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away (Exodus 15:15). And by way of allusion, it said Their protection has departed from them, so that they should not say, “If it is the way of that land to vomit out its sinning inhabitants today or tomorrow, we too will sin, for there is no righteous person on earth, etc.” and it will vomit us out as well. Regarding this he said, “And the Lord is with us” in exile, as it is written I am with him in distress (Psalms 91:15). And because of this, we too are confident to return there, and the Holy One, Blessed be He will act for the sake of His blessed name which is with us, and He will return and redeem us.

ויוציאו דבת הארץ....אל בני ישראל, “They slandered the land of Israel ..in their report to the Jewish people.” The principal effrontery of the spies was the fact that they reported to and appealed to the people directly, instead of making their report to the commander-in-chief, Moses, who was the one who had selected them for their mission by going around to the tents of the people and telling them that the land of Canaan was devouring its inhabitants, whereas originally in the presence of Moses and Aaron they had praised the land, describing how it was flowing with milk and honey. This was a treacherous and underhanded manner of discharging their task. Originally, they had only described the people in that land as strong, which by itself was not too serious a departure from what they had been asked to report about. When Calev had assured the people of his conviction that they would be able to successfully conquer that land the people had still tended to believe him. There were at that time, still quite a number of the people who possessed either self confidence or trust in G’d’s ability and willingness to help them conquer that land. When the spies had become aware of this, they embarked on an intensive campaign to undermine the confidence of those people by spreading the stories of the many people they had observed dropping dead. This was another example of misinterpretation. G’d had allowed even giants to collapse, in order to demonstrate how tenuous was even those supermen’s hold on life, whereas the spies, bent of interpreting everything in the most negative manner, concluded that the climate of the land causes the collapse of its inhabitants. In order to counter the impression Joshua and Calev had made on the people, the spies now resorted to fabrications, deliberate exaggerations, etc. The expression להוציא דבה means more than to highlight the negative aspects of something, it means to spread tales of a negative character that are entirely fictitious, represent as facts figments of the imagination of the tale-bearer. The party spreading such untruths hopes to make them believable because he had initially told his listeners a considerable number of true facts. This is also why the Torah reports Joseph as bringing דבתם רעה, “evil reports,” about his brothers to his father. He had reported a number of facts faithfully, so that his fabrications would also be believed by his father, Genesis 37,2, It was this latter aspect of the spies’ activities that caused G’d to punish them by making these ten men die on the spot through the plague. (14,37) ארץ אוכלת יושביה היא וכל העם אשר ראינו בתוכה אנשי מדות, “it is a land which consumes its inhabitants, and all the people we saw therein were of enormous proportions.” Nachmanides writes that the spies described the land and its water as health hazards, causing premature births of fetuses and instead of the people who were of outsize dimensions having outsize children, their children were obviously poorly, undersized and below average stature. They tried to convince their peers that the land of Canaan, by reason of its climate, can support only giants, not average sized human beings such as the Israelites. It was not surprising therefore that that land produced giants, as its fruit, its produce, was such that only giants and supermen could assimilate its waters and its produce in their bodies successfully. When previously they had described the presence of giants in that land as limited to singular sightings, now they described the inhabitants as all being giants, אנשי מדות. They took pains to trace the origins of these giants to prehistoric (pre-deluge) eras, implying that they had already then been so powerful that they had survived the deluge without being in Noach’s Ark. (verse 33)

וכל העם אשר ראינו בתוכה אנשי מדות, “and all the people we saw inside it are men of great size.” The spies said that they did not attribute the fact that people seemed to die like flies in that land to their having a weak constitution to start with. Alternate interpretation: “do not think that these people died from excessive drinking and eating; they are very robust persons and appear to eat and drink quite normally.”

"And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, of the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight."

הנפילים (lit., the fallen ones) — Anakim who were descendants of Shemchazai and Azael who fell from heaven in the generation of Enosh (cf. Targum Jonathan on Genesis 6:4 and Rashi on Niddah 61a s. v. בני אחיה). וכן היינו בעיניהם AND SO WE MUST HAVE BEEN IN THEIR EYES — We heard them say one to another; “There are ants in the vineyards that look like human beings (Sotah 35a). ענק — They were thus called because it seemed as if the sun was draped around their necks (מַעֲנִיקִים) because of their height (Sotah 34b).

"The Nephilim" — I have already explained it. "From the Nephilim" — its meaning is [tied to] "and also afterward, when the sons of God came in" (Gen. 6:4), and it is explained there.

בני ענק, descended paternally from giants מן הנפילים, maternally descended from those giants. וכן היינו בעיניהם, like grasshoppers, or even less significant. They did not bother to harm us as they did not think we represented a threat to them.

ונהי בעינינו כחגבים, "we felt in our own estimation as if we were grasshoppers (by comparison to them), and so we appeared in their eyes." The spies revealed by this comment that they felt vastly inferior even to the people in that land that did not fit the description of being men of stature. They knew this when comparing their own physiques to that of the average person whom they had observed.

ושם ראינו את הנפילים, “and there we have seen the Nephilim; some commentators believe that these people were very tall people who had fallen out of the sky, as in Job 14,18 הר נופל יבול, “mountains collapse and crumble,” where the words describe a great height. בני ענק, according to one opinion cited by Rashi, the necks of these people reached almost to the sun. (Exaggeration, of course). The spies, referring to themselves add that they therefore felt as if they were as small as grasshoppers by comparison. This is not the only example where small creatures are compared to grasshoppers. Compare Isaiah 40,22.

מן הנפילים, the original ones of which the Torah had written that they lived in antediluvian times (Genesis 6,4) כחגבים, anything low considers itself as like a grasshopper when compared to something much taller. We find proof of this in Isaiah 40,22 היושב על חוג הארץ ויושביה כחגבים, “compared to the One Who is enthroned above the vault of the earth views its inhabitants as if they were grasshopper.”

הנפילים בני-ענק, “the Nephilim, descendants of Anak (giant);” anyone who took a look at these people would be overawed by them and feel totally inadequate, scared that they would attack him.”