Shelach | Seekers vs. Spies (Yehoshua 2)

 

a. Mission despite failure

The parasha is devoted mostly to the great failure of the delegation of respected personalities sent to tour the land, and the bitter results of this failure. The haftora describes a mission that at first appears similar, but which upon closer inspection turns out to have very significant differences.

 

Before examining these differences, it should be noted that the very similarity between the two stories is surprising: why would Yehoshua, who was part of the original delegation sent from the desert and who experienced in a most personal way both the failure and its bitter ramifications, want to repeat the same mistake and again send spies? Was he not concerned that the same thing would happen?

 

It seems that this possibility did indeed concern him, and for this reason he adopted a number of measures in order to ensure the success of his mission, but he did not give up the concept of a reconnaissance mission, which is a vital step in preparing for war and conquest. Indeed, even Moshe sent spies again just prior to the conquest: "And Moshe sent (representatives) to spy out Ya'azer (Bemidbar 21:32). Although lessons must be learned from failure, necessary measures should not be abandoned. One should certainly not rely on miracles, and no victory is assured in advance. All the necessary and usual measures and precautions should be taken.

 

b. Nothing better than modesty

The haftora opens with the introduction, "And Yehoshua ben Nun sent from Shittim two men as spies, secretly, saying: Go and see the land and Yericho" (2:1). This is the decisive difference between the narrative in the parasha and the mission described here. The delegation that was sent from the desert was a large one, composed of the dignitaries of the nation – "they were heads of Bnei Yisrael," they were well-known, each by his name and by his tribe. Here Yehoshua sends "two men"; we find no specification of their names. Likewise, the delegation in the desert was sent at the suggestion and in the presence of the entire nation (see Devarim 1:22 – "And you ALL approached me and said, Let us send men..."), and therefore the report was made before the entire nation ("and they brought back word to them (Moshe and Aharon) and to ALL THE CONGREGATION" – Bemidbar 13:26). Yehoshua's spies came back and reported only to him – "And they came to Yehoshua ben Nun and told him of all that had happened to them, and they said to Yehoshua..." (2:23-24). The entire mission is characterized by secrecy (cheresh), meaning that "he sent them in silence... so that they would not falter as had previously happened" (Bi'ur Ha-Gra).

 

This is reminiscent of the vision of the previous failure of the nation, the sin of the golden calf, as a result of which the tablets were broken. The correction for the broken tablets was that new tablets were hewn and the Torah was given again, quietly and modestly rather than with great publicity and in the full public view.

 

c. Did Yehoshua's spies fulfill their mission?

It would seem that Yehoshua's spies did not even begin their mission of surveying the land and Yericho since on their very first night the king of Yericho was informed of their arrival and of their location, and he immediately sent messengers to capture them. On that very night they were already forced to escape and hide.

 

But from Rachav's words they were able to grasp the situation quite accurately. The weakest point of the inhabitants of Yericho was made plain to them; they did not need to discover the weak spot in the city and its wall, since - as Rachav told them – "The fear of you has fallen upon us and all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you" (2:9).

 

They were therefore able to come and tell Yehoshua, "Hashem has given the whole land into our hands; the inhabitants of the land even melt away before us" (24).

 

They were also able to be impressed inversely: the fact that before even one whole day had passed since their arrival they had already been noticed and were already being pursued revealed an excellent information network and exemplary organization; it showed that the people of Yericho were on high alert. Had they been like the spies of the desert, they could have reached disastrous negative conclusions. But their evaluation as gathered from Rachav's words and the picture built around them reveals the difference between them and the original delegation. Both could have been impressed either positively or negatively; different details could have led either group to opposing conclusions. The personal tendencies of the spies and their level of faith and trust could influence them to either an optimistic or a pessimistic view of the land.

 

d. Comparing one image with another

The Torah gives us a true and accurate picture; it changes nothing, nor does it "color" the facts.  It reports the speech of mortals – even the harshest words – quite faithfully.  But sometimes it adds a description – a true and objective description of what the people are talking about.  An example of this is to be found in last week's parasha, Beha'alotekha, where we find the nation's complaint: "Who will feed us meat; we remember the fish... and the cucumbers... and now our soul is dried up, there is nothing but this manna before our eyes" (Bemidbar 11:4-5). Anyone reading this could be led to think that manna had nothing to recommend it.  And so the Torah presents an objective description: "The manna was like coriander seed, and its color was like the color of bedellium... and its taste was like the taste of oil cake" (ibid 7).

 

Here the spies paint a picture of the situation in the land according to which the nation there is strong, the cities are fortified, the inhabitants are children of giants, and altogether it is a land that devours its inhabitants.  The conclusion: "We will not be able to go up against the nation." Against the report of the ten spies comes Kalev (with Yehoshua's support), claiming "We shall surely be able to overcome it."  But the Torah presents no alternative objective picture.

 

The haftora comes to provide the true picture, the situation as described by Rachav, some forty years later:

 

"The fear of you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you, for we have heard that Hashem dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you left Egypt... and we heard and our hearts melted, and there is no longer any spirit left in anyone before you" (9-11).

 

Here we discover that if the original spies had looked carefully, listened, and evaluated their impressions objectively, they would have presented a different picture to Moshe and the nation; all of them would have agreed with Kalev and Yehoshua.

 

e. "Seeking" vs. "spying"

We cannot but pay attention to the fact that while the haftora speaks of "spies" and "spying," these words are not used at all in the parasha which speaks rather of "seeking out" and "seekers." We are familiar with the term "spies" ever since it was introduced by Yosef in his pretended accusation of his brothers: "You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land" (Bereishit 42:9).

 

The term "r-g-l" may thus connote a search into what is hidden, a search for the point of weakness, a desire to reveal the nakedness of the land. "T-u-r" on the other hand means to look, to observe – a view from above.

 

So long as the mission is a military one, to seek points of weakness, when the aim is clearly one of conquest and the only question is how to do this in the best and easiest way possible, then the mission is one of spying. So we find in Yosef's rebuke, in the case of the spies sent by Moshe from Ya'azer, the spies sent by Yehoshua and those sent by the men of Dan (Shoftim 18:2), as well as in other places.

 

But the delegation sent by Moshe from the desert seems to have been sent with doubts from the outset, to see whether the land was really suitable at all. This was a delegation of "tiyur." The Torah warns against any such mission at the end of the parasha: "You shall not wander (taturu) after your hearts and after your eyes, after which you go astray" (15:39). The same message arises from a comparison of the instructions given to the two sets of spies. Moshe instructed his men to see whether the nation was "strong or weak," and whether the land was "good or bad" (13:18-19). This opens the door to a possible answer that the land is bad. Yehoshua leaves no such possibility.

Translated by Kaeren Fish