Bostoner Torah Insights: Bostoner ‘Chassidus’ in Hebrew and English: Parshas Shlach – 23 Sivan 578
Bostoner Torah Insights - Yerushalayim
Bostoner Torah Insights
Bostoner ‘Chassidus’ in English
Parshas Shlach – 23 Sivan 5784
Bostoner Rebbe shlit”a – Yerushalayim
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In the Haftorah, Yehoshua sends two Meraglim to Eretz Yisroel in order to ‘spy out the land’. Yehoshua himself was one of the twelve Meraglim sent to Eretz Yisroel in Parshas Shlach by Moshe Rabbeinu, which resulted in the entire generation being barred entrance to Eretz Yisroel and sentenced to die in the desert. What did Yehoshua learn from his prior experience, which made him decide to send only two Meraglim instead of twelve?
Immediately after Hashem’s decree in the aftermath of the Meraglim, we find that a group of Bnei Yisroel known as the Maapilim attempted to ascend to Eretz Yisroel anyway, against the warning of Moshe Rabbeinu. The Torah attests, “They defiantly ascended to the mountaintop, while the Aron Hashem and Moshe did not move from the center of the camp” (Bamidbar 14:44). Why is this necessary to state. Would we have thought otherwise, that the Aron or Moshe would accompany them.
It would appear that every tribe listened to the spy from their tribe. The tribe of Yehudah believed Yehudah and the tribe of Ephraim believed Yehoshua, but the other tribes believed the Lashon Hara of their tribal representatives. According to the Panim Yafos the statement by Hashem, ‘How long will this people provoke Me’ (Bamidbar 14:11) is not referring to the Chet HaMeraglim, but to the Chet HaEgel. Even though the tribes of Yehudah and Ephraim did not believe the other spies, they also received the identical punishment as the rest of the generation on account of the sin of the Golden Calf.
It is possible that the tribes of Yehudah and Ephraim felt that the decree prohibiting Klal Yisroel from ascending to Eretz Yisroel was only on the other tribes that believed the spies of their respective tribes. Even though they were going against the words of Moshe, perhaps they felt that Hashem would acquiesce once they had done Teshuva by rectifying the sin of the Meraglim. However, all this might be possible by the tribe of Yehudah who was the first to travel, even before the Aron HaBris. But the tribe of Ephraim, who made up the vast majority of the Maapilim, needed to wait for the Aron to travel first before they traveled. Once they saw that the Aron and Moshe were not leaving the camp, their travel disrupted the order of traveling and ruined their attempts of Teshuva.
This could be the hidden meaning behind the Pasuk in Tehillim (78:9-10), “The sons of Ephraim through armed archers, retreated on the day of battle, because they did not guard the covenant of Hashem, and they refused to follow His Torah”. The phrase‘…refused to follow his Torah’ means that they did not wait for the Aron to travel before them.
Perhaps this is why Yehoshua only chose two spies to go to Yericho, one from the tribe of Yehudah and one from the tribe of Ephraim, so as not to choose spies from the tribes that had sinned 39 years prior. (Translator’s note: This does not follow the tradition cited by Rashi to Yehoshua 2:4 in the name of the Tanchuma that the spies were Kalev and Pinchas).
The lesson is that each one of us needs to choose worthy leaders and follow them, as this will cause success for all of Yisroel. May it be His will that we should see the Aron once again travel before B’nei Yisroel with the coming of the Bi’as Goel, speedily in our days.
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