Torah Study Shelach 5785

RASHI By the Lord’s command. Literally, by His “mouth”—with His permission. He put no obstacle in the way. All the men. Whenever the text refers to “men,” this implies that they were men of distinction. These men too had always acted appropriately up to this point. ADDITIONAL COMMENTS Leaders of the Israelites. Not the actual leader of each tribe, but chiefs of thousands and the like (Bekhor Shor). In fact they were the leaders of the tribes; they were the most likely not to turn the minds of the Israelites away from the land. It is as if the Holy One was trying to escape from the trap into which the Israelites had fallen by deciding to send spies (Gersonides). Michael Carasik, ed., Numbers: Introduction and Commentary, trans. Michael Carasik, First edition, The Commentators’ Bible (Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society, 2011), Nu 13:3.

Numbers 13:6 “from the tribe of Y’hudah, Kalev the son of Y’funeh;” ,Numbers 13:8 “from the tribe of Efrayim, Hoshea the son of Nun;”

2. Is there a significance that the 2 spies that encourage the people to enter the land are of the tribes of Efrayim and Y’hudah?

a. These Tribes are the seat of the Monarchy for Northern and Southern Isra’el.

b. Yosef and Y’hudah, Messiac ben D’vid and Messiac ben Yosef

3. Why is the tribe of L’vi not included in the list?

a. The Tribe of L’vi is not included when Efrayim and M’nasheh are not combined in to the tribe of Yosef.

b. They do not have an inheritance of land but only a few cities.

Numbers 13:32 “and they spread a negative report about the land they had reconnoitered for the people of Isra’el by saying, “The land we passed through in order to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. All the people we saw there were giant!”

4. What could “...is a land that devours its inhabitants...” imply? #2

a. reference to all the funerals that where taking place

b. could be a reference to the leaving of the wilderness and entering the promised land was also leaving the divine existence around the Tabernacle and HaShem and living a mundane life of farming, mercantile business, and soldiering.

Chassidic master Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains that the problem was one of excess spirituality.

The daily miracles experienced by the generation of the Exodus did more than provide them with sustenance and protection; they shielded them from any and all involvement with the material world. For the first generation of our existence as a people, we lived a wholly spiritual life, free of all material concerns; the very food which nourished us was “bread from heaven.”

Indeed, it could not have been any other way. Our sages have said that “the Torah could have been given only to the eaters of the manna.” To properly receive and assimilate the divine wisdom, one must be utterly free of the responsibilities and frustrations of physical life—something that is possible only in the kind of environment which our ancestors enjoyed during their sojourn in the Sinai Desert.

This is why, says Rabbi Schneur Zalman, the spies and their generation were loath to enter the land. Becoming a people with a land would entail plowing, sowing and harvesting; it would mean engaging in commerce and levying taxes; it would require a bureaucracy to run the land, and an army to defend it. Their underlying problem with the land was, as the spies expressed it, that “it is a land that consumes its inhabitants”—it consumes one’s time and energy with its corporeal demands, and infringes on one’s capacity to study the divine wisdom of Torah and meditate upon its truths. They were unwilling to relinquish their spiritual utopia for the entanglements of an earthbound life.

Based on this, the Lubavitcher Rebbe explains the spies’ argument, “We cannot go up against these people, for they are mightier than we,” notwithstanding the tremendous miracles which G‑d had performed and was performing for them. We cannot have it both ways, argued the spies. Either we are to be a spiritual people engaged exclusively in spiritual pursuits and sustained by supernatural means, or else we are to enter the natural world of the farmer, merchant and soldier, and become subject to its laws. And under these laws—which decree that the numerous, mighty and well-fortified will defeat the few and the weak—there is no way we can defeat the inhabitants of Canaan.

They even went so far as to extend this line of reasoning to the Almighty Himself. If G‑d wishes for us to live a spiritual life, then certainly He can sustain us with miracles. But if His desire is that we abandon our supra-natural existence to enter the land and assume a natural life, then He Himself has decreed that natural law will govern our fate. In that case, He cannot empower us to miraculously conquer the land, since were He to do so, this would defeat the entire purpose of entering the “land.” So, “they are mightier than He”—even G‑d cannot help us, if He Himself has chosen to transform us into a material people!

https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/2947/jewish/The-Generation-Gap.htm

RASHI One that devours its settlers. Everywhere we went we found them burying people.—But the Holy One had arranged this on their behalf, so that the inhabitants would be too preoccupied with mourning to pay attention to the spies. Men of great size. Literally, “men of measure”—tall and big, a man so big he had to be measured, like Goliath, who was “six cubits and a span tall” (1 Sam. 17:4). See, for example, the Egyptian killed by Benaiah, “a giant of a man five cubits tall” (1 Chron. 11:23), or the “giant of a man” the Israelites encountered at Gath (2 Sam. 21:20). IBN EZRA They spread calumnies among the Israelites about the land. In this case, the Hebrew idiom means that they were saying things that were untrue, which was not the case when “Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father” (Gen. 37:2). Notice that Joseph “brought” the reports, while these men (as the Hebrew really says) “produced” their report, “brought it forth.” The noun itself simply refers to “speech”; see my comment to Song 7:10. Devours its settlers. Its climate is bad. Men of great size. Literally, “men of measure,” but of course every man, big or small, has a measure of some kind. Yet calling someone a “man of measure” means that he has a greater measure than anyone else. In the same way, when Elihu refers in Job 34:34 to “men of brains,” he means men with a lot of brains. This sort of expression is quite common in the Bible. NAHMANIDES Thus they spread calumnies among the Israelites about the land. Having left Moses and Aaron and gone back to their own tents, they declared: The country that we traversed and scouted is one that devours its settlers. In front of Moses and Aaron all they had dared to say was that, though the land was fertile, the people were strong. Caleb countered that the Israelites were indeed strong enough to overcome them, leaving the people undecided. Some of them still trusted in their own strength and others in God’s help. That is when, behind Moses’ and Aaron’s backs, they once again “caused the whole community to mutter against him by spreading calumnies about the land” (14:36). For having seen this people “whose stature was like the cedar’s” (Amos 2:9), they did their best to take the heart out of their fellow Israelites. When they saw that some of them were still bold enough to go up against the Canaanites, and that Joshua and Caleb were encouraging them, they began to spread false reports, simply lying to make sure that they would not have to go up against the Canaanites no matter what. (Note that the Hebrew word is simply “a report” in both cases; see OJPS. “He who promulgates a report is a fool” [Prov. 10:18] if it is a lie, but one who tells the truth may still be referred to as spreading a “report,” as was Joseph in Gen. 37:2.) This is why “those who spread such calumnies about the land” were punished, and “died of plague” (14:37). All the people that we saw in it are men of great size. A land that “devours” its inhabitants—where the water is bad and the land causes bereavement—does not produce “men of great size,” but men who are weak and scrawny. The calumny spread by the spies was that the land, its water, its climate, and its resources were so intense that men of average size could not cope with it, only giants and men of such great size that they themselves by nature had immense strength. This land, therefore, could produce only men of great size; it would kill all the others, as in fact coarse foods are known to do. ADDITIONAL COMMENTS They spread calumnies among the Israelites about the land. They were afraid the people would heed Joshua and Caleb (Abarbanel). The country that we traversed and scouted is one that devours its settlers. People who are shunted from one climate to another may sicken or die, for each land suits the constitutions of those who are born in it. But these “calumnies” were completely fictional, and that was their eighth, and worst, crime. If they saw dead bodies during their travels, it was because (as the Sages said) the time of their trip, in July and August, is when people—there, like everywhere else—die of malaria. If people were dying at that particular time, it had nothing to do with the nature of the land (Abarbanel). Michael Carasik, ed., Numbers: Introduction and Commentary, trans. Michael Carasik, First edition, The Commentators’ Bible (Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society, 2011), Nu 13:32.

Numbers 14:12 “I am going to strike them with sickness, destroy them and make from you a nation greater and stronger than they are!””, Numbers 14:20 “Adonai answered, “I have forgiven, as you have asked.”

5. How did Moshe ask for the people to be forgiven?

a. Numbers 14:18 “‘Adonai is slow to anger, rich in grace, forgiving offenses and crimes; yet not exonerating the guilty, but causing the negative effects of the parents’ offenses to be experienced by their children and even by the third and fourth generations.’”

6. How does HaShem forgive in this instance? #3

a. He does not kill all the people off at once but allows them to wander for 40 years.

b. their children will be allowed to enter the promised land and will take it for themselves.

RASHI As you have asked. More precisely, “according to your word” (see OJPS), that is, because of what you said the Egyptians might think. RASHBAM I pardon. The Hebrew form looks more like “I have pardoned” (OJPS). But NJPS is correct; the Biblical Hebrew perfect can indeed be used for an uncompleted action, as in “Let me pay the price” (Gen. 23:13). As you have asked. I will not strike them all down with pestilence at once—I will stretch it out slowly, over 40 years. NAHMANIDES I pardon, as you have asked. Since all Moses had asked was that He be “slow to anger” and “abounding in kindness,” God was willing to comply. Moreover, He did pardon the people as a whole, agreeing not to carry out His threat of v. 12. Instead, He forgave them to the extent that their children would indeed inherit the land, and that they themselves would not die in a plague but that their corpses would “drop” (individually) there in the wilderness, each when his time came. Notice that Moses would later recall his prayer on their behalf after the Golden Calf incident (Deut. 9:18 and 9:26) and his prayer on Aaron’s behalf (Deut. 9:20), but he did not mention there anything about praying for them in connection with this incident of the spies. This is for the reason I have already mentioned—he in fact did not pray that their sin be forgiven, merely that punishment be delayed and visited upon their children. Having not been completely on their side in this prayer, he did not mention it in Deuteronomy 9, for they would have had reason to complain about him. ADDITIONAL COMMENTS I pardon, as you have asked. Rather, “I have pardoned” once already, as you asked, for the sin of the Golden Calf; but this time I will not pardon them (Hizkuni). I have pardoned them many times in the past when you asked (Abarbanel). Michael Carasik, ed., Numbers: Introduction and Commentary, trans. Michael Carasik, First edition, The Commentators’ Bible (Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society, 2011), Nu 14:20.

Numbers 15:28 “The cohen will make atonement before Adonai for the person who makes a mistake by sinning inadvertently; he will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven—”, Numbers 15:30 ““ ‘But an individual who does something wrong intentionally, whether a citizen or a foreigner, is blaspheming Adonai. That person will be cut off from his people.”

7. What is the implication of a distinction between intentional SIN and a SIN by Mistake?#4

a. Intentional SIN cannot be atoned/forgiven through Sacrifice.

b. Intentional SIN is akin to idolatry.

But the person Hebrew ve-ha-nefesh. The conjunctive vav indicates that no new subsection is being introduced. What follows is a continuation: The individual sins either inadvertently or brazenly. acts defiantly Literally, “with upraised hand.” The original setting of this metaphor is seen in the statues of ancient Near Eastern deities who were sculpted with an uplifted or outstretched right hand, bearing a spear, war ax, or lightning bolt. Similarly, the mighty acts of the God of Israel are described as being performed “by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (Deut. 4:34; 5:15; 26:8) or by this very expression, “with an upraised hand” (33:3; Exod. 14:8). The upraised hand is therefore poised to strike; it is a threatening gesture of the Deity against His enemies or of man against God Himself. Thus, this literary image is most apposite for the brazen sinner who commits his acts in open defiance of the Lord (cf. Job 38:15). The essence of this sin is that it is committed flauntingly. However, sins performed in secret, even deliberately, can be commuted to the status of inadvertencies by means of repentance. reviles the Lord Hebrew ʾet YHVH huʾ megaddef, an expression that appears once again in the Bible in Ezekiel 20:27, in connection with illicit worship. Here, however, it connotes the brazen violation of any of God’s commandments. shall be cut off The penalty of karet is discussed in Excursus 36. Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 125.

Numbers 15:37–38 “Adonai said to Moshe, “Speak to the people of Isra’el, instructing them to make, through all their generations, tzitziyot on the corners of their garments, and to put with the tzitzit on each corner a blue thread.”

8. What color blue is the tzitziyot supposed to be according to the Torah and how is that color derived? #5

a. Trick question it is not detailed in the written Torah but the Oral Torah.

b. it is a blue-purple to red-purple color made from the shells of a sea snail.

Menahot 49 A. Said Abbayye to R. Samuel b. R. Judah, “As to the blue thread, how do you dye it?” B. He said to him, [Following Cashdan:] “We bring the blood of the hillazon-mollusc, along with other ingredients, and put them together in a pot and boil them. Then we take a little out in an egg shell and test it on a piece of wool, and throw away what remains in the egg shell and burn the wool.” Jacob Neusner, The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, vol. 19 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2011), 223–224.

These are also called gedilim in Deuteronomy 22:12. The origin, nature, and history of the tsitsit are discussed in Excursus 38. Most probably, the tsitsit section was placed here to form a verbal inclusion with the episode of the spies recounted in chapters 13–14. In “scouting” (tur, 13:2, 25; 14:34), the spies whored (zanah, 14:33) after their eyes and brought a false report. So by wearing the tsitsit, Israel would be prevented from ever again “scouting” (tur, 15:39) and “whoring” (zanah, 15:39) “after their heart and eyes.” Moreover, wearing the tsitsit would convert their dress into uniforms of the royal priests of God (see Excursus 38). 38. fringes The tsitsit resemble a lock of hair (cf. “and took me by the tsitsit of my head” in Ezek. 8:3). Hence, one should perhaps render it “tassels.” The Targums and the Septuagint render “edges, hems”; the relation of the hem to the tassels is discussed in Excursus 38. Presently, the tsitsit are attached to the four corners of a prayer shawl (tallit). Each tsitsit consists of four white threads, one of which is longer than the others. Holes are made in each of the four corners of the tallit, and the threads are inserted into them and folded over. The two collections of threads are then tied with a double knot. The long thread is wound round the others seven, eight, eleven, and thirteen times, each joint being separated from the other by a double knot. The Hebrew numerical value of the consonants of the word tsitsit is 600. If five (for the sets of double knots) and eight (for the number of thread ends) be added, they yield a total of 613, which. according to rabbinic tradition, represents the number of biblical commandments of which the tsitsit are to remind the wearer. corners Hebrew kanfei, literally “wings.” The rendering “corners” is really inappropriate here since, in ancient days, men wore closed robes or skirts just as did women. The term may, however, refer to the scalloped hems resembling wings or to the embroidered threads that hung from the hem at quarter points. blue Rather, “violet” or “blue-purple,” the sign of royalty. The violet, or blue-purple, dye was extracted from the gland of the Murex trunculus snail found in shallow waters off the coast of northern Israel and Lebanon. Since it has been shown that 12,000 snails yield only 1.4 grams of dye, it can be readily understood why only royalty could afford it; and hence the term “royal blue or purple.”

Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 127.

Nevi’im/Haftarah Portion Y’hoshua/Joshua 2:1-24

In the parashah, Moses sends a delegation of clan leaders to scout out the land. Of these scouts, all but Joshua and Caleb counsel against an invasion of the land because of the fearsome giants who inhabit it. The people then cry out against Moses, and God punishes their weak faith by condemning all but the children (and Joshua and Caleb) to die in the wilderness. The haftarah presents the corrected completion of the original episode. Joshua sends out two spies to scout out the land. This time the Canaanites exhibit fear, having heard of the wonders of the Exodus. The positive report of these spies nullifies the statement of fear given by the original delegation.

Themes

1. The wonders of divine redemption should suffice to convince all of God’s power. 2. Life-saving kindness can be repaid in kind, even if it seems contrary to the law.

Laura Suzanne Lieber, Study Guide to the JPS Bible Commentary: Haftarot, ed. Janet L. Liss and David E. S. Stein, First edition, JPS Tanakh Commentary (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2002), 60–61.

Joshua 2:1 “Y’hoshua the son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Sheetim with these instructions: “Go, inspect the land and Yericho.” They left and came to the house of a prostitute named Rachav, where they spent the night.”

9. The word for prostitute here is זוֹנָ֛ה Zonah and while it can certainly refer to a prostitute it also refers to a female Inn Keeper. The great Sages Rashi, Kimhi, the Targams of Jonathan and even Josephus in the first century CE, all refer to Rachav as being an Inn Keeper. The Talmud, The Peshitta and The book of James 2:25 refers to Rachav as a Prostitute. Does anything change in regards to whether she is a Prostitute or Inn Keeper? #6

a. no it is not how she lived before then it is how she lives after she encounters the truth.

b. she is 1 of the 4 great converts of the Torah. Thus why her family is kept out of the camp for a time in Chapter 6

Babylonian Talmud Zebahim 14:1, IX.9.X-Z

X. During all those forty years that the Israelites were in the wilderness, she(Rachav) was a hooker. Y. At the end of her fiftieth year, she converted, and she said before the Holy One, blessed be he, “Lord of the world, in three matters I have sinned. In three ways forgive me: on account of the cord, the window, and the wall: Z. “Then she let them down by a cord through the window, for her house was upon the side of the wall, and she dwelt upon the wall”

Jacob Neusner, The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, vol. 18b (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2011), 614.

Joshua 2:24 ““Truly Adonai has handed over all the land to us,” they told Y’hoshua. “Everyone in the land is terrified that we’re coming.””

10. What is the difference in the way that the spies are handled in the Torah portion and the way they are handled in the Haftarah portion?

a. only 2 sent

b. only report to Y’hoshua

c. met with inhabitants

Basorah/Gospel Portion Mattiyahu/Matthew 10:1-14

Matthew 10:2–4 “These are the names of the twelve emissaries: First, Shim‘on, called Kefa, and Andrew his brother, Ya‘akov Ben-Zavdai and Yochanan his brother, Philip and Bar-Talmai, T’oma and Mattityahu the tax-collector, Ya‘akov Bar-Halfai and Taddai, Shim‘on the Zealot, and Y’hudah from K’riot, who betrayed him.”

11. Who Replaced Y’hudah from K’riot?

a. Acts 1:23-24, Mattityahu

b. do we ever read of anyone being elected in to Yeshua’s 12 Talmidim?

Matthew 10:12–14 “When you enter someone’s household, say, ‘Shalom aleikhem!’ If the home deserves it, let your shalom rest on it; if not, let your shalom return to you. But if the people of a house or town will not welcome you or listen to you, leave it and shake its dust from your feet!”

12. In several places we see the removal of shoes, washing of feet, and removing dust from the feet. What could this being doing in terms of Idolatry?

a. Bedouins worshiped the dust of their feet, Some Romi or Gypsies worship the dust of the Earth.

the town could be comprised of Hellenistic Jews unrepentant idolators following the gentile gods of the Roman empire thus they have been cut off.

b. Dust is an element of death, dirt is an element of life.

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