Parasha Thoughts
By Rabbi Michael Segankohanim
In this week’s portion we read the infamous story of the spies; a tragedy that had great and far reaching effects on the history of the Jewish nation. While we are all familiar with the general story, a careful analysis of the verses and Rabbinical literature will point to a lesson that we could use in our day to day life.
We read that Moshe had tasked the spies to investigate the land of Israel; to see if agriculture was successful and the country plentiful. As the Jewish nation was promised Divine assistance in entering the land of Israel, the spies were NOT instructed to assess the military might of the Canaanite nations. We read in the Torah that when the spies come back, they reported regarding the mission they were tasked with. “We came to the land…and indeed it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit” (Bamidbar 13:27). Then they continue by saying, “However, the nation that dwells there is powerful, and the cities are greatly fortified and we even saw offspring of the giant…”(Bamidbar 13:28). Now, as explained above they were not tasked to make such assessment AND such assessment was a blatant disregard of everything that Hashem had instructed them. To be sure, this was a mistake on their part, however, Ramban proves that this mistake was not tragic; it could have been remedied and rectified.
The Torah continues to describe how Calev confronted the spies and pointed out that Hashem had defeated the mighty Egyptian army and split the sea for the Jewish nation, likewise throughout their sojourn in the desert, Hashem had performed numerous miracles for them and as such the spies’ fear was unfounded and illogical. At this point, the spies were confronted with the mistake in their assessment and they had two choices; they could admit to the truth, or they could dig in their heels and be stubborn about their original assessment, despite the fact that now they knew they had made a mistake.
Unfortunately, they chose the latter. In verses 13:31-32, we read that the spies lied about the conditions of the Holy Land. They claimed that it was a disease ridden country, and living there would be impossible for ordinary people. Never mind that this statement was contradictory to what they had said but a few minutes ago, they were no longer concerned about the truth. They were even willing to lie and cause mass hysteria, it was their ego that had to be vindicated at all costs. As it is a practice among people who have an ulterior motive, the spies continued to meet with people in secret, where the leaders and observers were not present to point out the truth. This way the spies spread lies and rumors to cause fear and panic. Ramban points out that later, in verse 14:37, it says specifically that the spies were punished for spreading lies. We see from here that although the original assessment was wrong, it was a mistake that would have been easy to forgive; it was the blatant and intentional lie that condemned them to punishment. Shocking! Apparently, they never intended to lie and mislead, but once they were shown their mistaken assessment, they didn’t have the honesty required to admit to the truth.
A lot of times in life we are confronted with a reality that points out our mistake. It may seem difficult to be honest and truthful and admit to a mistake, so we bend the truth a little bit to save face. Often times, the story doesn’t end there. The half truth comes under question, and now we invent an even a bigger lie to save face, and then a bigger lie, and a bigger lie, to a point where it becomes impossible to maintain the charade and we must admit defeat and agree that we had made a mistake. Besides the fact that such a situation is quite embarrassing and it would be in our own best interest to be honest and admit to the truth, the story of the spies teaches us that if one is willing to compromise the truth and be concerned with ulterior motives, there is no telling how destructive and harmful he/she will become.