The Chutzpah to Seize the Land | Shelach 5784

I always love the story of the meraglim, the spies sent to investigate Israel's land. As a child, when I heard that the Jewish People sent in spies I immediately had visions of Navy SEALS equipped with night vision goggles slowly creeping through the streets of Israel to scope out the situation.

Of course, that is not at all what happened.

These were hardly spies—certainly not of the variety we see in Hollywood, like Ethan Hunt or James Bond. The Torah describes the meraglim as the ambassadors of the Jewish People, the upstanding leaders of each tribe.

So how did it all turn out so poorly?

As you likely already know, the meraglim returned from their mission to the Land of Israel with some concerns. They saw the strong nations who currently occupied the land, and shared their realistic concerns that conquering this land might prove to be more difficult than they expected.

Their report wasn’t even so terrible. So why did God punish the Jewish People so harshly for this incident? For a so-so Yelp review of the Land of Israel, the Jewish People are now condemned to wander the desert for 40 years?

The aftermath of this story is even stranger, and most forget it is even a part of the story of the meraglim. The Torah says that the next morning a group of Jews, known as the ma’apilim, woke up early and were prepared to make a second attempt to enter the Land of Israel.

Moshe warned them, “This effort will not be successful.”

They didn’t listen and entered the Land of Israel anyway only to be immediately killed by the current inhabitants of the land.

What on earth was this group trying to do?! Moshe himself warned them—this is not going to work! What possessed them, after the entire affair of the meraglim, to try to enter the land of Israel anyway?

To understand all this, let’s explore a crucial chapter in the history of the settlement of Israel.

Read the rest on Substack, and listen to the full shiur above!