Shalom Friends;
This week, our Parshat HaShevua, Shelach Lecha is being sponsored by Eli and Miri Behar of Ramat Beit Shemesh and dedicated L’ilui Nishmas for the Yahrtzeit of Yerachmiel Meir ben Nissim Avraham and Lilui Nishmas for Eli’s Mother, Miriam bat Chaim Eliezer, as well as dedicated for the safety of the Chayalim and the liberation of all remaining hostages as well as for the good health and security of kol Am Yisrael. To the Behar family, many thanks for your sponsorship and for your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
Subscribe to the Israel and the Sin of Expulsion blog, to ask questions or to sponsor a Parsha Vort at: olehchadash@yahoo.com
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Our Parshat Shelach is compiled against the backdrop of the War of Simchat Torah, now in its 592nd day — the animalistic, cannibalistic slaughter, by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and many of the so-called “innocent
To this author, the affair of the Miraglim (the twelve highly respected leaders – one from each of the Sh’vatim [tribes] selected by Moshe), and their demoralizing report seems to relate to a mindset that factions of our modern-day Am Yisrael have yet to shake loose from.
We begin with excerpts from the Parshat Summary of the mission of the Miraglim and its results, from Rabbi Shmuel Goldin’s Sefer, “Unlocking the Torah Text,” sefer Bamidbar (page 117) :
From the border of the Promised Land of Canaan, Moshe sends twelve spies to tour the land and bring back a detailed report…
Upon their return, the spies [miraglim], with the exception of Calev ben Yefuneh and Yehoshua ben Nun, offer discouraging testimony [their opinion stated as fact — MB] concerning the nation’s inability to conquer the inhabitants of Canaan. In despair, and ignoring the counterarguments of Calev and Yehoshua, the nation rises in rebellion against Hashem, Moshe and Aaron.
Hashem threatens to destroy the nation…
In response to Moshe’s heartfelt pleas, Hashem relents and agrees to forgive the people, with one critical caveat: This generation will perish in the wilderness. Their children will enter the Land in their stead,
The ten spies who brought back the evil report are immediately struck down.
Torah relates the spies’ (the miraglim) return from the land, the report of ten of the miraglim to Moshe, Aaron and the Am, the response of Caleiv, one of the miraglim, and the shouting down of Caleiv by the ten:
“They returned from spying out the Land at the end of forty days. They went and came to Moshe and Aaron and to the entire assembly of the B’nei Yisrael, to the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh, and brought back the report to them and the entire assembly, and they showed them the fruit of the Land.”
“They [the spies] reported… and said, ‘We arrived at the Land to which you sent us, and indeed it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. But — the people that dwells in the Land is powerful, the cities are very greatly fortified, and we saw the offspring of the giant. Amalek dwells in the area of the south; the Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Emorite dwell on the mountain; and the Canaanite dwells by the Sea and on the bank of the Jordan.'”
“Caleiv silenced the people toward Moshe and said, ‘We shall surely ascend and conquer it, for we can surely do it!'”
“But the men who ascended with him said, ‘We cannot ascend to that people for it is too strong for us!… The Land through which we have passed… is a land that devours it’s inhabitants! All of the people we saw in it were huge! There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of the giant from among the Nephilim; we were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes!'” (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 13, posukim 25 – 33 as rendered to English in the Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash)
The manner in which the spies return from their mission and give their report before “the entire assembly of the B’nei Yisrael,” not just to Moshe and Aaron, seems to this author, to excuse the expression, unorthodox.
This author asks the following questions;
1/ Was it public knowledge that the mission of the Miraglim was to last forty days, thus, the people gathered near Moshe at the end of forty days?
2/ If the duration of the mission was not known to the public, did people see the Miraglim returning and spread the word of their return throughout the camp causing the Am to gather near Moshe and Aaron?
3/ If the public gathered around the Miraglim, attempting to encourage answers over the heads of Moshe and Aaron, wouldn’t the proper response of the Miraglim have been that they must first give their intelligence to Moshe and Aaron?
The Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash responds to these questions in a commentary (page 801) :
When the spies came back after their extensive forty-day tour of the Land, they should have reported to Moshe, who had sent them; instead they made their comments in a loud public declaration. In view of the account in Sefer Devarim that the entire people demanded raucously of Moshe that he send a spying expedition, it is understandable why the report was made in such a public manner. The people had demanded the mission and they felt entitled to hear the results.
This author disagrees. When military commanders send reconnaissance teams on missions, apparent normal protocol is for the team to return to their commanders for debriefing — not for the team to return and share their intelligence finds with their entire battalion, etc. To do as the miraglim did, seems to this author, led to serious demoralization of the nation and to the loss of that generation as they wandered in the Wilderness for forty years. Further, as seen throughout the War of Simchat Torah, there seems no military censorship of MSM (mainstream media) reports, of military high command echelons amd former high commanders-turned-politicians voicing their own agendized political views in attempts to negatively affect the spirits of the masses, and information sharing with the US concerning strategy, troop movements, therefore, risks demoralization in the ranks and utter failure of a military mission..
The moral of the episode of the miraglim, in this author’s view, cannot be repeated often enough for we see their sin re-played out, and continue to evolve in our times. This breach of proper protocol regarding the Miraglim, and our modern-day breaches of proper protocol among agendized military high command echelons, former high commanders-turned-politicians, mainstream media, leftist university professors, the Kaplan group hijacking the emotions of many of the hostage familes and factions of the Am — all constitute huge Chillul Hashem.
This author recalls the infancy and evolvement of the so-called “peace movement” and modern-day Israeli “progressivism” with its multitudinous tentacles which eventually became the alt-leftist NGOs (non-governing organizations funded by foreign lobbies and governments). The memory harkens back to the pre-Olso days in the late-1980s in Philadelphia. These were the years just prior to becoming Ba’al Teshuva, and when the seeds of “Shalom Achshav” — “Peace Now” (sic) were being tended by the then-nascent Israeli/Jewish left.
We hope for positive changes with appointments of a new defense minister, foreign minister and military chief of staff who seem to be signaling a more zealous, diligent command structure and strategy based on valid understandings of their adversary’s intentions and concern for Israel’s sovereignty and security. May we see our government and military become Totally self-sufficient as to manufacture of military equipment and aircraft, weaponry, munitions, as well as showing independence of actions responding to any threat, regardless of so-called “super powers.” And may see, from here on, that border guard personnel at all points of possible danger are listened to and treated with respect and dignity. May these words come to fruition B’Esrat Hashem.
Not withstanding the previous horrendous “ceasefires” and drips and drabs of hostages in exchange for thousands of bloody-handed terrorists, may it be that our Chayalim, regardless of the machinations of malfeasance and nonfeasance by their previous high command to date, but now under command of both a new defense minister and chief of staff, emerge totally victorious — eradicating from the face of the earth Hamas, Islamic Jihad, their other terrorist buddies, UNWRA and the so-called “innocent civilians” of Gaza who joined with Hamas in their murderous deeds. May our Chayalim return home whole — physically, mentally and spiritually and that the Chayalim Liberate and bring home all remaining hostages. May we see a Final and Decisive victory by our Chayalim, mandated by a government secure in it’s foremost service of and emunah in HaKadosh Borchu, B’Ezrat Hashem! And may we see the restoration of true unity within Am Yisrael.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently re-settled in Gush Katif, once the IDF, by the Yad Hashem, destructs and eradicates the wild beasts of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, all other terror entities, and if necessary Iran, and that our brethren be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, as well as the buildings of Yishuv Elchanan, all at total government expense. May our Chayalim return from battle unharmed — physically, mentally and spiritually and may all of the remaining hostages brutally taken by the wild beasts of Hamas be liberated and brought home to their families. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his fifth year at home in Eretz Yisrael and continues in a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, and the recent recovery of the remains of Tzvi Feldman, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of ten years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we see, in 5785, the REAL Jews from the Ukraine and Russia as well as the US and Canada, the real Jews via matrilineal descent, make Aliyah enmass — via thorough review by Misrad HaPanim. And may we soon and finally see the total end to the Communist Chinese Wuhan Lab corona virus pandemic and all like viruses and variants. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
Moshe is available for editing of English language documents, articles, manuscripts and more. Please be in contact with him at olehchadash@yahoo.com for your English language needs.
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