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There is a reason why for thousands of years we have repeated the Torah portion that tells the story of the spies Moses sent to the Promised Land. In our cultural, religious, historical, and national tradition, the story of the spies has become the root of all the ills we have endured as a people ever since then, from repulsion at the desirable land, to the start of its destruction, and the long exile from it. Even today, it stays with us, hanging over the great debate about the future of the good land.
An enslaved people left Egypt after hundreds of years and set out into the unknown in the desert, trusting their leader's promise that they would reach the land of their forefathers. The fourth book of the Pentateuch, Numbers, tells the story of the journey from Egypt to Jerusalem, the tale of our eternal journey home. There was a lot of concern, and Moses appointed a delegation to collect information. An elect 12 are sent to spy, the "leaders of the sons of Israel," the social elite. Forty days later, they return and give their report. Yes, the land is amazing, milk and honey, and here are its fruits. But it wouldn't work: "However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. … The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negev," remember? Just as we left Egypt, we were set upon by their gangs. And there are more strong people: "The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan" (Numbers 13:28-29).
In short, we found ourselves facing a host of troubles: the risk of constant war, a demographic danger that could cause us to lose numbers and put others in power over us, which could lead to a loss of our faith and tradition, and more.
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Two spies, Caleb and Joshua, thought differently. The Bible says of Caleb: "Because my servant Caleb has a different spirit." (Numbers 14:24) They offered a voice that differed from the uniform reports of "bad, bad, bad" that had been delivered. Do not be deterred - "Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." But the chorus that slandered the land drowned them out. These were prominent military commanders and political leaders, who insisted: "Then the men who had gone up with him said, 'We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.'" And more threats: "And there we saw the Nephilim [giants, according to some of our sages] and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them" (Numbers 13:30-3). This teaches us that fears begin with low self-esteem. In such a situation, every challenge appears to be an immense mountain that cannot be overcome.
In a last attempt, Joshua and Caleb do not argue with these facts, but rather with the conclusions that predicted a defeat: "The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land … do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them!" (Numbers 14:7,9).
It was all for nothing. The die had been cast. "Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night" (Numbers 14:1). Our sages said that same night should have fallen on the fateful date of the ninth of Av. The people declared a civil uprising: "They said to one another, "Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt" (Numbers 14:4). Who needs the land of Israel, with all the troubles we will surely find there? That is how our forefathers were sentenced to remain in exile and wander in the desert for another 40 years. They would not enter the Promised Land – only their descendants would.
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Western culture rests on two pillars: the Bible and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. While the Bible is still a book read by millions, Homer's works have become somewhat niche and are known by relatively few. But look - Book 9 of the Odyssey contains a story with similar characteristics, about spies that ventured into an unknown land. After 10 years of war with Troy, during a journey to their homeland Ithaca, Odysseus and his people reach a land of "lawless brutes," the Cyclops, one-eyed giants, where "unsown, unplowed, the earth teems with all they need. … They have no meeting place for council, no laws either … each a law to himself, ruling his wives and children." Odysseus docks in the bay, and the next day announces that he and his team will set out to investigate and "probe the natives living over there. What are they – violent, savage, lawless? Or friendly to strangers, god-fearing men?"
As they wander, they enter the cave of one of the giants and discover that they have been pulled into a death trap. The giant bashes in the heads of two of the group and consumes them, and does the same for the next meals. In the end, Odysseus manages to defeat him: he gets the giant drunk on wine, and when he falls asleep, the group gouges out his one eye using the sharpened trunk of an olive tree. The next day, they sneak out of the cave, hiding among the sheep that left the cave for the pasture. They quickly herd the sheep onto their boat and as they are rowing, Odysseus - who until that point had been anonymous - shouts his name. The blind giant prays to his father, the god of the sea, to punish him. And the people's fate was indeed sealed: Odysseus' warriors would die on the journey, and he would be the only one to return to his native land, and even then not on his own boat and after many years of wandering, "Sick at heart for the comrades we had lost" (translation by Robert Fagles).
What is left of the story that thrilled me as a child, when I would dig through my late father's library, searching for textual treasures? Who studies it today? Compare that to the living, contemporary presence of the story of our spies. At a congressional luncheon to celebrate the swearing-in of former U.S. President George W. Bush, Sen. Mitch McConnell (now Senate majority leader) asked that the president lead them in the best tradition "of Joshua and Caleb, who were chosen to lead the people into the Promised Land, because they exemplified a different spirit."
A people doesn't choose to eternalize stories merely because they are interesting or of artistic value. Our people had a deep need to repeat the story of the spies over and over, especially in our many exiles. It's a sort of psychological compulsion, an attempt to return to the trauma that was etched into the national and religious memory, and though the story – heal the wound and return us to our land. And even when we came back to the land of Israel, there is still a need to go back and tell the story, so we can draw strength and insight from it, and not lose hope, but continue to cling to the land of our life.
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In the first half of the 12th century CE, Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra wondered about the generation of Jews who left Egypt – why had they been afraid of their Egyptian persecutors, who were fewer in number? His answer: "Because the Egyptians were the masters of the people of Israel, and the generation that left Egypt had been taught from a young age to suffer the Egyptian wrongs and to be cast down in spirit; how could they now wage war against their masters? The people of Israel were weak, and unschooled in warfare." Ibn Ezra was not only talking about biblical times, but also his own era. He traveled throughout Europe and encountered our people's weak state. Who then could have spoken about mass aliyah (immigration) to the land of Israel?
Even earlier, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi admitted to the king of Khazars in his philosophical work "The Kuzari" that despite his lofty words about Zion, he remained in exile: "This is the weakness of my argument, my shame, and my disgrace." In the second half of the 12th century CE, Maimonides explains the psychology of exile in his book "Guide for the Perplexed": "It is contrary to man's nature. … It would be just as if a person trained to work as a slave with mortar and bricks, or other similar things, should interrupt his work, clean his hands, and at once fight with real giants."
To possess the land, there needed to be a generation born in the wilderness, who had never known the sight of slavery and was free from mental enslavement to any master. Indeed, after 40 years in the desert, the generation of slaves completed their historic role, and a new generation of a "different spirit," the generation who would storm Canaan, entered the land of Israel.
