This week’s Haftorah is from Yehoshua and recounts how Yehoshua sent scouts to check out Eretz Yisroel before Klal-Yisroel was to begin its conquest. The parallel between the Haftorah and the Sedra is clear. Our Sedra opens with Hashem instructing us to send scouts to check out the Land. Yehoshua was actually among those sent for the original scouting mission. That original mission, however, had ended badly as the Meraglim came back and talked despairingly about Eretz-Yisroel. In fact we are to this day suffering from that horrible episode. The scouting mission recounted in the Haftorah, on the other hand, ended up as successfully.

Since Yehoshua had already scouted out the land much earlier, why was it necessary to send Meraglim again?

At the beginning of our Sedra Hashem tells us אנשים לך שלח (send for yourself people) to scout out the Land. Rashi tells us that the reason Hashem uses the expression ‘send for yourself’ is to say ‘send if you wish to’. This is usually interpreted as meaning that Hashem didn’t really want Am-Yisroel to send Meraglim, yet understood that the People wished to, and therefore allowed such a mission. This would lead us to believe that sending Meraglim wasn’t really the best thing to do. If this is the case why did Yehoshua do it again?

If we pay close attention in our Sedra the Pessukim do not instruct the Meraglim to come back and offer any advice. They were supposed to come back and tell Moshe some facts and bring back some of Eretz-Yisroel’s fruits. One of the Meraglim’s biggest mistakes was to start offering their opinions. Had the Meraglim not offered their opinion, it is likely that everything would have turned out fine.

If the Meraglim weren’t commanded to offer advice why did they decide to do so? Everyone knows that in an army every member must follow their precise orders and do nothing else. Why did the Meraglim act differently?

Rashi explained לך שלח as meaning for yourselves. If this is the case, they may have well understood that their purpose was to come back with a report. Part of reporting is to point out things one noticed and to draw conclusions. The Meraglim may have justifiably believed that they were supposed to offer their conclusions and advice.

The Meraglim erred by basing their belief on a false premise.

If one understands that one must do something and that this something is good, one must then understand that the only thing left to do is to figure out the best way to go about it. Had the Meraglim understood that going into Eretz-Yisroel was a must and that Eretz-Yisroel is perfect they would not have ended up sinning.

Yehoshua’s scouts went in with a different understanding. They understood that Eretz-Yisroel is a must and that it is wonderful. Thus when they went to check out the Land, they were Zoche to see how the entire land was in fear of Am-Yisroel.

All of Torah is a must and is truly good. If we truly believe this, we will always end up seeing the good and enjoy all of Hashem’ s Mitzvos.

A very warm Good Shabbos, Rabbi Y. Dov Krakowski