Parshas Shelach: Emuna in Hashem

BH

Parshas Shelach talks about the sending of the first Jewish spies. But there's a big question that remains. Why would the ten other spies want to say bad things about Israel? We know the Yehoshua and Caleiv didn't. But why did the other ten spies say bad things? What did they gain out of it? The land was great. It was chosen by Hashem. So why would they want to go against that?

   To understand this, we have to first understand what it means when the ten spies saw giants. Because they saw that the giants were not just any giants, they were fallen angels from the times before the Mabul (Flood) and had taken a physical form. These giants were so big, that when the spies were actually spotted by the giants, they thought they were "strange ants that looked like people" (Lekuti Sichos, Chassidus)

   So the ten spies, scared, thought that Hashem wouldn't be able to deal with power such as this.

So if that's true, then how were Yehoshua and Caleiv able to have faith in Hashem while the other spies weren't? They seemed to have a reason to be scared too.

   The answer is in the beginning of the Parsha. Yehoshua's name wasn't always Yehoshua, it was Hoshea. Moshe davened for Yehoshua and changed his name, originally "Hoshea", by adding the letter Yud, to the beginning of his name. And Caleiv went to the Kever of the Avos to Daven that he would not follow in the spies' ways, who after the event of Har Sinai, should have had Bitachon in Hashem, because Hashem promised them the land, and would, therefore, make them get it no matter what power there was in the land. Nothing could overpower them because he made them.

   We also learn, that after the spies came back, it miraculously took 40 days. The Torah refers to the spies as the ten "men" when they are saying bad things about Israel. Why? They weren't ten "men" they were ten spies.

   Because the Torah didn't want to embarrass them. By saying that they are ten "men" the Torah seems to be hiding the fact that they were actually spies. They were also on the level of power of ten "men" because they stopped being Naviim after this point, and weren't able to be leaders of their Shevet anymore.

   This is how the ten other spies didn't have Bitachon - faith - in Hashem, why they forgot about Him, and thought that He wouldn't be able to destroy the giants...

   This was all because they thought that Hashem wouldn't be able to deal with this physical power.

   We also see that the ten spies, when saying the bad things in the Torah, they have three Passukim, while the people who said good, had four Passukim. This is to show that the Torah favors Yehoshua, and Caleiv, and anybody who says good about Israel.

   So from this, we learn of Emuna and Bitachon (Faith, and Trust) in Hashem. Because the Bnei Yisroel cried out to Hashem, because of their lack of Emuna, and Bitachon, the generation all got killed out, because they had Har Sina and Hashem promising them that they would enter Eretz Yisroel, and that nothing will stop them, yet they still didn't believe. 

   Yehoshua and Caleiv were saved from the Bnei Yisroel's punishment of death, all because they didn't rebel, and defended Israel with Moshe and Aharon.

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Ekir: 

Emunah (belief) in Hashem is hard, but we should still have it no matter what. Sometimes we need a Brucha, like Yehoshua, and Daven ourselves like Caleiv, to have such Emuna, even when talking about spiritual danger such as Dibiks, and Tummah, the "dark side" of the world. It may even save your life!