So we’re going to be discussing one of the things that really bothered me since I was very young — this whole story about the meraglim, the spies of Israel, and what they did. We’re going to discuss exactly what they did, what their sin was, and why specifically this action caused really one of the most painful experiences for the Jewish nation — and why it is the only sin we have never received forgiveness for.
The golden calf, which was pure idol worship — that golden calf, we actually got forgiveness for. We know that on Yom Kippur, God said “Salachtika dvarecha.” Moshe Rabbeinu asked for forgiveness, and on Yom Kippur we got forgiveness for it. But for the spies, we have never gotten forgiveness. And the question has to be asked: what was it that the spies did that was so bad, and what merited such a reaction from HaKadosh Baruch Hu?
Two Different Missions
The nation of Israel was in slavery for two hundred and ten years. They didn’t even know what independence meant. They were completely reliant, and in an abusive way, on the Egyptians. And then God takes us out from that place of slavery and brings us into the desert — the most desolate area. There’s no hope there. The view doesn’t change. There’s no green and red, it’s all brown. There’s no water.
And then God says to the nation of Israel, “I’m going to bring you into a country, into a land called the land of Israel, and you’re going to go take it over.”
Now, any normal people, when they go into a land, want to find out how to take it over. The IDF today, when we have to go into an operation, we do our research and we decide how to go about it. So the idea of sending spies is not such a bad thing. The nation of Israel wanted to know how to go in.
And this is a big mistake people make, by the way. The twelve spies were not simpletons. They were not uneducated. They had full knowledge. They were the leaders, the rabbis of the generation.
Ten leaders came back and said, “We should not go into the land of Israel.” And two came back and said, “Yes, we should” — Calev ben Yefuneh and Yehoshua ben Nun.
And the question is, what is the big deal? What is the big deal that ten of the greatest rabbis of that generation came back and said, “Listen, we can’t do it. There are too many mountains. There are people who are giants there. We can’t get into walled cities.” What was the big deal?
Well, let’s look at what happened when they went into the land of Israel. When the ten spies went in, what did they check? They checked the security situation. They checked the topography. They checked which was the best way to attack. And when the two spies went — Yehoshua and Calev — what did they do? Calev went to the burial place of his forefathers. He went to Hebron to see the burial place of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. The whole mindset of the spies was different in that way.
The ten spies went in and said, “Let’s check the security situation.” But the question has to be asked of those ten spies: Did you get out of Egypt after you checked the security situation? Did you see the ten plagues after you checked the security situation? Did you survive in the desert after you checked the security situation? Did you see the splitting of the sea after you checked the security situation? Did you see the Egyptians killed as they were running after you after you checked the security situation?
Throughout the time you were in Egypt, you survived not because of technical reasons — not because the Egyptians were only killing the boys and not the girls. You survived by the grace of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the great grace of God. And now God says, “I’m bringing you into your home,” and you want to check the security situation? Were you able to get out of Egypt on your own?
The ten spies all of a sudden said, “We have to figure out how we can do this.” God is in your corner — but you still have to check the security situation? The other two spies, Yehoshua and Calev, had a different mindset. They weren’t going to check how to get into the land. They were going to check something much deeper — the belonging to the land, the land’s yearning for us, our connection back to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov.
When the ten spies came back and said, “We can’t do this — technically, we can’t get in,” Calev said, “What are you talking about? Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, Sarah, Rachel, and Leah — we went to their burial place. What are you worrying about technical details? This is our land.”
But the ten spies were much more practical than that. They said, “We live in this world. We can’t take over the land of Israel now.” And that was the mindset of the spies who went in. The sin was not that they spoke badly about the land of Israel or about the people there at the time. They were challenging HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s abilities. They were challenging God’s abilities.
We Are Not in Charge
God says, “Alu u’shdu etz” — let’s go up and take over the land. That’s it. I didn’t ask you to check if we could or we couldn’t. You woke up this morning. You took a breath. Your heart’s pumping. Did you check your pulse all night long? At a certain point in our lifetime, sometimes we forget that we are not in charge. We forget that we have to be thankful and appreciative of every second that we have in this life.
Of course we use doctors. Of course we go to the doctor. But at the end of the day, you wake up in the morning and your heart’s pumping and you have a pulse and you’re breathing. The fact of the matter is you’re not in charge. You didn’t keep your heart pumping all night long. It was automatic. You weren’t thinking every second of the night, “Is my heart pumping? Is my heart pumping?” No.
So the spies’ sin was that they basically betrayed HaKadosh Baruch Hu. They betrayed God. After everything that HaKadosh Baruch Hu brought us through — surviving Mitzrayim, the Eser Makot, the ten plagues, the Tzet Mitzrayim, the redemption out of Egypt, the splitting of the sea — what are you talking about, checking technical details?
The other two, Calev and Yehoshua, had no doubt. They were going to visit their forefathers — Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. It’s not a matter of whether we can. It’s realizing the yearning, realizing the dream that you’re about to take part in. And that was the difference in mindset between Calev and Yehoshua and the other ten spies.
Now, Judaism does not believe in jumping into hot water and saying, “Oh, it’ll be okay.” We don’t believe in this. There’s a funny story of a man who was in the ocean drowning — a very religious man. He said, “God, please save me.” The Coast Guard comes by and says, “Hey, are you okay?” And he says, “I’m all right. Go away. I’m waiting for God.” The Coast Guard leaves. Then a cruise ship comes and honks its horn — “Man overboard! Man overboard!” — “Go away. I’m waiting for God to save me.” The cruise ship leaves. Then a simple fisherman’s boat comes, and the man thinks to himself, “Wow, I didn’t take the Coast Guard, I didn’t take the cruise ship — I’m going to take a fisherman’s boat over God? Go away.” So the boat leaves, and a couple of days go by and the man dies.
He gets up to heaven and says, “God, I don’t understand. I had so much faith in you. I prayed and I prayed and I prayed.” And God says to him, “I don’t understand. I sent you the Coast Guard. I sent you a cruise ship. I sent you a fisherman’s boat. Why didn’t you get on?” He says, “I was waiting for you.”
So the idea is we’re not waiting for miracles. Things are happening in this world, but we have to realize that everything that happens is actually a miracle. You took a breath — Baruch Hashem, thank God, I’m breathing.
The sin of the meraglim was that ten of the greatest leaders of the generation did not understand the miraculous situation they were in. They didn’t get it. Calev and Yehoshua — it was clear to them. They had clarity on this issue. And by the way, Yehoshua did not even speak to the nation. It was Calev who went out screaming, “What are you doing? What are you doing?”
The Power of Words
Now let’s talk about what the meraglim actually said — because the words matter enormously. Nothing would have been so bad if they hadn’t added that one word: efes. If they had described the challenges of the land and then said, “Let’s go up and take care of it,” that would have been fine. But they said efes — we can’t do this. And more than that, they said “ha’yinu k’chagavim” — we are like grasshoppers in the eyes of those people. How could you call the nation of Israel, who was just redeemed out of Egypt by miracles, by God — how could you call us grasshoppers? How could you even have that coming out of your mouth?
Calev ben Yefuneh and Yehoshua bin Nun went to visit the gravesites of the forefathers. K’chagavim never came out of Avraham Avinu’s mouth. They understood what going into Israel really meant — it’s not about the technical details, it’s about going in and realizing the dream.
And this is where words become a danger. I once heard from the Radziner Hasidic sect that some Hasidim went to Eretz Yisrael and came back. The rabbi asked them, “How’s the land of Israel?” They said, “The land is beautiful, but the Jews there — they’re not so religious.” From what I understand, the rabbi turned red with anger. “How dare you?” They said, “What’s the problem?” He said, “The meraglim, the ten spies, went to Israel. Who did they speak about? They spoke about the people in the land of Israel at the time — and those were Israel’s enemies. And you’re talking badly about Jews in the land of Israel? How dare you.”
Words have tremendous power, both for positive and for negative, and we have to be very careful of how we talk and what we do.
We Don’t Know the Reason, But We Know the Source
The message is clear. On the one hand, yes, we have to do things to make sure things in work and life are in order. Get an education to get a job. You have to bring means home to the family. That’s all important and has to be done. But when you get a good job and you’re bringing money home — do you forget what the real source is? That’s the question. Whatever you’re doing in life, you’re supposed to behave and live life according to what HaKadosh Baruch Hu says. But every step of the way, when we succeed, we have to say thank God — and when we fail, we should say, “There’s a reason for it.” I don’t know what the reason is. You cannot say, “I know what the reason is.” But we should know that everything is up to God.
My grandfather, on my father’s side, left Germany after Kristallnacht — when they were breaking all the windows of the shuls and the yeshivot and the stores. He had a ring on his finger that said “Gam zu l’tovah” — this too is for the good. We don’t know what the reason is for things, but we know the source.
The Gemara talks about this — today there are two kinds of blessings. When something good happens, we say “Baruch HaTov v’HaMeitiv” — thank God for the good things. And when something bad happens, we say “Baruch Dayan HaEmet” — we bless the ultimate judge. We don’t know the reason for the bad things, but there is a reason. It says that in the World to Come there will only be one bracha — Baruch HaTov v’HaMeitiv — because even when bad things happen, we will understand the reason.
This was for me a very difficult lesson. When my friend Yehoshua Friedberg was killed in 1993 — my platoon mate, kidnapped and killed — I was extremely angry. One of the rabbis there said, “There’s a reason for everything.” At the time, it wasn’t a smart thing to say. I punched him in the face. Afterwards, he says, “What are you so angry about?” I said, “What do you mean? Yehoshua became religious on his own. He brought his whole family back to be more traditional. He was engaged. He made aliyah in years when people were running away from Israel. He did everything right — and he had to be killed by terrorists.”
And the rabbi looks at me and says, “What’s your problem?” I was going to punch him again. He says, “Are you upset that he was killed, or are you upset that you don’t understand why he was killed?”
And even in my anger, I shook my head and said, “I want to know why he was killed.” He says, “Okay, so it’s the reason that bothers you, not the fact that he was killed. Everyone dies. He was killed instantly — shot point-blank four times to the heart. The why question bothers you, not the what happened.” At that point, I could not fathom why this would happen.
We don’t know the reason for things in life. When good things happen, we have to realize the source is God. When bad things happen, we have to hold on to the knowledge that there is a reason — even when we can’t see it.
Don’t Let the Details Get in the Way of Doing What You are Meant to Do
And Bnei Yisrael, the nation of Israel, instead of believing the two of the twelve who had clarity — they went to their tents and cried. They took the advice of ten of the greatest rabbis, who said, “Technically, we can’t take over the land of Israel.” People who survived Egypt. People who went through the splitting of the sea. And now: “Technically, we can’t take over the land of Israel,” when God says, “I’m going to bring you up into the land”? Total lack of faith in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That was the sin.
The Chet HaEgel, the golden calf — that was not a sin out of lack of faith. Moshe Rabbeinu was up on Mount Sinai. Bnei Yisrael thought he had died. They wanted a connection with God, so they built the golden calf to connect with God. Yes, they made a mistake — they said, “This is your God.” But the whole source for building that Egel was to connect up to God. The whole source for the Chet HaMeraglim was to disconnect from God.
And again — you cannot do Avodah Zarah, you cannot do idol worship to connect with God; that’s wrong also. But you can get forgiveness for the Chet HaEgel because on Yom Kippur, we come and we daven and we pray for forgiveness. When it comes to the Chet HaMeraglim — that is an ongoing sin. Talking badly about Eretz Yisrael, about the people in Eretz Yisrael, lack of faith, letting the technical details overwhelm the mission.
They could have gone and said, “We should attack from here. We should go up to the land of Israel from here.” That they could have done. We have to know the details. We have to be ready to do things right. But if you are meant to do something, never let the details get in the way.
Never let the little details get in the way.
And I think that’s what the meraglim are teaching us.
Shabbat Shalom.
Edited and Adapted from Ari’s Grill and Torah video on June 16, 2017.