(For answers see above)
1) In this week’s parsha when Calev silenced the people (13:30) he said “aloh naaleh ve’yarashnu” – “we shall surely ascend and conquer it,” instead of simply saying “naaleh ve’yarashnu” – “we will ascend and conquer it.” Based on Sotah (35a), Rashi tells us that Calev was saying to Bnei Yisrael, “We will surely go up, under any circumstances, regardless of where Moshe tells us to go. Even if he were to tell us to make ladders and go up to Heaven, we would be successful in fulfilling all he instructs us.”
If Calev was advocating climbing all the way up to the sky, a seemingly unattainable undertaking, how would ladders make the job any easier?
2) The Torah records (13:33) that the spies said that they overheard the giant inhabitants of the land of Eretz Yisrael referring to them as being as small in their eyes as grasshoppers. The Gemara in Sotah (35a) teaches that the spies were punished for viewing themselves as trivial and unimportant. As they were simply repeating the words of the inhabitants of the land, why were they punished?
3) In this week’s parsha we have the mitzvah of tzitzis. The Rema (21:3) writes that one shouldn’t give his tallis to a non-Jew to wash as it is a disgrace to the mitzvah. If, so, how come people especially in Chutz La’aretz are lenient and give their talleisim to non-Jewish cleaners to wash?
4) Is one allowed to sew his tzitzis strings onto his tallis, or must one make sure to specifically tie them on?
5) Which berachah can only presently be said by a Kohen in Chutz La’aretz?
