The Ramban comes in this week’s Parsha and says, there is no complaint against the spies. The spies said everything was fine and everything the spies said was true. So writes the Ramban, no less and no more. They reported accurately on the land flowing with milk and honey and the fertility of the land. They also spoke the truth about its fortifications and the strength of the people dwelling there. Their wickedness, however, was in using the word אֶ פֶ ס – But, to introduce their report on the fortifications and people, indicating something impossible and unattainable for man. The Ramban says, everything they said was correct, but there was one word they were forbidden to say: אֶ פֶ ס. It means there is no chance.
There is no such thing as no chance; that’s not your business to calculate. A spy returns and factually says what he saw. “I saw thirty-five F-15s parked at the airport. At the second airport, I saw thirty F-15s and twenty F-35s. In the hangar, there were also three hundred B-58 bombers.” You say exactly you saw – restricted to numbers and facts. If you say, “we have no chance,” that’s not your business nor mission.
If you were to come and tell the Mossad what you saw and then give them recommendations on how to handle it – you are out of line. Why? That’s their job. They decide how to best address situations. They are the ones who send people to Iran first, prepare a drone base and a fleet of car bombs so that the moment before war erupts, they explode, and the drones come out of refrigerated trucks. There is a process – they prepare it; not you. Don’t say “no chance.” For that, there are people who do good work, very good work. Saying אֶ פֶ ס is not your job. The Ramban says this was their sin.
