Rabbotai, if this is the case, we arrive at the Kal VaChomer argument that Rashi speaks of. What did Rashi say? What did Rashi tell us? These wicked ones – the spies – saw and did not heed a lesson. What did they see? They saw what happened to Miriam, who spoke about Moshe Rabbeinu. From this, they should have learned that if she spoke against Moshe Rabbeinu and was punished, how much more so for speaking against trees and stones. We asked how this was a logical argument? What is the Kal VaChomer here? Moshe is a human being, a man of G-d, the choicest of humanity, and the most exalted person since Creation. How can you compare Moshe Rabbeinu to trees and stones? Where is the similarity? The answer is very simple.
Rav Chaim Volozhin comes and provides a wonderful yesod. Let us return to last week’s Parsha and connect the episodes as far as we can. Rav Chaim Volozhin asks, do you know what the complaint was against Miriam? There was one complaint. Miriam heard that Moshe Rabbeinu was separated from his wife. What did she say? “What?! Moshe is separated?! We are also prophets!” Miriam was a prophetess since the age of six and Aharon was a prophet in Mitzrayim. Both were prophets before Moshe Rabbeinu, who received prophecy only at the age of eighty! Miriam came and had complaints. Why is Moshe Rabbeinu separated if she and Aharon were not? That is the question; the question we have here in this matter. What is the answer? Chazal say that Miriam, seemingly, did not need to know that Moshe Rabbeinu had an entirely different conduct.
Rabbi Chaim Volozhin says, Miriam was a prophetess from the age of six, and Aharon already in Egypt, but there was one difference. Neither were invited to be the giver of the Torah to Bnei Yisrael. Neither ascended to the heavens and stayed there with Hakadosh Baruch Hu for forty days and forty nights. Hakadosh Baruch Hu asked, “How do you compare yourselves to Moshe Rabbeinu at all? Moshe Rabbeinu is separated. Who told him to be separated? You don’t know who told him; He didn’t tell him. You compare yourselves, saying you are also prophets? Do you compare your prophecy with his, received direct mouth to mouth, in a vision and not through riddles? Did you ascend to the heavens three times like he did? Do you place your prophecy on the scales with Moshe Rabbeinu’s prophecy?” It follows that the claim was, how could you speak against Moshe? How did you not fear to speak out against the servant of Hakadosh Baruch Hu?
If so, now let us learn the Kal VaChomer. The argument is that if she who spoke against Moshe Rabbeinu was punished, one who speaks against trees and stones, how much more so. What are the trees and stones? Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Moshe Rabbeinu, to Avraham Avinu, “I will give you this land.” He says to Yitzchak Avinu, “I will give you this land.” Moshe Rabbeinu says, “I want to at least see this land.” You see that this is the land promised to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov – how can you now speak against Eretz Yisrael? Not because it is trees and stones, but because Hakadosh Baruch Hu chose it from all the lands in the world!
What does the Tanna debei Eliyahu say? From all the nations He created – Switzerland, Austria, America, Canada, and all the other lands – Hakadosh Baruch Hu chose Eretz Yisrael. It is a desirable, good, and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Can you say a single word against Eretz Yisrael? As the Zohar says, a person who speaks about Eretz Yisrael, is speaking lashon hara against Hakadosh Baruch Hu! Why? Because He chose it. Do you dispute His choice?! Do you dispute what He chose from all the seventy nations and seventy lands? This, the harm caused is to Hakadosh Baruch Hu by saying, “I don’t believe You that this land is good.” That is the Kal VaChomer.
Therefore, their tongue went to their navel. The Kli Yakar explains this is because Eretz Yisrael is considered the navel of the world, and the navel is the center of a person. You speak about the center? Then your tongue will go to the center! These are the words of the Kli Yakar.
